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Racial and Religious Vilification

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good - except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, DO NOT GIVE FALSE TESTIMONY, honour your father and mother.'" Luke 18:18-20

"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make a man 'unclean'. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, FALSE TESTIMONY, SLANDER. These are what make a man 'unclean'." Matthew 15:16-20

The Justice and International Mission Unit is strongly opposed to acts of racial and religious vilification. Serious incidents of racial and religious hatred do happen in Australia, and in Victoria. However, news of these incidents is not well publicised and many incidents go unreported, often because victims feel powerless. Some specific examples are:

• Aboriginal Ministers in the Uniting Church have reported being the victims of racial hate mail;
• The Justice and International Mission Unit of the Victorian and Tasmanian Uniting Church has a flier that was being handed out in which the author both insulted Christianity and vilified Aboriginal people by claiming that Bible identifies whites as God's chosen race and that Aboriginal people are ungrateful dogs and swine that are looking for opportunities to kill white people;
• In 1998 a radio announcer in Australia referred to a sporting team as "all those filthy, dirty Maoris"

In 1998-1999 the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission registered 88 complaints of racial hatred and three cases of incitement to unlawful acts. Of the complaints registered 44 were not pursued, 21 were conciliated between the person making the complaint and the person accused of vilification and 17 were referred for hearing. In the same year, in those states that already have racial vilification legislation a further 26 cases of racial vilification were reported in NSW, four in Western Australia and 77 in South Australia. It is very difficult for those of us from western European background to understand the fear, intimidation and hurt racist verbal and written attacks can cause those from minority and marginalised groups within our society. As an example of religious vilification, a group operating in Australia vilifying both Christianity and Judaism is the Creativity Movement, which took over from the World Church of the Creator.

What you can do

The Justice and International Mission Unit is keen to keep track of any expressions of religious or racial hatred or vilification that occur within Victoria. While such incidents are rare in our community, they do happen and can cause significant distress and fear in people they are targeted at. The Unit is aware of at least one Uniting Church congregation in Victoria being invited to join a network seeking to vilify all non-Christian religions. If anyone within your congregation becomes aware of any such incident or comes across literature or material in the media expressing religious or racial hatred, please contact Mark Zirnsak, on (03) 9251 5265 or mark.zirnsak@victas.uca.org.au.

State Government Action

The Justice and International Mission Unit supported the introduction of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 that allows victims of racial and religious hatred ability to seek recourse. The legislation is aimed at a small minority in our society that believe they have the right to hurt others through expressions of racial and religious hatred. The legislation gives exemption for comments that are fair and accurate. Therefore the legislation only covers those that wish to 'bear false testimony' or commit slander against others on the basis of their race, nationality or faith.

As quoted above, Jesus calls on his followers not to give false testimony or engage in slander. In fact the Bible tells us many times not to give false testimony, to hate what is false (Ex 20:16; Ex 23:1; Dt 5:20; Ps 52:2-4; Ps 119:163; Pr 6:12-19; Pr 12:17-22; Pr 13:5; Pr 21:28; Pr 25:18; Pr 30:8; Mt 19:18; Mk 10:19; Eph 4:25) and not to support those that make false charges (Ex 23:7). Christians should not seek to advance faith in Christ through slander and falsehoods about other religions, for as Paul makes clear: Someone might argue "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" Why not say - as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say - "Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved. Romans 3:7-8