“Fair Work” vs. Fear Woke

Essendon president saying the quite part out loud

A big kerfuffle, or storm in a teacup, depending where you stand on the issue of how the law should handle the pressure from the woke-erati. Andrew Thorburn, newly appointed to CEO of the Essendon Football Club in Melbourne had to step down after just one day. The issue? It was found that the church he belonged to, City on a Hill (CoH), had some dodgy beliefs on homosexuality and abortion. 

Thoughts below as a life-long atheist, agreeing with neither of the views attributed to the City on the Hill church:

This is surely against the law. Which is clear, in the Fair Work act. You can’t be discriminated against for your religion.  But Essendon is because they Fear Woke. Thorburn’s initial defence, that the church had varied views, was irrelevant. Now he’s offering a more sensible one: it’s a dangerous idea that religious faith could render someone unfit for an office. Agree. Thorburn was CEO of a couple of banks before he retired, and his faith appears to have been irrelevant to his performance then. As one would expect.

Does anyone still not know that most religions, and probably all branches of Christianity, have pretty grim views about gay folks and about abortion. How can that be surprise to anyone? Even if they are voiced in rather strong terms, as it appears they may have been back in 2013 by the CoH.

Many on Twitter have commented “what about Muslims?”. Indeed. Islam is even more anti pillow-munching than the City on a Hill brethren.  For example Warren Mundine, Aboriginal elder, weighs in.

All US presidents so far have claimed a version of the Christian faith. Kennedy a Catholic -- robustly anti gay and anti abortion. Jimmy Carter a Southern Baptist, founders of slavery, who still say homosexuals will “burn in hell”, and abortion doctors should die. 

Dan Andrews, Victorian Premier, signalled his virtue by calling the views of CoH “appalling and abhorrent”.  I might even agree, as a lifetime atheist. But, again, irrelevant. He should have been loudly proclaiming the right for people to have their faith. That’s the law. Or are we to see Andrews loudly proclaiming he finds beliefs of Islam “appalling and abhorrent”? Like to see that!

This was a huge pile-on, based on complaints by a few Essendon supporting gay activists. This is what  we’ve come to these days. People fear the woke. More than they believe in “Fair Work”. People are going the have faith-based tests before they can be employed. This is not going in a good direction.

ADDED: Essendon’s mealy-mouthed statement, a classic of the genre.