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Christians withdraw from debate in response to gay activists

8:39pm Monday, 18th July 2011

A debate on gay marriage organised by the University of Tasmania will no longer take place, following the withdrawal of the pro-traditional marriage team. Tasmanian Liberal MP Michael Ferguson and the Australian Family Association’s Terri Kelleher were joined by the Australian Christian Lobby’s Jim Wallace in withdrawing from the debate, protesting the increasing use of ‘demonisation’ techniques by gay activists.

In a joint statement, the three team members said that “given the record of some gay activists and their supporters in the public debate on this issue” they had no confidence that a ‘civil environment’ for the debate would be in evidence. They believe that such a debate requires an environment in which competing views and mutually respected reasonable opinions could be aired, “free of personal attack and vitriol.”

They made reference to the attempts to slur Michael Ferguson, when he was accused of being ‘partly responsible’ for the bashing of a gay man simply because he had been a member of a family values group some eight years previous.

The statement, read by Mr Wallace, referred to this incident as “increasingly typical of the tactics being used by the gay rights lobby and their media.” Mr Wallace also drew attention to a recent article in the Sydney Star Observer which “described the Australian Christian Lobby and the Australian Family Association, who Terri and I represent, as ’gay hate’ groups”.

Despite the withdrawal of the pro-marriage team from the UTAS debate, they still believe that the attempted revision of marriage deserves a full debate. “Marriage as the union of a man and a woman, as the embodiment of motherhood and fatherhood with all their important implications for children, is deeply valued as that by many people for both cultural and faith reasons. This is the definition of marriage, and for many these concepts are precious, even sacred, and people with those views should be free in this society to raise them in the public square without intimidation.”