As some of you may have heard, Ozfailya late last year joined the esteemed ranks of countries like Ireland, Canadia and other basket-cases in embracing the right of gays and other alphabet people to marry each other, known locally as Same-Sex Marriage. After the vote, there was a lot of conversation and agitation about adding to the legislation several "religious freedom" clauses that would placate the five million of us who voted against, and protect the rights of we religious in varying ways. But, the 60% (who were about 85% in the Parliament) were determined to push through the bill unchanged, and so they did, promising that they'll push through a religious freedoms bill at a later time.
Well, you'll never guess what … oh, gee, it's a funny story … but the 60%, for whatever reason, seem dead-set against permitting the rest of us to have any such freedoms at all, not even the ones we already have. Ho ho ho, what a lark. So, a state director of Australian Marriage Equality recently asserted that religious schools should be forced to hire LGBTI teachers and all church exemptions to anti-discrimination law should be abolished, while another state's body agreed saying any such exemptions "go too far" and "entrench substantive inequality".
Ultimately, the rights being sought are akin to already accepted norms elsewhere in the world, things like the right of religious schools to reject gay teachers, or to reject gay indoctrination from any teachers, the right of parents to teach their kids whateverthefug they please, and so on. But, no, hey, "we won, so now we get to dictate terms to the rest of you bigots". Their repeated argument goes something like this: religious freedom means you can believe what the fug you want, but you can't come near me with that bigotry, bigot, nor can you stop me working at your kids catholic school, preaching at your kids, or explaining to kids what a dirty sanchez is.
At times, the SSSSM folks want to redefine life as we know it: "We actually need to narrow (the) broad exemptions for religious bodies in discrimination law that prevent vulnerable people, including LGBTI people, from accessing critical services." Sounds fair in a tolerance-based kind of way, right? And what kinds of "critical services" are we talking about here? "religious schools or other faith based settings … religious charities". What? These are critical services, are they? So now alphabet people are entitled to help from religious charities. I wasn't aware they were human-rights mandated services. I always thought charity was a gift at the discretion of the giver. How silly am I!
Meanwhile, in what alphabet people might consider to be high-order irony, church leaders in Oz are saying they want this law to combat the "hatred" being doled out against Christians. And it's not just academic: some woman got sacked for changing her facebook profile pic in our gay capital; some wise-a55 posted a campaign to get a doctor deregistered because she appeared in a "No" campaign tv ad'; a Christian business exec was forced to resign various Christian group roles and even his job because of butthurt alphabet supporters and too timid firms; people getting disciplined for posting "No"-vote stuff; or for … of all the shit … offering to pray for someone under stress. But don't worry, because one Ozfag near-national newspaper has got religious people covered by daily reminding people about the Cathbro church … owning $6 gazillion dollars in property.
Alright, so why does /christian/ care? I figured since I've seen a few ozfag Christbros wander the halls here, it might be nice to have a single dedicated thread where we can all commiserate together on the fall of western civilisation in our country, debate which country we were best to move to, as well as share resources and discussion on the shitstorm that's guaranteed to dominate a second year in a row. I'll set the ball rolling with four links, two articles and two submissions to Phil Ruddock's pantomime of horrors enquiry.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/churches-demand-new-religious-freedom-law-to-combat-era-of-hatred-20180213-p4z05f.html
http://www.watoday.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/yes-victors-seek-abolition-of-all-church-exemptions-to-anti-discrimination-laws-20180214-p4z0aj.html
https://www.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Religious-Freedom-Review-Submission.pdf
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/marriage/pages/2012/attachments/original/1518630478/MA_Religious_Freedom_Submission.pdf?1518630478
from here:
http://www.marriagealliance.com.au/marriage_alliance_religious_freedom_submission
Enjoy.
And, if this thread is unnecessary, mods, it'll die a natural death on its own.