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| Prometheus Medallion^ |
There's a number of reasons for this. In part it's an acknowledgement of ignorance - I'm not very familiar with political matters and as I don't have any particular desire to delve deeply enough into that quagmire to feel I have the right to comment, I simply by and large don't.
I do, however, have some extremely firm views about certain subjects. And, so, I'm writing a quasi-political post right now.
This is part of my argument for a review of the secular nature of Australia and its government. Read on if you want to see more.
Recently I responded to a post on a gaming forum I frequent. I play in a Star Wars role-playing game there but that has no impact on this blog post. Someone raised the matter of the Boy Scouts organisation - specifically the US Boy Scouts - and the guy running the game (a good friend of mine) asked if anyone knows if the US Boy Scouts:
...still discriminate against homosexuals, atheists and agnostics?
A little while later, after a bit of cautious banter about this, someone posted to the thread pointing out that the Boy Scouts are a specifically religious-based organisation. Well, yes. They are, and it's a very good point. One would expect religious organisations to be religious. I have no issue with that.
The poster's second comment struck a chord in me:
I think the Boy Scouts position on homosexuality is a far more gray area. Do they as a private entity have the right to determine if homosexuality is counter to the tenets of their organization? I've got the right to do so for myself, I see no reason why they should not be afforded that same courtesy.Again, it's a good point. But the rules that govern individuals aren't the same as those that govern organisations, and they can't be. Or, to be more accurate, they shouldn't be.
I live in Australia and before I start let me say it's a country that I dearly love. I don't consider myself patriotic precisely, and I certainly agree that as a nation we have our issues (this post is about one of them, in fact), but I am very proud to be Australian in this day and age.
Having said that, here's something I take issue with.
Australia is a secular society. We have a separation between church and state. You can come into the country and practise whatever religion you care to - including no religion. You can be atheist, agnostic, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and so on. You can worship the Great God living in your left shoe if you like as long as - and here's the important bit - as long as you're not breaking Australian laws by doing so. If you follow an ancient Aztec God who demands human sacrifice every full moon, well, no. Follow that religion if you like but leave out the harming others part.
So. We have the premise that Australia is secular. But perhaps I should say 'nominally secular'. We're keen to talk the talk but we seem extremely hesitant to truly walk the walk.
Here's what I mean by that.
There's been a lot of talk about gay marriage in the global media for... well, quite some time. This post isn't about that matter, this is just
However, despite this being legal - and remember the simple fact of it being legal makes the entire nature/lifestyle argument entirely invalid - it is not legal for same sex couples to marry.
Australian law states that marriage is between 'one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others'. The only real reason for this stance is that Australia was founded as a Christian society and retains many of those core tenets. There's no medical reason for gay people not to marry; even if there were two terminally ill people could marry. People with highly infectious diseases aren't barred from marriage. Nor should they be.
There's no moral reason either; homosexuality is legal because as a society we decided it wasn't immoral (or, at least, not immoral enough to be illegal). All you need is a set of genitals that are different from your partner's and the ability to say 'I do' as a free-willed adult (or, if the courts let you, as a free willed pre-adult).
Again, the only true reason for this to be the case is that despite claiming to be a secular society we're really only comparatively secular. There are still many issues with Australian law related to religion.
This doesn't mean I have an issue with religion. I don't. And if you're reading into this post that I hate religion or blame it for Australia's woes then please, stop reading now and go back to See Spot Run until you're mentally mature enough to handle this content.
I believe wholeheartedly in a line between church and state. It's one of the things I'm most proud of regarding our society. That has two sides, though, and I wholly support people who want to pursue religion - or the lack of it - in the privacy of their own lives. It should be allowed irrespective of the beliefs those people hold, and our citizens should never be discriminated against on religious grounds.
What I'm saying is that we claim to have drawn a line between state and church when in fact that line is extremely blurry. Gay marriage is only one example of this but it's a very pertinent one.
If I am not a part of any Christian church then why should I be held to the religious beliefs thereof via Australia's laws? Why should the dogma of religions that I have separated myself from as a free-willed adult still maintain a stranglehold on my private life? If I want to marry a man I should be allowed to. If I want to marry a woman I should be allowed to. If I want to marry nobody I should, indeed, be allowed that right.
When one sees how many of our laws retain this religious overtone - the Right to Life/Right to Choice debate is another example of where it tends to rear its head - it raises a very serious issue: our laws are not sufficient for us to claim that we are a secular society.
Should our laws not be reviewed, weighed for inequitable religious content and then summarily altered? Should our politicians be held to an oath not to bring their religious beliefs into Australian politics? Should we, the people, not be more concerned about this?
I think we should. I think we should be very concerned about it. The fact that our laws are only quasi-secular means that those religions still have an impact on the lives of Australians irrespective of whether you believe in their tenets.
You're not religious? You don't believe homosexuality is a sin? Bad luck, you still can't get married to your same-sex partner. Nor can your son marry his boyfriend, nor your daughter marry her girlfriend.
This is wrong, people. This needs to change.
And it's up to us to change it.
^ = The Prometheus Camp is an organisation based in Finland that offers a secular coming-of-age alternative comparable to the Christian concept of Confirmation. It goes for a week and teaches burgeoning adults values that are important to society, all within an entirely secular framework (though the basis is Humanist in nature). Their main site is here; it's in Finnish which unfortunately I don't speak, though Chrome's auto-translation feature is very good for what it is. There's an English description on the IHEYO site, here.
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