Sydney archbishop: Green Party’s platform could see bishops jailed for not teaching gender ideology
SYDNEY, Australia, – Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney has issued a stinging challenge to Green
Party plans to impose a gender-obscuring, pansexual morality program on
Australia’s schools, including those run by Catholics, Protestants and Muslims,
and to shut up and close down institutions that disagree.
If the Greens have their way, Archbishop
Fisher warns in the most recent Weekend Australian, he could
be jailed for ordering Catholic schools in his archdiocese not to teach the
gender ideology lessons already taught in some parts of Australia by the “Safe
Schools” program against bullying.
The archbishop writes:
“Bishop
jailed for excluding gender ideology from classroom”; “Muslim parents required
to enrol children in gay-friendly program”; “Hindu teacher who said marriage
between man and woman fined for hate speech” – such might be the headlines if
the new Greens policy on religious liberty and “heteronormative bigotry” were
ever to become law. What the Green Party wants in addition to
protecting the environment and welcoming refugees, wrote the archbishop, is to
force its radical sexual views on Australians and shut up religious people who
disagree. “As a result religious liberty is set to become a major issue in the
forthcoming election.”
The focus of the Green assault on religious
liberty is the “Safe Schools Program” which is now optional in most of
Australia, except Victoria - has reportedly been “gutted” of its most offensive elements by
the federal government after a strong Christian protest. Critics said it promoted
gender fluidity (and encouraged students to attend school in the dress of the
opposite sex) and homosexuality in the name of tolerance.
But the Green Party, warns Archbishop Fisher,
want the ungutted version restored. “This proposes that children be taught that
sex is about the outside body but gender about how you feel inside; that it’s
up to you to choose your gender and how you express it.” Innocent activities
such as asking parents the sex of their newborn are denounced as
“heteronormativity.”
Resistance is to be crushed. Religion, say the
Greens, should not give dissenting Christian or Muslim schools a “get out of
jail free card.” Warns the archbishop: “They would rather force church schools
to close than allow them to teach politically incorrect things.”
All this, ironically, is in the cause of
anti-bullying. But says Fisher, it is “big-time bullying” itself. “Name-calling
and belief-shaming of those who disagree with us are textbook bullying – yet
these advocates call anyone who disagrees with them ‘bigots’ and
‘homophobes.’”
Fisher also criticises the Greens for wanting
to include religious organizations in existing provisions against
discriminatory hiring practices. But Christian “homeless shelters, hospitals,
soup kitchens and other services would never turn people away on the basis of
sexuality and it is plainly defamatory to imply they would.” Still, the
archbishop defends the right of religious organizations to employ people who
“subscribe to their beliefs and live their ethos. But there’s nothing unjust or
scandalous about that.”
The Greens stand third in party polling
heading into the July election but could hold the balance of power if no clear
winner emerges among the two frontrunners.
