It was a visit to India in his early twenties that made former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke question his belief in Christianity.
Australia’s third and Labor’s longest-serving Prime Minister, who died at the age of 89 on Thursday, was brought up in a religious Christian household.
While his mother, Ellie was a retired school teacher, Hawke’s father, Clem was a Congregationalist pastor.
His biographer, Blanche d’Alpuget, wrote, “Heaven lay around Hawke in his infancy. He was reared in a country manse in a quiet way of life deeply rooted in tradition, the seasons accentuated by church festivals, the year divided according to divine significance. It was a world rounded and harmonious.”
Hawke’s father was considered an ‘outstanding minister because of his pastoral work’, especially during the Depression.
Young Hawke was introduced to the Bible early in his childhood.
“For both Clem and Ellie the Bible was the foundation of education,” his biography reads.
Clem told young Bob: “Belief in the fatherhood of God necessarily involves believing in the brotherhood of man.”
Despite his Christian upbringing, he turned agnostic in his adulthood.
Josephine Blanche D’Alpuget and Bob Hawke Source: Wikimedia Commons
It was triggered by his visit to India.
Bob Hawke visited India for the World Conference of Christian Youth in 1952 where he was ‘struck by this enormous sense of irrelevance of religion to the needs of people’ after he saw poor kids outside the mansion watching guests eat.
In an interview with former ABC radio host Andrew Denton, Hawke opened up about what led to him abandoning his Christian beliefs.
“It started when I went to India in 19 end of 52,” Hawke said.
“I went as a delegate to World Christian Youth Conference there and there were all these poverty stricken kids at the gate of this palatial place where we were feeding our face and I just had this struck by this enormous sense of irrelevance of religion to the needs of people and it started to unwind from that point but I’ve not become an atheist, I am an agnostic,” he said.
Bob Hawke’s wife, Blanche d'Alpuget in a statement said she will hold a private funeral with his children Sue, Stephen, Rosslyn and stepson, Louis, and his grandchildren.
Bob Hawke on election night in 1983. Source: AAP
A memorial service for Australia's 23rd prime minister will be held in Sydney in coming weeks.
