The tradition of Christian persecution seems to be making quite the comeback.
The World Watch List, an Open Doors’ annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution, soberly noted that some 365 million Christians were being subjected to what they termed “high levels of persecution and discrimination.”
That’s a decent uptick from the 340 million reported back in 2021, in case anyone’s counting.
Apparently, one in seven Christians globally finds themselves in hot water for their beliefs, with the odds soaring to one in five in Africa.
But what of Australia?
The Anti-Discrimination Bill
Speaking of government antics, the Labor lads have been busy, waving about the ARLC report (the Australian Law Reform Commission report, Maximising the Realisation of Human Rights: Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws) like a matador’s cape.This little dossier suggests that the antiquated privilege allowing private schools to turn away students and teachers based on their sexual preferences or gender identities should be chucked out with the rubbish.
It’s part of a broader plan to make good on election promises, with 11 changes on the table.
Without these, religious schools would still have the green light under federal law to dismiss gay teachers and expel transgender students, despite some states’ attempts to put a stop to these shenanigans.
Scott Morrison, our former prime minister, made a couple of valiant attempts in 2018 and 2022 to shield the faithful from such modern inconveniences. But that was thwarted by his own party members who fancied themselves champions of the LGBT teachers and students.
Senator Babet Sounds the Bugle
Then there’s Senator Ralph Babet, sounding the bugle that Christianity in Australia is under siege.From the digital ramparts of his X feed, he fires a volley: “I have an idea, if you don’t believe in the teachings of the Bible, don’t apply for a job at a Christian school.”
This, while Christian schools face the slings and arrows of government funding.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper published a financial saga showing the stark monetary divide: a young scholar at Knox, an Anglican school nestled on the opulent Upper North Shore of Sydney, is cushioned by a modest $1,243 annually from the state and a heartier $2,862 from the federal coffers.
His counterpart at the less hallowed halls of state school, North Sydney Boys High, is a more costly charge to the state at $13,170 and a federal contribution of $3,310.
And it’s not just the schools getting a battering. Christians themselves seem to be in the line of fire.
When Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed in a horrific attack in a Western Sydney Assyrian church, the NSW police commissioner promised swift justice—yet, according to Mr. Babet, there wasn’t a peep from the authorities when mobs were “yelling ‘where’s the jews,’ burning Israeli flags, and openly calling for genocide.”
It all comes in a year when Easter shared the stage with Trans Awareness Day in the United States and the usual bout of double demerit government funding.
