Archbishop of Sydney

Religious Vilification

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
3 July 2005

Relations between the Christian denominations in New South Wales are good.  The murderous violence that used to take place in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics is light years away from us.  So too relations between Christians, Jews and Muslims are friendly, despite September 11 and the Bali bombing.  I continue to be personally committed to encouraging peace and friendship in our wider community.

For all these reasons I welcome the decision of the Premier, Bob Carr not to support a proposed law against religious vilification.  Such a law would undermine the freedom it seeks to protect, would be counterproductive and end up curtailing free speech as well as deepening the rifts between different religious groups.

Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria do have laws against religious vilification and as archbishop of Melbourne I unsuccessfully opposed this 2001 legislation in Victoria.

South Australia and Western Australia dropped plans for such laws, because, as the S.A. Attorney General explained, most of the groups involved were opposed to the legislation.

Australia is a tolerant and pluralist democracy, with essential traditions of free speech and robust debate, as well as a separation of church and state.  Laws should not attempt to enforce politeness, not prevent people from being offended nor outlaw silliness and exaggeration.  Ethno-religious groups such as Jews, Muslims and Sikhs are already protected by the N.S.W. 1989 Anti-Discrimination Racial Vilification Act.

Many people in Victoria predicted that the religious vilification legislation proposed there would be abused by attempts to curb religious freedom and provoke situations which the law is ill equipped to solve.  Already one case in Victoria has run for months, dissatisfied all participants and could finish up in the High Court.

There are other equally unfortunate examples.  In March this year a convicted sex-offender serving a ten year sentence, who was also a witch, complained to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal against a Salvation Army course at the jail which criticised witchcraft!

Judges find it very difficult to define “religion”.  Are witchcraft and Satanism religions?  Should they be protected from criticism?

In a society like ours which values free speech, atheists have a right to criticise religion.  We take it for granted that unpopular Christian views on forgiveness or social justice or sexual morality will be criticised.  But all secularists and religions have a right to announce controversial teachings publicly, within the law.

The executive director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee believes in the right to teach publicly that all religious paths other than his lead to hell.  Other believers and non-believers must be free to state publicly that such a claim is evidence of injustice and mistaken beliefs.

In a mature democracy we agree to differ, to maintain our different views in peace and courtesy.  Being part of Australian life means you can criticise and will be criticised, sometimes unfairly.  That is one reason why we manage to live together in peace.