Bronte Hughes is a social worker, Jesus lover and bunny owner. She was born in Tasmania, and lived in the US between the ages of 14-25 where she attended Eastern University before returning to Australia. She currently works as the Team Leader of Women’s Service for BaptistCare‘s HopeStreet, and is passionate about justice and inclusion. Listen to our full conversation in the very first episode of the Spiritual Misfits podcast, or read an excerpt from the interview below.
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And I think what it comes down to for me is social work is about calling out power and it’s about not having power. And I think Jesus was the same. I don’t think he valued being powerful in the worldly sense. He was hanging out with the people who didn’t hold power in culture and it was as if he was calling out the powerful people…
Will:
Could you give us a 30 second window into the life of Bronte Hughes?
Bronte:
I am Bronte. I am a social worker and a counsellor a little bit on the side. I am originally from Tasmania and I’m still trying to learn how to pronounce the traditional name of Tasmania. But at the moment I live on Darug Land north of Sydney with my two pet rabbits.
Will:
Do you identify with the idea of being a spiritual misfit? And if so, why?
Bronte:
I spent 12 years of my life living in the U.S, so I think that experience has probably shaped a lot of why I do identify as a spiritual misfit because I had an experience of church or Christianity that’s very cultural. So that’s probably formed a lot of it. And why else? I just really love Jesus. But I don’t always feel like I experience Jesus in more traditional or typical settings, I suppose.
Will:
So just to get the timeline because I think it’s super interesting particularly in this moment, historically and culturally with what’s going on in America in terms of Christian spirituality, and what’s happening, maybe in Australia, as someone who’s lived in both of those spaces. You were born in Australia, moved to the states at what age and then moved back at what age?
Bronte:
So I moved the week of my 14th birthday and I moved back at 25 and I’m now well, I’ll be 33 in less than a month. So teens and early 20s.
Will:
That is such an interesting developmental chapter. The 14 year old that left Australia, the 25 year old that came back. So much would have happened in those years. At 25, when you came back, would you have considered yourself a spiritual misfit or at that point, was faith much more settled?
Bronte:
I think my faith was really settled, actually. I went to Eastern University in the US if anyone’s familiar with Tony Campolo or Shane Claiborne, that group of people. I was pretty heavily intertwined with them and that was great. And then I was working in social work and I was doing overseas work, and that has always been really tied to my faith, which I’m sure we’ll talk about. And then I kind of left my little Christian social justice bubble and moved to New York City. And I lost all those connection points, and then I thought I’d move back to Australia and I’ll get plugged back in and I’ll just go back to how it was before.
But that kind of didn’t happen. I didn’t find those same connection points that I had in terms of the real social justice oriented Jesus stuff. And not to say that, you know, churches here don’t do that. But I just didn’t have the same social circles in the same networks that I had when I really got to live that out. So I think I lost a bit of that. And then it never really went back to what it was. It’s become something new now.
Will:
Which I think is probably healthy. But it can also be like we want it to go back to what it was because we have fond nostalgic memories of that.
Bronte:
Yeah, there’s definitely grief and guilt. There’s all kinds of emotions wrapped up in that.
Will:
It’s interesting that sometimes we feel like our faith isn’t allowed to grow up. Like for it to be healthy it has to be what it was in the past? Which is stopping ourselves from actually embracing what it could look like as a grown up and matured version of itself.
Bronte:
And looking different than what we’ve told it always should look like. And I think that’s probably where I’ve come to now is okay. It doesn’t look like that, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m still learning. I’m still unlearning that.
Will:
Yeah, for sure. Okay. So we’ve touched on it already, but there’s obviously a clear link between your faith and social justice. And I think it’s probably obvious to you and me, but perhaps not to everybody that Jesus and justice go together like, you know, peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and jam, depending on whether you listening on this continent or the States.
Bronte:
Not peanut butter, if you’re allergic like me. But yes.
Will:
What do you think Jesus and Justice go together like?
Bronte:
Peas and carrots.
Will:
So you’re a social worker, a passionate social worker who inspires me. Could you share a little bit about the relationship between your chosen career path or your vocation, your calling and the Jesus stuff and how it fits together?
Bronte:
Social work for me feels very innate. In the same way I was created with blue eyes, I I believe that I was created to be a social worker. However, that’s, you know, that’s easy for me to say. But if we’re talking to people who maybe don’t have that same experience, I guess the way of outworking that is that even studying, I’d sit in the library reading articles and I just felt something, it just felt spiritual to me. Learning social work felt like a spiritual act for me.
Other than just a feeling, when I look at Jesus, when I look at what he did, what he stood for, the things that he prioritised, I see social justice. You know, the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst. I’m careful about my language because even some of the biblical language makes me a bit uncomfortable saying like the ‘less than’ because even that feels a bit icky because I want to give dignity to people and highlight strengths rather than weaknesses. But I do think that that’s who the gospel favours.
In preparation to chat you I looked at the social work code of ethics. The Australian Association of Social Work has a code of ethics and just reading through what are the things that we identify with, what do we work from, what we prioritise in the in the profession of social work and its dignity of humanity. It’s enhancing wellbeing. It’s resolving problems and addressing systemic barriers, protecting vulnerable people from oppression and abuse. And I can go through the Bible and I can find examples of when Jesus did all of that. I had a chat to the chaplain on my team about some of her thoughts about this, and she pointed out the only time that Jesus really corrected – and we said, corrected not criticised – was the religious leaders who had power.
And I think what it comes down to for me is social work is about calling out power and it’s about not having power. And I think Jesus was the same. I don’t think he valued being powerful in the worldly sense. He was hanging out with the people who didn’t hold power in culture and it was as if he was calling out the powerful people. So I think in all of social work, we should always be addressing: who has the power and who should have more and balancing that? That’s something I see in Jesus.
Hear the rest of this conversation on the first episode of the Spiritual Misfits Podcast. Subscribe now to stay up to date with future episodes.