Church discrimination - that's OK?

Seems it's one law for churches and another law for the rest of us.

That utterly vile Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby (well known here for it's obsession with anti-gay marriage and anti gay generally) has been meeting with Prime Minister Gillard, over concerns that churches may have to give equal opportunity to everyone when hiring people, including gays. Oh the humanity! Being as they don't even want us gays to have equal marriage rights, it's hardly surprising that he doesn't want gays to have equal rights in employment either.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has assured religious groups they will have the ''freedom'' under a new rights bill to discriminate against homosexuals and others they deem sinners, according to the head of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Under current law, faith-based organisations, including schools and hospitals, can refuse to hire those they view as sinners if they consider it ''is necessary to avoid injury to the religious sensitivities of adherents of that religion''.

Ms Gillard has met Australian Christian Lobby managing director Jim Wallace several times, and he says she assured him ''she has no intention of restricting freedom of religion'' when it comes to religious groups' legal rights to discriminate in hiring and firing.

The Prime Minister said through a spokesman: "We don't comment on discussions with stakeholders.''

Discrimination by religious organisations affects thousands of Australians. The faiths are big employers, and the Catholic Church in particular is one of Australia's largest private employers.

They rely on government funding but because of their religious status are allowed to vet the sexual practices of potential employees in ways that would be illegal for non-religious organisations.

Labor often claims to represent progressive values and is led by an atheist, but the government has gone out of its way to placate religious organisations on this issue.

The woman who will be steering the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill through the Senate, Finance Minister Penny Wong, is a committed Christian and a lesbian.

Senator Wong said this week that Labor was ''seeking to balance the existing law and the practice of religious exemptions with the principle of non-discrimination''. Read more

Gutless Gillard however has met him a number of times to placate his concerns. Meaning that the church will still be free to discriminate against us. I didn't know about this actually. So does this mean that if say, a lawn mowing company applied for a contract to mow the churches lawns, then if the owner of the company was gay (or even the actual lawn mowing person was gay) does that then mean the church can deny this company the contract simply on the basis of their sexuality/lifestyle? What about cleaners? Plumbers? Is there a clause in the contract that asks about your sexuality? 
And what about Christian gays, such as Finance Minister Penny Wong?

That's so fucked up man. Priests can fuck kids and remain in the church, but someone who's gay and has sex with consenting adults isn't even allowed to work for the church. 

If the church is to accept gov funding, then the gov surely should have some sway over how the church behaves. If Gillard had any guts she'd insist on this. Threaten to pull funding unless the church complied with gov regulation. What happened to obeying the law of the land? How about this little quote from the Bible? Romans 13:

1 Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God. 2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow. 3 For the authorities do not frighten people who are doing right, but they frighten those who do wrong. So do what they say, and you will get along well. 4 The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong. 5 So you must obey the government for two reasons: to keep from being punished and to keep a clear conscience. 6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due. 8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God's law. 9 For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting -- and any other commandment -- are all summed up in this one commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of God's requirements. source

Well? 

Bloody hypocrites. 

You know, as far as morality goes, I'd put the secular world up against churches anytime. Secularism doesn't condone discrimination. 

Update:
Kevin Donnelly argues here that faith based schools should be allowed to discriminate. He uses only the example of schools, no mention of the various other faith based organisations around who would need to employ people for various duties. He writes:

That such is the case shouldn't surprise. Under the new Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has assured faith-based organisations they will maintain their ''freedom'' to discriminate against homosexuals and others who do not adhere to their faith. As publicly stated by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria: ''Our schools promote a particular view of the person, the community, the nation and the world centred on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, and they form an integral part of the church community in which all generations live, worship and grow together.''

Those seeking to work or those seeking to enrol children in such schools can be in no doubt as to the religious nature of such schools and that there is a requirement, as members of the school community, to live according to the tenets on which the school is based. Read more

Well, my position is simple. Why do churches want one law for them and another for the rest of us? Don't accept gov funding then if you don't want to follow the laws they make. Private schools across the country get $billions of taxpayers money given to them. If parents want to send their kids to a school that discriminates against gays, then why should the gov be paying for that?

But it goes much deeper than that. Why is it that Christian organisations feel that it's within their religious right to discriminate against people like me? How very bloody Christian eh?

Update 2:

Well I wasn't expecting this one. Joumanah El Matrah is executive director of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights, as said in her opinion piece at the end. Imagine that, Muslims arguing to not discriminate, while the Australian Christian Lobby wants to.

The piece is very well written and much worth reading it all. Perhaps just a couple of quotes:

This view of religion imagines an intolerant, misogynist and homophobic God at the centre of faith. This strikes at the very heart of the long and honourable history all religions have of working and caring for the disenfranchised. I believe the vast majority of people of faith do not want their religion used to estrange people from our society and affect their livelihood.

It seems to me that refusing people employment on the basis of their identity when it bears no relationship to the job they are applying for is a deeply punitive measure to take in the name of protecting religious beliefs. It targets people in an intensely personal way, to the very core of their identity.

 ..............................................

But if the purpose of the organisation is education and/or welfare provision, and public funds are used in the administration of that service, then the right to discriminate must have significant limitations and should be subject to oversight. It should not be easy to deny someone a service or potentially a livelihood because of who they are.

To banish people from religious institutions because they do not comply with our view of who belongs in our religious flock should be deeply troubling to us and should not be done with any ease of mind or heart and, most certainly, should not be done on our behalf by the state. Read more

Update 3:

Jeff Sparrow writes. 

It's a statement that homophobia is still OK; that gays and lesbians can still be bullied and harassed, in a way that wouldn't be tolerated in respect of anyone else.

As David Marr has noted, this is not simply a symbolic matter. Religious organisations run major institutions, particularly in the health sector, with the Catholic Church one of the biggest private employers in Australia. Gillard's deal means that workers in state-funded hospitals, clinics, retirement homes and charities can be disciplined or even sacked, not because of their performance in the workplace but on the basis of what they do in their own beds.

The Labor Party defends the deal as protecting 'freedom of religion'. But that's self-evidently a non-starter. You might personally believe that prayer heals cancer; if so, you're perfectly entitled to treat your own metastasizing tumour through incantations and sprinkles of holy water. But when you're running a tax payer-funded hospital, you can't offer faith healing as the frontline treatment in your oncology ward. If you're treating others, you're held, in other words, to certain standards. Why should employing other people be any different? more