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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/14/marriage-equality-paul-kelly-churches-lgbti-rights-david-marr
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| Version 5 | Version 6 |
|---|---|
| Who's Paul Kelly kidding? The churches don't need any more protection against LGBTI rights | Who's Paul Kelly kidding? The churches don't need any more protection against LGBTI rights |
| (4 months later) | |
| Whatever’s happened to free speech? | Whatever’s happened to free speech? |
| Last summer, its champions were all for clawing back section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Exposing Jews, blacks and Asian Australians to intimidation at the hands of racists was seen as an imperative of liberty. | Last summer, its champions were all for clawing back section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Exposing Jews, blacks and Asian Australians to intimidation at the hands of racists was seen as an imperative of liberty. |
| We won't be giving equal time to spurious arguments against marriage equality | Lenore Taylor | |
| Roll on a few months and some of the same voices are demanding Canberra make special laws to protect traditional marriage Christians from the “retaliation” of their adversaries in the marriage battle. | Roll on a few months and some of the same voices are demanding Canberra make special laws to protect traditional marriage Christians from the “retaliation” of their adversaries in the marriage battle. |
| Does contradiction mean nothing to these people? | Does contradiction mean nothing to these people? |
| Here we are: in the name of free speech some of the most vulnerable Australians were to lose protection from scorn and abuse. But the churches – so heavily defended already by their prestige and wealth – must be given further legal protection in the name of religious liberty. | Here we are: in the name of free speech some of the most vulnerable Australians were to lose protection from scorn and abuse. But the churches – so heavily defended already by their prestige and wealth – must be given further legal protection in the name of religious liberty. |
| “This is the core point,” thundered Paul Kelly in the Australian this weekend. “Will [Malcolm] Turnbull before the next election face the prospect of believers in traditional marriage being penalised or intimidated because his government refused to provide legal protections?” | “This is the core point,” thundered Paul Kelly in the Australian this weekend. “Will [Malcolm] Turnbull before the next election face the prospect of believers in traditional marriage being penalised or intimidated because his government refused to provide legal protections?” |
| Strange how many laws seem necessary to do God’s work. | Strange how many laws seem necessary to do God’s work. |
| Kelly gathers grim evidence from around the world of believers suffering retaliation: a spat in Canada, trouble in Tasmania, a showdown in the United Kingdom and a boycott by Coca-Cola in Georgia. In short: “Prejudicial treatment of people and institutions because they support traditional marriage.” | Kelly gathers grim evidence from around the world of believers suffering retaliation: a spat in Canada, trouble in Tasmania, a showdown in the United Kingdom and a boycott by Coca-Cola in Georgia. In short: “Prejudicial treatment of people and institutions because they support traditional marriage.” |
| Freedom of religion is simultaneously under grave threat and extraordinarily nebulous | Freedom of religion is simultaneously under grave threat and extraordinarily nebulous |
| He seriously oversimplifies those conflicts but this is not the place to go into detail. Most are examples of citizens, governments and institutions fed up with church gay bashing. Equal marriage was a side issue. | He seriously oversimplifies those conflicts but this is not the place to go into detail. Most are examples of citizens, governments and institutions fed up with church gay bashing. Equal marriage was a side issue. |
| But somehow it’s a natural fit for warriors like Kelly to lobby Canberra for new laws to protect their faiths from the same forces also challenging their politics: from progressives, elites, sexual deviants of all kinds, Christians who actually back equal marriage (ie most Christians) and corporations that don’t care to do business with gay-hating governments and institutions. | But somehow it’s a natural fit for warriors like Kelly to lobby Canberra for new laws to protect their faiths from the same forces also challenging their politics: from progressives, elites, sexual deviants of all kinds, Christians who actually back equal marriage (ie most Christians) and corporations that don’t care to do business with gay-hating governments and institutions. |
| It’s too terrible. | It’s too terrible. |
| Boycotts worry Kelly most: “Consumer boycotts promoted by social media and even commercial boycotts against other commercial entities.” But it’s hard to see how parliamentary draftsmen might write – let alone politicians pass – laws forbidding boycotts by companies backing equal marriage. | Boycotts worry Kelly most: “Consumer boycotts promoted by social media and even commercial boycotts against other commercial entities.” But it’s hard to see how parliamentary draftsmen might write – let alone politicians pass – laws forbidding boycotts by companies backing equal marriage. |
| Kelly and his kind are trapped here in another wild contradiction. | Kelly and his kind are trapped here in another wild contradiction. |
| On the one hand, they demand devout pastry cooks have the right not to sell wedding cakes to lesbian couples. On the other, they reckon a brewery boycotting enemies of bloke-on-bloke marriage would not have the right to deny beer to St Patrick’s Seminary. | On the one hand, they demand devout pastry cooks have the right not to sell wedding cakes to lesbian couples. On the other, they reckon a brewery boycotting enemies of bloke-on-bloke marriage would not have the right to deny beer to St Patrick’s Seminary. |
| How on earth could this get off the ground? | How on earth could this get off the ground? |
| Same-sex marriage rights: how Australian states and territories compare | |
| Not for a moment do I imagine Paul Kelly wants an abusive contest over equal marriage. He has no taste for humiliating homosexuals or insulting the children of gay parents. That’s not at all what he is about. | Not for a moment do I imagine Paul Kelly wants an abusive contest over equal marriage. He has no taste for humiliating homosexuals or insulting the children of gay parents. That’s not at all what he is about. |
| But it is telling that he’s suggesting no protection for them from the retaliation of their Christian detractors. Perhaps that is yet to come in what promises to be a very long, word-heavy contest. | But it is telling that he’s suggesting no protection for them from the retaliation of their Christian detractors. Perhaps that is yet to come in what promises to be a very long, word-heavy contest. |
| And perhaps Kelly marches deep into the territory of contradiction because he is rather new to the subject. He’s not until recently been a close observer of the politics of faith. So he may not realise what privileges churches already enjoy. | And perhaps Kelly marches deep into the territory of contradiction because he is rather new to the subject. He’s not until recently been a close observer of the politics of faith. So he may not realise what privileges churches already enjoy. |
| He’s calling for laws to protect Christians from discrimination without perhaps knowing they have special exemptions from anti-discrimination laws protecting gays, lesbians, the intersex and transsexuals. Church schools, hospitals and charities are free to sack ‘em all if that’s what their faith demands. | He’s calling for laws to protect Christians from discrimination without perhaps knowing they have special exemptions from anti-discrimination laws protecting gays, lesbians, the intersex and transsexuals. Church schools, hospitals and charities are free to sack ‘em all if that’s what their faith demands. |
| It’s not clear where Kelly stands here, but grand demands for protection of religious liberty usually boil down to this: calls for these exemptions, available now only to church bodies, to be given to all individual faithful. | It’s not clear where Kelly stands here, but grand demands for protection of religious liberty usually boil down to this: calls for these exemptions, available now only to church bodies, to be given to all individual faithful. |
| This is the trade-off men like Archbishop Fisher of Sydney are offering: collapse entirely anti-discrimination protection for those who live outside the sex rules of the faiths, and they may go a bit easier on same-sex marriage. | This is the trade-off men like Archbishop Fisher of Sydney are offering: collapse entirely anti-discrimination protection for those who live outside the sex rules of the faiths, and they may go a bit easier on same-sex marriage. |
| Abbott's obstruction of gay marriage is a defence of privilege and the power of shame | David Marr | |
| Calls for religious freedom are now rolling across the landscape, but they remain strangely vague. We never see a neat list of them, not like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement. No. Freedom of religion is simultaneously under grave threat and extraordinarily nebulous. | Calls for religious freedom are now rolling across the landscape, but they remain strangely vague. We never see a neat list of them, not like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement. No. Freedom of religion is simultaneously under grave threat and extraordinarily nebulous. |
| Freedom isn’t the word. | Freedom isn’t the word. |
| What’s wanted is protection: Kelly’s special legal protections against “retaliation” plus a vast extension of religious exemptions exposing the LGTBI community to the Old Testament wrath of the hard battalions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. | What’s wanted is protection: Kelly’s special legal protections against “retaliation” plus a vast extension of religious exemptions exposing the LGTBI community to the Old Testament wrath of the hard battalions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. |
| I’ve said it before: that’s privilege. | I’ve said it before: that’s privilege. |
| Good men and women across the faiths are rattled at the moment. Some oppose equal marriage but still worry where this contest is going to leave Christianity. Can’t their faith, they wonder, win a free debate? How will it survive bullying demands for protection and privileges? How will it survive the hatred in the air? | Good men and women across the faiths are rattled at the moment. Some oppose equal marriage but still worry where this contest is going to leave Christianity. Can’t their faith, they wonder, win a free debate? How will it survive bullying demands for protection and privileges? How will it survive the hatred in the air? |
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| Law (Australia) | Law (Australia) |
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| Same-sex marriage postal survey | Same-sex marriage postal survey |
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