The Single Most Important Talk You Need To Hear About Religious Freedom

Last night I spoke at a forum on Religion and Freedom of Speech at Mentone Baptist Church in Melbourne. The two speakers were myself and Tim Wilson.

In my talk, I basically described the current conflict about religious freedoms vis-a-vis sexual minorities in the USA and Australia, and offered my own prognostication as to how it will probably unfold in the future.

Tim Wilson is the former Australian Human Rights commissioner and the federal member for Goldstein (in American talk, that makes him a congressman). Tim is a member of Australia’s ruling conservative LNP coalition, he is also openly gay, and is a self-proclaimed agnostic. However, he has probably done more than anyone else in Australia in the last decade to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech in this country. In November last year, when he was still the Human Rights Commissioner, he convened a religious freedom round table, hosting religious groups and secularists, with a view to nutting out the issues that need to be addressed in order to maintain both religious freedom and to protect sexual minorities from discrimination. The initial papers produced by the roundtable make for great reading and provided a list of issues that need to be addressed to maintain religious freedom within a pluralistic and diverse country (see here).

Last night Tim Wilson gave a brilliant speech on the importance of religious freedom and freedom of speech and why they must be preserved in a liberal democracy. He made a concerted and yet fully reasoned criticism of the progressive left, amidst affirming the pluralism and diversity of Australia. While the content was focused mostly on the Australian context, it remains relevant and undoubtedly prescient to the American situation as well.

I strongly urge all readers to listen to Tim Wilson’s 30 minute speech here as you won’t be disappointed (with my talk following straight after). I’m sure my American friends will be jealous that we have such a strong and capable defender of religious freedom, who just happens to be a gay agnostic!

Ps Murray Campbell who organized and hosted the event, summarizes and reflects on it here. Over at Eternity News, Rob Ward has a summary of the event as well.