Stories of intimidation

Some claim that Christians in the West are not persecuted, and we should be careful in playing the victim card. Whilst we are not (yet) being thrown into jail, there is a trend towards discrimination which is a more subtle and insidious kind of attack. From Australia comes news which indicates the kind of issues we are going to face.

In October, The Australian newspaper published a revealing and disturbing article. It was a full-length feature in their weekend magazine which told the story of a gay couple who had been part of a church in the Armidale Anglican church – until a new bishop was appointed – The Revd Rod Chiswell (see photo). The piece was a perfect hatchet job – painting a picture of the bad bishop vs the loving gay couple and the nice congregation wanting to stand by their men. There have been threats of legal action and the subsequent backlash in the press, and more especially on social media, has been fierce.

The article however also had a deeper purpose. The government is proposing a religious liberties Bill – which the progressives are deeply apprehensive of. The article was designed to show that people like these nasty Bible-believing Christians need to be curtailed. As well as political propaganda, stories like this serve to intimidate, divide and bully into silence. We need to tell a better story.

I interviewed Bishop Rod for the ASK podcast*. He is the polar opposite of what he was portrayed as. We need to not only tell the better story, but get it heard.

Meanwhile in Victoria the government is about to pass a Bill which would allow the Premier to declare a pandemic for three months at a time (even without an actual case being present) and allow the health minister to give public health orders without the approval of the chief health officer. This gives the government unprecedented powers to put restrictions, close down public meetings, target specific groups, and much more. Individuals who disobey face a fine of over $90,000 (£45,000) plus two years in jail, and organisations over $250,000. Senior lawyers have already warned about the significant civil rights implications of this. The potential implications for religious freedom, and especially the church, are serious. Governments making laws for the sake of ‘public health’ are being given a weapon which can easily be turned against ideologies they consider a threat to their own health. These are dangerous times in Australia for the church.