@Setanta,
That's awful Set - to get outraged about your atheism and freeze you out. Maybe if you were a serial killer the guy might have tried to save your soul, but an atheist! Beyond redemption.
I can't speak about her 'outing' when she was first elected as an MP - generally your religious affiliations are considered your own business, although two well known pollies have been explicit in their christianity (the former prime minister and the current opposition leader).
When the current PM took her position (through some internal politicking) last June she announced an election to take place in August (to get a mandate for her government). The question was asked in a press interview, probably because her predecessor was a 'neon christian'. She didn't hedge at all, to her credit. There was some media traffic about whether that could hurt her with christian voters, but traditionally the Australian electorate doesn't care.
I just did a little search and I think our first overtly, and proudly, atheist PM was Gough Whitlam (1972-1975) who also raised the ire of the church by removing sales tax on birth control pills. Since then we've had the agnostic Bob Hawke, and the much less 'neon' christians Keating and Howard.
We do have a looney ultra religious right, but it's a much smaller percentage of the population than the US.
Gillard is not a militant atheist. She is more than willing to attend church services for fallen soldiers and professes her respect for all religions.
Here's the second half of a
story about Gillard's atheism outing from the very reasonable (read 'not owned by Rupert Murdoch') Sydney Morning Herald
Quote:It seems unlikely the Christian lobby will lay out the red carpet and the internet link for the latest Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. If believers were in the dark about Gillard's religious convictions, they needed only to tune in to the ABC's Jon Faine program yesterday.
FAINE: Do you believe in God?
PM: No, I don't Jon, I'm not a religious person.
Amazingly, the radio station was not struck by lightning.
Gillard hastened to add she was brought up a Baptist, attending the Mitcham Baptist Church. Why, she even won catechism prizes for remembering verses from the Bible.
''But during my adult life I've, you know, found a different path,'' she declared. ''I'm, of course, a great respecter of religious beliefs but they're not my beliefs.''
Quite. But was she worried about the Christian vote, Faine inquired? ''Look I'm, you know, worried about the national interest, about doing the right thing by Australians and I'll allow, you know, people to form their own views on whatever is going to drive their views,'' Gillard replied.
It seemed likely to have some of the devout falling to their knees to pray for the salvation of Gillard's soul. The more hardline may have been struck with a vision of hellfire. An unmarried woman . . . and an atheist to boot?
The last Australian PM who dared to express doubts about an Almighty was Bob Hawke, son of a Congregationalist preacher. But even he couldn't bring himself to declare himself an atheist. Hawke was agnostic. It sometimes seemed possible that the booze-challenged, womanising hell-raiser figured no deity could compete.