In a piece of sensationalist journalism, The Age has reported: “The Anglican Church wants Australians to have fewer children and has urged the federal government to scrap the baby bonus and cut immigration.” The article further states: “the General Synod of the Anglican Church has warned that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and potentially out of step with church doctrine – including the eighth commandment, ‘Thou shall (sic) not steal’.”
Other sensational parts of the article purporting to be quotes: “Unless we take account of the needs of future life on Earth, there is a case that we break the eighth commandment – ‘Thou shall (sic) not steal’.” “Out of care for the whole of creation, particularly the poorest of humanity and the life forms who cannot speak for themselves … it is not responsible to stand by and remain silent.”
The article has been the subject of much commentary by bloggers who have failed to check the article’s sources. It is reportedly based on a discussion paper “prepared in March”, but the actual discussion paper seems to be one released in February 2009 entitled “Key Issues for Australia’s future in the global context and actions for us to take”. None of the quotes actually appears in that form in the discussion paper. The claim that the discussion paper reflects the view of the Anglican Church or of the General Synod is clearly false, because the General Synod does not meet until September.
For the record, the discussion paper contains a number of fairly mainstream recommendations about climate change policy. In my opinion it does express unwarranted concern about the rate of population growth in Australia. The area of Australia is approximately 85% of the area of the continental United States, but Australia’s population is only 7% of that of the US.