Quote:
Originally Posted by Seshat
I've tried to call them on it, but they can't seem to understand how it's the same as me blaming them, personally, for what the 'Reverend' Fred Nile, a nominally-Christian Australian politician, chooses to do.
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For those who have no idea about the shit he's pulled, here's a list culled from Wiki (some good, some bad):
-Believe homosexuality is a choice, but hates people who physically attack homosexuals. Instead he's happy for them to open their mouth and verbally abuse homosexuals.
-Very much against the Sydney LGBT Mardi Gras.
-Tried to have the anti-vilification laws repealed, claiming that they should apply to all citizens or none.
-Has labelled the Greens (environmental political party that is slowly gaining more clout) as pagans. (primarily due to their pro gay-marriage leaning)
-Tried to ban Muslim immigration to Australia, wanting more Christians to arrive. (he believed that they were favouring Muslims over Christians)
-Tried to ban any full-face covering. While Cory Bernardi is more known for this in Aussieland, Fred's reasons are purely anti-Muslim, whereas Cory's were more for legal reasons (at this stage, I do believe that Muslim women can ask for a female photographer for their licence photos and will remove their face covering for that).
-When a particular sheik stated that women were at fault for sexual assault, he tried to have the guy removed. (now this one I can actually agree with and is the only one I agree with)
-Openly opposed to neo-pagans and tried to ban their activities and weddings (which won't get very far)
-Tried to ban ethics courses. Ok this one reqiures an explanation. Basically in public schools in a couple of states, there are "comparative religion" classes, which most of the time are just sanitized Christianity lectures. (I could be wrong on this, as these classes are not taught in my state THANK GOD) These classes are PURELY opt-out, but a few times, there have been noted examples where the opt-out children have been dragged along, made to sit in the principal's office or aren't given anything actually worthwhile to do in the meantime. The state where Nile resides introduced ethics courses as an alternative.
Funnily enough, while he managed to get a parliamentary inquiry going, he then claimed that said classes were linked to Nazism and communism.
The party that he is a member of can basically be likened to Family First (another party with religious ties) on steroids*. They've managed to make themselves look like idiots though by claiming that all the major and minor parties are against them (a microparty)**.
*-unlike the CDP, while Family First do have pentecostal ties, some of their policies do take into account that not everybody is Christian and their focuses are more or less based on ensuring that families get what they need. Despite this, they are anti-euthenasia, anti-abortion, anti-surrogacy and anti-same sex marriage/parenting. They have no problem with homosexuality or homosexual actions in themselves, they want to provide programs for unskilled and underskilled people to get up to speed job-wise and want to help with public housing.
**-the major parties in Aussieland are the Liberal and Labor party. A minor party will run candidates in most states and/or electoral districts, but doesn't always get a ton of seats. A microparty on the other hand, will usually only field 1 or 2 candidates in particular districts.