I’ve got a confession to make: I’ve found Andrew Bolt’s political blog fascinating reading for the past 6 months or so. His conservative spin, I think, is fairly balanced: he will critique the current Labour government again and again yet he is no mere blanket Liberal supporter and will point out any hypocrisy or bad policy in the Opposition. Overall I’ve found his take on politics echoing my own, though I don’t agree with everything he writes.
Lately there’s been a more personal touch to his blog. The Federal Court recently confirmed that Bolt was guilty of breaking sections of the Racial Discrimination Act when he wrote an article a few years ago questioning the choice of some people to identify themselves as ‘Aboriginal’. Here’s some of the Court’s reasons why Bolt is guilty:
“At the core of multiculturalism is the idea that people may identify with and express their racial or ethnic heritage free of pressure not to do so.”
“Such pressure may ultimately cause a person to renounce their racial identity. Conduct with negating consequences such as those that I have described, is conduct inimical to the values that the RDA seeks to honour.
“People should be free to fully identify with their race without fear of public disdain or loss of esteem for so identifying.”
Bolt has openly expressed dismay at the ruling arguing it’s a severe attack on free speech. A recent column has argued that he never intended any racial slur in the original articles that got him into this mess but was merely raising issues for consideration and hoping that the whole divisive concept of ‘race’ would be dropped in favour of focusing upon what unites us.
So here is my concern as a Christian preacher: Bolt was accused of breaking the Racial Discrimination Act for raising questions about the choices of some to identify with a particular race, what happens to a preacher who preaches through Galatians and stumbles upon this?
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:27-29 ESV)
The argument presented here by the Apostle Paul is that the cross of Jesus Christ breaks down our racial, ethnic and social classes/barriers. Christians stand justified before God not grouped according to any worldly distinctions, but united together in Christ.
I would argue that one of the implications for this passage is that Christians should not hold too strongly to their worldly identification markers: race, social class or ethnicity – and that anyone who does needs to repent.
Now this is where it gets tricky. The call to repent is always a call to turn away from sin and idolatry, and a proper call to repent in some way will offend our sinfully marred sensibilities. So what happens if my call to repent of closely held ethnic distinctions offends?
This is where I think things become hazy regarding this ruling. The onus upon the judge was to decide if “the perspective of the ordinary reasonable member of the Australian community” was offended by the remarks. One judge deciding what is and isn’t offensive. And what a flimsy legal test.
This really is a case about free speech. Sure, it started as a case of Racial discrimination, but if the test of discrimination is whether something is offensive then surely we have to see the bigger picture here.
And in case you’re wondering if I’m drawing a long bow, consider the case of Danny Nahliah and ‘Catch The Fire Ministries’ which, not too long ago, was taken to court by the Islamic Council of Victoria for religious vilification. What vilification? They said the Koran was wrong, somebody got offended and Nahliah was gagged. That case was eventually settled in favour of Nahliah but it does demonstrate that all it takes is one person to be offended before a lawsuit begins.
Keep in mind that it’s much easier to begin a lawsuit than it is to defend one. It cost Bolt two years of stress as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Time and money that most Christian preachers don’t have.
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