GAY TRUTH

LAST year I sent out a teaching document, prepared by the Australian Catholic Bishops, on the nature of marriage to the Catholic community in Tasmania. For this I was cited by the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for a possible breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act. I was simply doing my job of ensuring those in the Catholic community understood the Church’s position on marriage and its importance for our society. Christians have been presenting the essentials of this teaching since the very beginnings of the Church. Yet after 2000 years such teaching is now considered by some to be offensive, in such a serious way as to require an agency of the Tasmanian Government to seek to suppress it. I welcome the recent announcement from the Attorney-General that the Government is to amend the Anti-Discrimination Act, in particular to give greater protection for freedom of religion. This will be a significant change. Freedom of speech ... should only be limited for the most serious of reasons...

One of Australia's leading Christian groups has today spoken out over news that a complaint against Hobart’s Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has been dropped. The Australian Christian Lobby welcomed news of the complaint being dropped by the complainant, Greens candidate Martine Delaney. However, Australian Christian Lobby Managing Director Lyle Shelton said it was a travesty of justice that Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner believed the Archbishop had a case to answer simply for distributing the Catholic Church marriage booklet “Don’t Mess with Marriage.” “What Archbishop Porteous did was completely reasonable and he should have the right to express a point of view on marriage,” Mr Shelton said. “This was an example of where State-based Human Rights Commissions are often being weaponised by activists against those with different views. “A complaint does not even have to be legally defensible for process to sta...

There has been outrage at the  prosecution of   Tasmanian Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous   ( pictured above ) for simply distributing a booklet explaining the  Catholic Church's teachings on marriage  to its members.  If the Archbishop loses this case, it will be unlawful for a minister of religion to explain to his or her congregation the church's teaching on marriage.  I have publicly supported   the Archbishop  and co-sponsored a motion in the Senate by (introduced by Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz ) upholding religious freedom and free speech .  The case has highlighted how unbalanced the debate will be on the redefinition of marriage , with activists launching legal action against people of religious conscience.  I made a recent   speech against the Plague of Political Correctness   which got a lot of coverage on Facebook . Related articles Seven things the cabinet reshuff...