Christians – with their traditional views on sexuality and their annoying insistence that babies in the womb are human – have become one of the most marginalised groups in Australia.
If that sounds alarmist, consider the apoplectic reaction to news on Monday that church-going Andrew Thorburn has been appointed CEO of the Essendon Football Club.
Everyone from the Melbourne media to the Premier of Victoria, but I repeat myself, went into immediate meltdown.
“Essendon CEO linked to controversial church,” a headline in the Herald Sun warned ominously.
The new CEO’s views were “absolutely appalling”, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews thundered, adding that football supporters had reason to be “disappointed” with Thorburn’s appointment.
Controversial church?
Appalling views?
What sort of weird cult was the religious hard-line extremist appointed to run the Essendon footy club connected to?
Anglican.
Andrew Thorburn is part of an Anglican church that believes – as Christians have always believed – sex is for marriage, and that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Moreover, Anglicans believe the baby in the womb is a human being. And, if you don’t believe the Bible, they’ll encourage you to check out an ultrasound.
But if the Melbourne media and Daniel Andrews are to be believed, these “views” make you ineligible to run a footy club.
Never mind that Thorburn, a former chief of the National Australia Bank, is the first ASX-listed Top 10 company CEO to run an AFL club.
Never mind that Essendon President David Barham described Thorburn as “a man of great integrity and exceptional vision”.
He attends an Anglican church, just like former PMs Kevin Rudd and John Howard.
And that’s a problem, since the Anglicans haven’t yet allowed popular culture to audit the Bible to ensure it is LBGTQ+ compliant.
Daniel Andrews told a media conference on Tuesday: “I don’t support those views”, which, I suppose, explains why Daniel Andrews wasn’t in church on Sunday.
Then the Premier added: “That kind of intolerance and hatred is just wrong.”
It would be interesting to ask Victorians who lost their jobs because they didn’t want to be vaccinated, which of the two they regarded as more intolerant – their local Anglican Church, or the Andrews government.
Port Phillip’s deputy mayor Tim Baxter urged Essendon fans to cancel their club memberships.
“As a bisexual man I cannot feel welcome in this club,” he said.
As a Christian man it was becoming painfully clear that Andrew Thorburn was not welcome at the club.
But it wasn’t just that Thorburn’s church wouldn’t be included in the next Gay Pride Parade that rankled.
Thorburn’s church was also pro-life.
Well surprise, surprise. Have you ever heard of a church that was pro-abortion?
The Herald Sun quoted the church website which said: “We believe that we must be a voice for the voiceless, and stand for the rights of the unborn baby and be pro-life.”
You’d think – with the AFL having been rocked by recent allegations that Hawthorn staff encouraged a player to tell his pregnant partner to get an abortion – a pro-life CEO would be welcome.
Apparently not.
The Age described Thorburn’s faith as “a big fat cloud” overshadowing his appointment, and then, without a hint of irony, went on to worry that Thorburn might be a threat to tolerance.
“We asked the club how Thorburn’s links to the church squared with those commitments to diversity and inclusion that we’re always hearing about from AFL clubs and the league itself,” the newspaper said.
The Age didn’t think to ask if there was tolerance for Christians within the AFL.
They didn’t need to. Thorburn was forced to resign his position as CEO less than 48 hours after accepting it.
You have to feel for Christians like Andrew Thorburn.
On the one hand, they are told they must keep their religious views to themselves.
On the other hand, the media delight in dragging their religious views into the public square for an inquisition where they must explain themselves to the mob on threat of losing their jobs.
Andrew Thorburn hadn’t even begun his role as Essendon CEO before he was being portrayed as a threat to inclusion.
Yet the only person excluded was him.
Thorburn was told that any role in his Anglican church would represent a conflict of interest with his role at Essendon.
Thorburn, who has barracked for Essendon since he was a kid, handed in his resignation as CEO.
The Essendon Football Club then issued a statement saying: “We are deeply committed to our values and support wholeheartedly the work of the AFL in continuing to stamp out any discrimination based on race, sex, religion, gender, sexual identity or orientation, or physical or mental disability.”
One can only assume that their commitment to stamping out any discrimination based on “religion” must be starting next week.
Source: Sky News
