This is part three in a series. For the rest of the series, go here.
It was the first week of March 2019 and although the May election was yet to be called Scott Morrison was in full campaign mode, standing before a rapt audience at the Pentecostal-linked Esther Foundation in Perth.
Bearing the gift of a government grant of $4 million (over seven years) the prime minister was playing the role to which he seems most comfortable: a pastor dispensing words of religious comfort.
A two-minute video of his appearance has Morrison in full command of the religious code which works to create an immediate bond with the assembled Pentecostal believers.
That day Morrison found a young woman called Abigail in the audience and spoke to her: “Abigail. My daughter’s called Abigail. And I’ll tell you why I called her Abigail. Because Abigail in Hebrew means ‘father’s joy’. She was my first daughter. It took us 14 years to have her.”
The personal disclosure drew a murmur of approval from the room. But the pastor in Morrison was just getting started.
“And one of the things I think you’ll all discover … because you’ve all had things taken from you, and what I’ve listened to in all your stories is: you’ve claimed it back.
“But the basis for you doing that is that you discovered something that never went away, ever. Your value. Your worth. Who you are.”
Morrison jabbed a finger to underline each of these last three points as he turned slowly to take in his audience: “And I think Esther has helped you understand that. And once you get that, you can’t be stopped.”
The biblical figure of Esther, after whom the Esther Foundation is named, is an orphan who became a queen. The organisation says it encapsulates what its treatment program is all about: turning around the lives of young women, some of whom come to the foundation with children.
Esther was, coincidentally, also a key reference for Morrison’s address to a national gathering of Pentecostal church leaders on the Gold Coast in April last year. A video of his address to the conference showed the full unplugged Morrison feeling the love of his religious fellow travellers.
That night Morrison repeated over and over the words “for such a time as this”, a biblical phrase from the Old Testament‘s “Book of Esther. The phrase invokes courage and hope among believers with its reference to the one defining moment when it is possible to make a difference.
The full sentence from the “Book of Esther” is: “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
It has special resonance on the Christian right, where it evokes the idea of individuals chosen by God as “divine agents” to advance his plans.
And in Perth — as much as on the Gold Coast — the believers lapped it up.
