Euangelion
The other night I was walking down Lygon Street in Melbourne, a street filled with ritzy restaurants, and I saw a political poster by The Sex Party (yes, such a thing exists, even pimps and sex traffickers have their own political party) and the poster’s slogan read “Tax the Churches.” That kind of sums up the secular fanaticism in Australia.
Given that context, there is an excellent piece in The Australian by Greg Sheridan who aptly describes the secular fundamentalism of the Australian context and encourages the church to be a “self-confident minority.” My friends in the USA and UK might not relate to the whole article, nonetheless, I think Sheridan nails it when he calls the churches to be wise and brave to stand up a very self-righteous and aggressive secularism that is growing in stride and strength.
He writes:
The real danger now is the increasingly frequent direct attacks on religious freedoms. The Greens have called for an end to the exemption for religious bodies from the operation of anti-discrimination laws. This is a direct assault on religious freedom and indeed freedom of association. Christian schools would not be able to insist on hiring Christian teachers … The aggressive secularism of public culture has become increasingly a state religion in itself and will use the coercive powers of the state to enforce its new orthodoxy. Thus Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner was willing to hear a complaint against the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart for circulating a pamphlet of the Australian bishops entitled Don’t Mess with Marriage. People should read this document. You could not imagine a more temperate, mild and respectful stating of the traditional Catholic view of marriage as being between a man and a woman. It stresses the inalienable dignity and respect with which every human being should be treated and opposes any discrimination against gay people. But in its view marriage is between a man and a woman.
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