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Religious Freedoms at the Crossroads

by | Mon, Jul 1 2019

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Religious freedoms online

Intolerance of Christians appears to be slowly creeping into many of our Australian institutions. Christian leaders and lawyers are feeling the pinch, recognising that Faith is being pushed out of public life. When they set up a conference to discuss the increasing threat to religious freedom, Facebook proved their point by banning promotion of the event.

“When this conference was announced,” said keynote speaker Professor William Wagner, “Facebook thought that the idea of freedom of expression, how ironic, was so dangerous that its constituents ought not to be able to hear about it. And so the message was suppressed.”

[audio src="https://getmediapoint.com/document/episode/podcast/MDAwMTQ4NjQ4MS5tcDM.mp3" /]

In another ironic twist, the controversy caused by Facebook’s action gave the conference so much publicity that it sold out as a result. Talking to Neil Johnson on Vision Radio’s 20Twenty program Professor Wagner said that threatening to rob a group of lawyers of their constitutional rights was a bit like poking a bear.

The conference, whose patron was no less than our former Prime Minister, John Howard, gathered some of our brightest legal minds to discuss the rise of anti-Christian sentiment in the West. Why lawyers? Can they really make a difference? History says yes.

Wagner pointed out the example of William Wilberforce, who spent most of his life fighting to end the slave trade. He believes Wilberforce was successful partly because he was able to reveal to people how brutal and unfair this practice was. “He was able to get them to see that atrocity in a truthful light,” he said.

“And that is one of the things that lawyers are trained to do. We’re trained to speak truth, and present facts, in a way that are most understandable for the audience that we’re speaking those facts to.”

Professor Wagner says there’s never been a more important time to be a Christian lawyer. He feels we’re living in a similar climate to the author of the Epistle of Jude. He began by saying he wished he could write to his readers about the joy of their shared salvation. “But I found it necessary to instead appeal to you to contend earnestly for the Faith, contend earnestly for the Truth in the Word.”

Professor Wagner says that though it’s difficult work, it’s more important than ever that we defend our faith. “I think that’s what lawyers and Pastors increasingly are being called to do, given the exercise of power and authority suppressing their ability to do that.”

Professor Wagner feels religious freedom should matter to all Australians, whether they’re Christian or not. He explained that the Rule of Law, which is one of the foundations of any free democracy, is based on Christian principles. As Christians, we understand it very well, because God puts his laws onto our heart, and shows us that they’re true.

“For example, when I speak to university students, they know that if they look on their fellow students’ paper, and steal their answers, that that is wrong. They don’t have to go to the student policy manual to find out whether that activity is wrong.”

Wagner says that to maintain the Rule of Law, a government must have limitations on its ability to interfere with its citizens’ freedoms of expression and conscience. Throughout history, whenever a government has limited its peoples’ speech, the result has been tyranny.

“If you take away that moral compass that is the Rule of Law, that tells a government official that what they’re doing is right or wrong, or good or bad, or true or not true, then the person holding power sets that standard. And that standard is never a standard. It’s always a moving target.”

In his guest appearance on Vision’s 20Twenty, Professor Wagner told us that attempts to suppress religious ideas are increasing exponentially, not just in Australia, but globally. Listen to the audio below for more on the threat to our religious freedom, and what else our society would have lost without its Christian foundations.

[audio src="https://getmediapoint.com/document/episode/podcast/MDAwMTQ4NjQ4MS5tcDM.mp3" /]

Tune into 20Twenty and join the conversation with Neil Johnson, weekdays on Vision Christian Radio. Click here for your local times.

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