2. Gary Bouma Has Argued That The Anglican Religious Presence In The Colony Of Early Australia Was That Of 'Military Chaplaincy'. What Does He Mean By This? Is His Diagnosis Correct?
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2. Gary Bouma Has Argued That The Anglican Religious Presence In The Colony Of Early Australia Was That Of 'Military Chaplaincy'. What Does He Mean By This? Is His Diagnosis Correct?
2. Gary Bouma has argued that the Anglican religious presence in the colony of early Australia was that of 'military chaplaincy'. What does he mean by this? Is his diagnosis correct?
The first fleet en route to Australia brought with it what were believed to be the degenerates of society. Although many convicts had only committed misdemeanour crimes they were looked upon harshly in Britain, and were therefore sent to Australia to be gotten rid of, to await their 'impending doom'. One Anglican Chaplain, Richard Johnson, was sent to Australia, however, and therefore it was the understanding that all convicts obey the Anglican ways of life, no matter what their denomination. Gary Bouma, an intellectual from Monash University, has argued that the Anglican presence in the early Australian colony was that of 'military chaplaincy', which is a valid argument. In order to reach an agreement or disagreement with this argument it is important to understand what Gary Bouma means by this statement and to look at how church rule was set out and upheld in the early Australian colony.
It is important to understand that the convicts on the first fleet were seen by their home country as irrational, and immoral 'abandoned wretches', and therefore it was believed that the only way to keep them in line was to gaol them and inflict corporal punishment upon them. It was believed that 'Â…religion went hand in hand with the maintenance of good order.' Therefore in a settlement based solely penalising criminals, the chaplains that were brought to the colony were mainly prison chaplains who were less gentle than civil ministers in Britain. As the Church back home was strongly Anglican those were subsequently the only ministers brought to the colony.
At the time of the development of the colony in Britain, any religion other than Anglicanism was illegal and consequently anyone practicing other religions were persecuted. This ideology was not...
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