Religious
Freedom
We believe religious freedom is a fundamental right for all Australians—
and it’s something worth fighting for.
What's Happening?
On January 27, 2023, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) released its consultation paper for its inquiry into religious educational systems and anti-discrimination laws. The Australian Christian Churches (ACC), the denomination which we as a church are part of, made oral and written submissions to the ALRC regarding this.
While the ALRC paper notes the importance of religious freedom and parental rights, it goes on to recommend severe restrictions of those rights. The proposed changes effectively deprive faith-based schools of the right to give preference to staff who share their religious beliefs. Also, the changes would deprive faith-based schools of the ability to require staff to model their religious beliefs in the areas of gender, sexuality, and relationship choices and behaviours.
Additionally, the ALRC recommends restricting the ability for faith-based schools, on behalf of parents, to address student behaviour in the areas of gender and sexuality. This includes student behaviour which would undermine the school’s religious beliefs and values.
These reforms, if enacted, will severely undermine a faith-based school’s ability to maintain an authentic and holistic faith environment for their students. These measures would represent an unprecedented infringement on the rights of parents to ensure that their children receive an education that aligns with their religious and moral beliefs—rights that are protected under international law.
Many Federal Members of Parliament (MPs) are either unaware of these proposals, or fail to recognise the radical implications for parents and schools.
What Can I Do?
We’d love to invite all our Favor Fam to write letters to their local Federal Member of Parliament (MP). Here’s how:
- Thank the MP for representing you, and acknowledge the hard work and sacrifice of being a Federal MP.
- Include no mentions of ‘praying for them.’ The overwhelming majority of MPs do NOT want this. They will interpret this as an attempt to ‘convert’ them, into Christian faith and/or into thinking the way you do.
- Tell them why the recommendations of the ALRC report should not be implemented (please read below for assistance).
- Tell them you support NO changes to the Sexual Discrimination Act.
- Thank the MP for taking the time to read your communication.
In essence—aim to summarise the content of these two paragraphs, in your own words, into one articulate paragraph.
Traditionally, a religious school is set up and funded (with the assistance of funding by State and Federal Governments) by members of a particular religion, to provide education for children in accordance with their beliefs, whether it be a Christian school, Muslim school, Jewish school, or one from another religious tradition. As a consequence, a religious community takes very seriously the content and quality of the teaching of their faith by the school. Those teachings are, without exception, well documented and not secret in any way. The consequence is very clear to anyone who enrols a child in the school and any person who seeks to become a teacher at that school.
Religious beliefs are to be taught and lived out in everyday life. There must be a consistency between what is taught in the classroom and what is ‘lived’ by example. A member of staff who displays inconsistency undermines the ethos and mission of the school; after all, nothing undermines the credibility of teaching more than a person who does not attempt to ‘practice as they preach.’ A student club that advocates during school hours or on school property against the views of the religious tradition would similarly undermine the ethos and mission of the school. Religious belief is holistic — in the sense that words and actions of an individual must be uniformly consistent. There cannot be exceptions to this principle.
