Enquiry homepage: https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/religious-freedom-review
Dear Members of the Expert Panel,
In my opinion, this enquiry risks its
credibility unless it publicly acknowledges the following:
(1) the freedom of those religions which
SUPPORTED Equal (aka "same sex") Marriage were restricted before the
recent legislation adopted in response to the postal survey;
(2) conservative neochristian (I cannot, in
all conscience, refer to them as Christian) religions do NOT speak for (all)
Christians;
(3) members of minority (e.g.,
non-Abrahamic) religions are valid members of this society, and their religious
freedoms deserve equal weight in these deliberations. The form of some of those
religions may not match conventional expectations of religion (e.g.,
non-hierarchical, use of home altars, etc), but that does not reduce their
worthiness of EQUAL consideration;
I have one further point that I wish to
make.
(4) NO religion, mainstream or otherwise,
has the right to enforce their views on the majority which covers
neochristian homophobia/transphobia, anti-abortion views, pro-reincarnation
views, or pro-environment views (e.g., some forms of Paganism). The US
President Franklin D Roosevelt included, as one of his Four Freedoms, Freedom
of Worship: the freedom to worship in a particular way does not extend to
forcing others to worship the same way: neochristians in particular must accept
that. I find their arrogance and resumption nearly as offensive as those zealots
of religions who kill in order to convert people. As Tom Fletcher, former UK
Ambassador to Lebanon, wrote: “The real dividing line is not between
Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who
believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.”
Yours faithfully
