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Too many church goes in parliament? |
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Written by fiona patten
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Saturday, 03 October 2009 13:37 |
Recently we had a small gathering of Sex Party members and supporters in Perth. Some great ideas came out of the event and it was refreshing to meet members who were so very positive about sex and about the aims of the party. Although I imagine that pretty much describes all of our members.
The strongest issue that came out the evening was the increasing wowserism being displayed by our politicians today and the need to, in Rudd's words, ' get the balance right'.
Nearly 50% of politicians are members of the Parliamentary Christian fellowship. This means that they attend church once a week and take their Christianity pretty seriously. Rudd is an active member of this group and
Less than 10% of Australians do the same. How does such an imbalance occur?
We need to address this imbalance. I am certainly not Christian-bashing. I am very happy for people to believe whatever they wish but to allow me the same courtesy. But christian politicians seem determined to get their moral views on sex, relationships and gender roles enshrined in legislation and they are doing a pretty good job.
There is no doubt that the Christian lobby is becoming stronger, even though they represent less and less of us. And it is a very conservative version of religion that our politicians are now pandering to. Kevin Rudd speaks at the Australian Christian Lobby's National Conference, Peter Costello makes videos for Pastor Danny’s Catch the Fire Ministries (this is the guy who thinks witches have put a spell on Federal Parliament) and don’t even get me started on the funding for the Exclusive Brethren or the appearances at Hillsong!
Over the many years of lobbying for sensible law reform on censorship or the sex industry I have met with hundreds of politicians and so many of them have said to me, “Fiona, I agree with you - the law should be changed and there is nothing wrong with adults accessing sexual material or services but…. I hold my seat by 5% and if I support you the local church will campaign against me and I might lose my seat. If I do nothing your supporters will still be able to access whatever they like but it will just still have to be illegal.”
Well it’s time we spoke out for sex.
We need to bring some balance back to Parliament and ensure that the majority of Australians who enjoy sex are represented.
PS. At the Perth meeting the reluctance of politicians to discuss anything sexual was highlighted by the passionate Kath Mazzella who is trying to get support for Gynie day ( a day to celebrate healthy sexual organs) and vulvas in general. She has been asked by government funding agencies to tone down her 'vocabulary'. Apparently vulva is pornographic but labia and vagina are not.
Come on!!!!!! We're heading back to an era where people put skirts on piano legs.
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