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In a piece published just months out from the November Victorian Election, the ABC has called Pentecostal Liberal members “hardline” and insinuated that they are “far right”, stoking fears and speculations of Pentecostal conspiracies among readers.

Published recently, the article raises concerns around a Pentecostal “infiltration” of the Victorian Liberal Party. It characterises Pentecostal belief as aggressive, seeking to “penetrate” and “conquer” the nation, while simultaneously highlighting an alleged influx of members from “a single faith community”.

Whether or not the specific allegations made within the piece are true or not is irrelevant. Pentecostals have just as much of a right to seek political change through democratic means as the LGBTQ or climate activists have been for decades.

What is relevant is the impact that this article will inevitably have, whether intended or otherwise, in stoking anti-Pentecostal (and anti-faith) fears, prejudices, and conspiracy theories in the lead-up to the Victorian election.

Stoking Fear

The language of the piece was problematic from the start. The headline(s) elicited a fear response, utilising loaded words like “branch stacking”, “infiltrates”, “slam”, and “hardline”, all the while retaining an appearance of objectivity.

The headings in the article all reflected one side of the discussion, capitalising on reader tendencies to scan through online material, rather than read it carefully.

Online reader behaviour research shows that people typically consume only certain parts of an article — normally the most outstanding parts. It is by quickly scanning that most readers develop an overall affective (or emotive) impression of the content they are consuming.

For those who don’t read the whole thing, the ABC article’s title and headings left a clear, one-sided impression —

• “Victorian Liberal Party branch stacking claims as Pentecostal church ‘infiltrates’ branches”
• “Traditional membership in decline”
• “Voice in parliament”
• “Accusations of branch stacking”
• “‘It was cooked’”
• “150 expulsions after audit”

Through scanning these headlines, keywords throughout the article, and the accompanying images, a neat narrative emerges.

You might think that Pentecostal Christians are exploiting a decline in “traditional” membership to infiltrate the Victorian Liberal Party — likely through dodgy means. You’ll also get the impression that there is a coordinated conspiracy by this extreme, hardline, far-right cult to infiltrate the Liberal Party.

Moreover, the accusations, audits and expulsions will make you strongly suspect that this underhanded plot has been exposed.

Innuendoes

You might not notice that there was no confirmation in the ABC article — or by those interviewed — that the 150 people expelled in 2021 were even Pentecostals. Maybe they were; maybe not.

There is just a note from a 2020 internal Liberal Party email alleging that the “majority of the new members over several years are connected through a single faith community” and that some of the applications had been “unusual” (meaning that the applicants may have changed parties or previously campaigned against the Liberal Party).

About halfway down the article, after quoting extensively from a disillusioned Liberal Party member, the ABC includes a note:

“The ABC is not suggesting the allegations of branch stacking are true, only that they have been made.”

This disclaimer is kind of important, considering that the overall impression of the article leads one to the opposite conclusion.

Whether intended or not, the piece ultimately functions to undermine the credibility of both the Liberal Party and Pentecostalism.

Getting It Wrong

As James MacPherson has highlighted, the legacy media are not outstanding at rightly representing Pentecostal Christian beliefs. And this ABC article is no exception.

It seems to treat Pentecostals like a homogenous group when nothing could be further from the truth.

Major institutional denominations within Australia include Australian Christian Churches, Hillsong, C3 Global Network, and International Network of Churches. Organisations like Ps Margaret Court’s Word of Faith-oriented Victory Life Centre in Perth are not affiliated with any of these institutions, and there are undoubtedly countless smaller and independent Pentecostal churches and organisations as well as a diverse range of different denominational traditions within Pentecostal thought.

And this is to ignore the diversity found in charismatics within other Christian denominations.

Despite the fact that charismatics agree with many of the distinctive practices and teachings of Pentecostal churches, the ABC (and others) frequently appear to isolate and highlight Pentecostals in particular.

The ABC piece appears to reflect peculiar Australian phobias of theocratic political takeovers and common Australian misunderstandings (and simplifications) of the Pentecostal movement.

To be fair, a denomination that 1) refuses to bend to cultural pressures on matters of sexuality and truth, 2) emphasises caring participation in one’s community and nation, and 3) actively seeks to have a wider positive influence in society leaves itself wide open to these kinds of criticisms. Maybe this kind of stigmatisation is inevitable.

The piece also exploits fears of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison (who was associated with Sydney-based Horizon Church) and conspiracy theories about his plot to install a theocracy in Australia — theories stoked by a series of “investigative” by the staunchly anti-Christian magazine Crikey.

Of course, orthodox Christian views on gender, sexuality and life inevitably look “far right” in the most radically secularised state in the country.