My Submission to Australia's Religious Freedoms Enquiry

(This has also been posted at my main blog; naturally, now that its done I would like to polish bits of it -and I would change the status from confidential to public.)

Enquiry homepage: https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/religious-freedom-review

Submissions: https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/religious-freedom-review/submission

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