Speaking Out Down Under
Divided Christians in Australia Are Engaged in a Culture War of Their Own
by David J. Palmer
Judging by Australia’s success at the recent Olympic Games, especially when measured by medals per million head of population—there are 20 million of us—it might appear that we have an overwhelming obsession with sport. Unfortunately for many Australians, this is true, but not surprising given the inordinate amount of state funding for Olympic sports bodies as well as the abundance of open space and sunshine.
However, our athletic success cannot disguise the significant differences within Australian society. This year, Australian Christians found themselves divided from other Australians over two matters.
The First Division
The first is a recent court case brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria against a Christian group under the state’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. The second is an attempt by a male homosexual couple, waving a marriage license obtained overseas earlier this year, to have their “marriage” recognized in the Family Court of Australia as a marriage under Australian law.
The basic thrust of the Act is that no one may “engage in conduct that incites hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of” someone on the basis of his race or religion. It excepts anyone who can demonstrate that he spoke “reasonably and in good faith” for a religious purpose.
A person claiming the exemption, however, must demonstrate the reasonableness and good faith of his actions, and the Act also declares that “the person’s motive in engaging in any conduct is irrelevant.” In other words, a person charged with hate speech has his work cut out for him to escape penalty, in effect being held guilty until he proves himself otherwise. The Act distinguishes between “unlawful vilification” for which it gives no set penalties, though such penalties are likely to involve apology and/or compensation, and “serious vilification” for which the penalty can be a fine or even imprisonment.
It didn’t take long for Muslims to issue a complaint against a group of Christians. Just two months after the Act was passed, a Pentecostal group, Catch the Fire Ministries (CTFM), ran a seminar to explain Islam and to help Christians reach out in love to minister among the growing Muslim community in Melbourne. The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) asked three Muslim converts of Anglo-Australian ancestry to attend. With the backing of the ICV, they lodged a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission against two pastors and the CTFM.
Both conciliation and mediation failed, and a hearing at Victorian Civil and Religious Tribunal began in mid-October of last year. Some 36 days of hearings, conducted at great expense to all parties, were concluded at the end of March. As I write in mid-October 2004, we still await the ruling. Whatever it is, the aggrieved party is almost certain to appeal, possibly all the way to the High Court of Australia.
A fascinating aspect of the hearings was the unwillingness of the Muslim group’s counsel to cross-examine CTFM’s expert witness’s rebuttal of their submission, a rebuttal based on a detailed review of the teaching of the Koran and Hadith. This precluded consideration of the material, but also demonstrated the Islamic leadership’s extreme unease with the Koran and Hadith being exposed to such public scrutiny.
David J. Palmer is minister of Pioneers Presbyterian Church in Cheltenham, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Before going to seminary, he worked in Australia and the United Kingdom in the senior management of a chemical company.
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