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Over the last decade, the #AustralianCensus has shown a large drop in the number of people identifying as #Christian in some form or another. There had already been a clear downward trend for a variety of reasons, but the acceleration in recent years is notable.

What are the reasons for this? To my mind, some of the most significant factors are these:

1. The consequences of the #RoyalCommission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse confirming and further exposing not just the prevalence of horrendous abuse within the #church (often with clergy as perpetrators), but even more devastatingly, the extent to which senior church leadership were complicit in covering up these awful crimes. Allowing a predator into leadership is a terrible thing; worse is to know someone is likely an abuser, but then prioritise the church’s reputation and finances over the safety and well-being of children. It is now widely known that some abusers had a string of complaints against them, but senior church leadership simply moved them from parish to parish to parish, leaving a trail of suffering and destruction behind them.
#ChurchCoverup