Scott Morrison calls social media the ‘devil’ during speech at a Pentecostal church
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Scott Morrison has labelled social media the work of the ‘devil’ and admitted to performing ‘spiritual healings’ while working during a speech at a Pentecostal convention.
The prime minister attended the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast last week where he told cheering fellow parishioners he and his wife Jenny were ‘called to do God’s work’ by leading the country.
In a video of the speech shared online Mr Morrison, Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister, declared that he had looked for signs from God while he was on the 2019 election campaign trail.
He told his religious counterparts that he often prayed at work and engaged in the evangelical tradition of ‘laying on of hands’, which is used to confer a spiritual blessing.
Mr Morrison said he practiced the laying on of hands during a visit to the Pilbara region in Western Australia earlier this month following cyclone Seroja.
‘I’ve been in evacuation centres where people thought I was just giving someone a hug and I was praying, and putting my hands on people … laying hands on them and praying in various situations,’ he said.
‘God has, I believe, been using us in those moments to be able to provide some relief and comfort and just some reassurance.’
The prime minister also described the ‘disrespectful’ use of social media as ‘the work of the devil’ and called on believers to ‘raise their spiritual weapons’ and use prayer to combat its ‘corrosive effect on society’.
‘Sure, social media has its virtues and its values and enables us to connect with people in ways we’ve never had before,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘But those weapons can also be used by the evil one and we need to call that out.’
In the clip, which was circulated by the Rationalist Society on Sunday, fellow church members could be heard cheering as the prime minister expressed his views.
Mr Morrison told members of his church he needs them to keep ‘building community’ within the country.
‘Cancelling out one human being is cancelling out community,’ he said.
‘It is important that we reach out and let every Australian know that they are significant because we believe that they are created in the image of God.’
Later in his address, the nation’s leader said he had looked for signs from God during a trip to an art gallery on the NSW central coast during his last election campaign.
‘And there right in front of me was the biggest picture of a soaring eagle … but the message I got that day was, Scott you’ve got to run to not grow weary, you’ve got to walk to not grow faint, you’ve got to spread your wings like an eagle to soar like an eagle,’ he said.
Mr Morrison and his family have been members of the Sutherland Shire’s Horizon Church, in Sydney’s south, for more than a decade.
The Pentecostal faith has customs including speaking in tongues, prayer cloths, healing by the laying on of hands and energetic worship services.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Prime Minister’s office for comment.
