Is no one prepared to defend the right of the Vegetarian Society of Australia to expel members who advocate the eating of meat?

Dear Saltpetre,

Welcome back.

Lovely to see you posting again.

I get the impression that all this fuss about religion
is a storm in a teacup. I don't know of any private
schools that discriminate against teachers or students.
I'm not aware of any of them passing judgement on
sexual orientation or gender. I think that these
issues are unfortunately being politicised. However having
said that - I do believe that religious schools, because
they do receive government funding - should not be exempt
from following the same anti-discrimination laws as the
rest of our society. We are all supposed to be treated
equally under the law.

I guess we shall have to wait and see what the government
decides regarding this issue. And, we need to ask ourselves,
where will it stop if we allow religions to be exempted
and be allowed to discriminate. Will then professions and other
institutions be
allowed to discriminate against people because of their
sexual orientation and gender? Such as against
people in the police force, in the military, in our
defence forces, and so on. Will teachers and doctors, and even
our clergy, be allowed to be treated differently - because of
someone's beliefs?

Dear Foxy,

«I get the impression that all this fuss about religion is a storm in a teacup.»

The issue of sexual-orientation-based discrimination is a storm in a teacup, but the fuss about religion is not. The sexual-orientation thing is merely used as a test-case to see how far the religious can be pushed and persecuted.

«I do believe that religious schools, because they do receive government funding - should not be exempt»

And I do believe that all green tooth-fairies must be detained and tortured.

You see, just as there are no green tooth-fairies, there are no religious schools that receive government funding: isn't it written in the bible and in every other religion's scripture, "thou shalt not steal"? so if a school accepts such stolen funds from government, as all government money is essentially stolen, then it cannot be religious, even if it so claims!

Yuyutsu,

All Australians are free to follow any religion they
choose, so long as its practices do not break any
Australian laws. All Australians are equal under the
law. This means that nobody should be treated
differently from anybody else. This is not an attack
on religion as you infer. It is simply ensuring that all
people will be treated equally under the law.

Is Mise,

People in this country are
free to try and advocate for whatever cause
they like - be it religious or any other.
In our Parliamentary democracy Australians
participate in how the country is run and
how Australian society is represented. Through
regular elections and through open parliamentary
debate, governments are accountable to all
Australians. Elected parliamentarians are the
only bodies able to make our laws - therefore
anyone who wishes changes to be made - is
free to try to do so.

Foxy do you really think you would find a homosexual teaching in a Muslim school?