News

If you can, cast your mind back to Spring 2017 – and the postal survey for the Great Marriage Debate.

Well it wasn’t exactly a “debate”. TV stations refused to air informative TV ads on the “No” case for the same-sex marriage survey. Newspapers gave huge coverage to the “Yes” case and very little on the other side of the story. The government did not distribute booklets setting out arguments for both “Yes” and “No” cases, as required for a formal referendum.

Madeline, a Canberra childcare worker (18), was sacked, merely for posting her support for traditional marriage on Facebook. Her boss said: “Today I fired a staff member who made it public knowledge that they feel ‘it’s okay to vote no’. Advertising your desire to vote no for same-sex marriage is, in my eyes, hate speech.”

Madeline was traumatised. “There are many other young people who share my views,” she said. “But they are too terrified to speak out.”

By November 2017, some 60 per cent of Australians had voted “Yes”. They believed that changing the marriage law would make LGBT people happy, but not alter anything else.

They were wrong.

As Christian lobbyist Lyle Shelton pointed out on 14 September last year:

News broke overnight that a Christian school in Ballarat is being sued by a former teacher, Rachel Colvin, because she does not agree with the school’s position on marriage.

She resigned over the issue after Ballarat Christian College re-iterated that it was committed to the Christian view of marriage – that marriage can only be between one man and one woman.

Parents send their children to Christian schools because they expect Christian schools and their staff to uphold the Christian view of marriage. But Colvin, a supporter of same-sex marriage, now wants the parent community and the school to bow to her vision for marriage.

She is trying to force this on the school by suing it under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

During the marriage campaign, we said over and over again that redefining marriage in law would weaponise state-based anti-discrimination legislation. And it has.

Principal Ken Nuridin said: “Our College provides a high-quality Christian education in accordance with our beliefs.The complaint against Ballarat Christian College was settled out of court in March. The school has been able to retain its biblical marriage policy, but has had to pay significant legal expenses as well as an undisclosed amount to its former teacher to cover “damages and lost earnings”.

“The claim has taken an enormous cost in time and resources already – detracting from the ability of a small school like ours to focus on what is important, the education of our students.”

If this trend continues, parents who choose Christian schools for their children’s education are in trouble. The freedom to teach biblical values – and to employ staff who uphold those values – is under attack as never before.

In South Australia just this past week, the Liberal government has released its new Equal Opportunity (Religious Bodies) Amendment Bill 2020. It would remove the ability of any faith-based school to choose teachers and other staff in accordance with its religious beliefs.

It comes just before the Christmas-New Year break when people are busy with other concerns.

FamilyVoice is busy too. But we will be strongly urging the government to withdraw the bill, and to protect, not destroy, religious freedom.

Your prayers and financial support are especially needed at this time.

For family, faith and freedom

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia