Father Rod Bower on "Religious Freedom"

Father Rod Bower is in Brisbane this week/weekend and I saw him speak last night. The topic was religious freedom but afterwards he fielded questions on refugees, LGBT issues, faith struggles and his infamous church signs.

I urge Brisbane people to get along to his Friday night or Saturday. But be warned - just as Jesus was inclusive of people shunned by the society of his day, Father Rod has a reputation for being that way in today's world.

As a result, the people attending his events include people of other faiths (or none) and a variety of sexualities. If this would be too much for you, then perhaps you're not ready for these events. Otherwise, by all means go.

Father Rod's talk on religious freedoms

He began with a childhood anecdote. Whenever one parent would drive him and sister somewhere, there would be a race to see who could 'bags' the front seat - to be in the privileged position. He sees the religious freedom debate as Christians trying to bags the front seat of society.

Teaching of Jesus are inconvenient

Of course the teachings of Jesus are that we should give up the position of privilege and instead adopt a position of service. He referenced Jesus' parable about humility.

Freedom of speech?

Father Rod's opinion is that speech is not free. Someone always has to pay. Normally it's the voiceless, the vulnerable, the marginalised, the minority, the poor and the powerless. The interesting thing about the Folau case is that for once it is the speaker who had to pay the price.

What's the ICCPR?

The International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights allows people the right to their beliefs (ie religious freedom). Actions, however, are still constrained by law. In simple terms, Father Rod says it gives a person the right to believe in the Aztec religion if they want, but not to sacrifice virgins.

Religious exemptions

Already the church has certain exemptions which allow for it to discriminate. Catholics ordain only male priests because that's their religious belief - fair enough says Father Rod (though that's not his belief). But as for teachers in religious schools, he thinks it's OK that a teacher of religion should be required to have a certain faith but perhaps not for teachers of maths etc.

New laws?

Father Rod sees the proposed "protection" of religious freedom to be mostly protecting the worst of our religion (the hatred and bigotry) rather than the good. His view is that this will lead to catastrophic abuse. He says we're in jeopardy not because of persecution, but because of how we sometimes live out our faith in not-so-good ways.

Q&A with Father Rod

In the Q&A session, Father Rod used the analogy of being on a train. If you're on a train at the platform, and another train pulls in on the track beside you it can appear like you're going backwards. but it's just an optical illusion. If you look out the other side you'll see that the platform and everything else is just where it was. You've got a better reference point.

In his view, Christians have been used to having a privileged position of others in society. Now that things are becoming more equal it appears to some parts of the Christian community that they are going backwards. In other words, equality feels like discrimination. But in reality, they need to look out another window to get a better reference point.

It reminds me of Tim Costello's article about Christians needing to "calm down" over alleged persecution.

More of Father Rod's Q&A session will be in my next post...