Freedom For Faith provides thoughtful lobbying on issues – that, as its name implies, concern religious freedom. Here FFF Executive Director Mike Southon takes us through their current agenda.
The three main issues on our agenda at the moment are conversion therapy in NSW, the Australian Law Reform Commission’s attack on of faith-based schools being able to employ based on faith, and the continued lack of a religious discrimination act Federally and in NSW.
About Freedom for Faith
Freedom for Faith is a Christian legal thinktank that advocates for religious freedom for all people, and works to resource and mobilise churches and other faith groups to advocate effectively. The days are gone when an Archbishop or other faith leader can meet with a Prime Minister and advocate for their members. We need to demonstrate the breadth and depth of concern on issues of religious freedom by equipping members of all faith communities to communicate with their MPs and advocate for their rights.
Freedom for Faith has a particular focus on collaborating with and resourcing church denominations and other faith groups, to give them the support and resources they need to advocate for religious freedom, and to mobilise their members to do so. Religious freedom is everyone’s right and everyone’s responsibility, so we want to help everyone speak out.
Conversion Therapy
For general info on conversion therapy, the website is the best source:
Conversion Therapy – Our Requests – ContactYourMP
Conversion Therapy in Victoria – ContactYourMP
For specific about our approach:
To assist all Christians to speak out about this issue, Freedom for Faith has launched a website with resources to help them write to, call and meet with their local MP on this issue. The site is designed to make it as easy as possible to contact your MP, including MP search and contact details, talking points, sample letters, hand-outs to give your MP, and a step-by-step guide to organising a meeting.
The summary and requests underlying this website have been endorsed by a wide range of faith groups including the Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Sydney Anglicans, Australian Christian Churches, Hillsong, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Australian National Imams Council, and the Hindu Council of Australia.
Schools and the ALRC
We continue to wait for the final report from the Australian Law Reform Commission about faith-based schools’ exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act in order to be able to operate in accordance with their faith and prefer to employ teachers who uphold and live out that faith. The draft report recommended significantly undermining this freedom, and we wait to see if the Commission has taken on our strong objections and feedback.
More details: https://freedomforfaith.org.au/alrc/
We have also developed a website to help churches meet with their MP on this issue.
Religious Discrimination Act
This legislation highlights the lack of any protection for people of faith and of religious freedom. Religious freedom is one of the fundamental human rights defined in the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights – one of the foundational international treaties on human rights.
However, neither the Federal nor NSW Governments have a Religious Discrimination Act, preventing people of faith from being discriminated against because of believing, speaking or living out their faith. As other discrimination laws expand and encroach on religious institutions, there is no mechanism to balance competing rights, so religious freedom continually suffers.
More information: https://freedomforfaith.org.au/rdb/
Conference
It is in light of these kinds of threats to religious freedom that Freedom for Faith has launched its annual conference FREEDOM23, held on November 6th at Village Church Annandale (Sydney) as well as live streamed. The conference is particularly designed for church leaders and those working in Christian organisations. Freedom for Faith hopes that the conference will:
inform you about the current threats to religious freedom and their effects on families, churches and faith organisations, equip you to be ready for what lies ahead, and to advocate for religious freedom now, and encourage you in the knowledge that together, our voices can be heard.
While the window for advocating on the conversion therapy legislation will have closed by November, the conference will provide an up-to-date report on the state of religious freedom in Australia and ask the question: “Where to from here?”