Editorial: Church has every right to be heard

Enough is enough, cried thousands of biblical fundamentalists marching to Parliament on Monday. Their chant was an echo of another Christian march, one organised by the mainstream churches some years ago against what they saw as the social cruelty of market economics. There was nothing new in the religious political action of Auckland pastor Brian Tamaki and his Destiny Church this week, for all the fear and loathing it aroused in liberal discussion.

Adherence to the separation of church and state rather depends on the issue. When Christian clerics organised their "hikoi of hope", members of the National Government were all for the separation principle but hardly a murmur was heard from the left. Now that a church is campaigning against what it sees as the moral decadence of liberal legislation, the conservative parties are quiet and the left is seeing demons where probably none exist.

They note that the march included children who were chanting intolerant slogans about things children would not understand, and that the men were in uniform black shirts. But children are often to be seen accompanying parents in causes they would not understand. And it takes a fevered imagination to read anything more sinister in the black shirts than national symbolism, like the haka the wearers performed. Nobody need be sidetracked by implications that, were they real, this unsophisticated church probably could not conceal. Nothing it has said or done gives reason to suspect that its intentions are other than law-abiding and democratic.

If the utterances of the church ever cease to be lawful it will most likely be the law that has changed, not the church. Organisations such as this pose a challenge to a liberal society because they insist on expressing views that society is becoming less willing to tolerate. The chants and placards on the streets of Wellington this week were hurtful, particularly to homosexuals, since the Civil Union Bill was the immediate target of the protest.

Fundamentalists say, as indeed do some mainstream churches, that they bear no ill will to homosexuals as people, only to homosexual behaviour. That is, of course, no consolation to the people concerned; sexuality is as ingrained as people's nationality, ethnicity or religious heritage if they have one. This country has a law against racist speech, defined as speech that is intended to incite hostility or ill will or bring into ridicule or contempt any group of persons on grounds of colour, race, ethnicity or national origins. Should it be similarly unlawful to speak ill of a group on grounds of sexual orientation? There is said to be sympathy in the Government for some general law against "hate speech". The day that racist speech was outlawed freedom of expression was put on the slippery slope.

The sentiments heard from Pastor Tamaki and his followers are not the sort that can or should be suppressed by law. There is a question of religious freedom to be considered. People who believe, quite genuinely, that certain behaviour is proscribed by biblical injunctions are not likely to be dissuaded by an act of Parliament. They may be impervious to reason and common humanity, too, but those are the only instruments available.

Law should not interfere with any freedom without very good reason. There is obviously good reason to criminally punish speech that seriously threatens or incites death or physical injury to an individual or members of a group. But when the threat is to personal pride and reputation, the criminal law does not normally apply. Individuals and companies whose reputation is wrongly damaged have remedies in civil law and racial groups have ultimate recourse to human rights adjudication, though it has been of dubious value.

Anti-discrimination laws are more effective as social statements than as punitive instruments. The victims of primitive religious belief have as much social support as they probably need. Let the likes of the Destiny Church speak freely and it will be dismissed by the majority as the oddity it is.