I read with interest, in the Saturday edition of the Herald-Sun newspaper, of the stifling of the right to Christian faith expression – at a private Christian school. Many Year 12 students have reported that teachers at the Methodist Ladies College demanded that Christian students who wear a Christian cross pendant or necklace remove it in case they cause offense to other students. Not hide them - remove them. Yes, you read correctly. A private, Christian school has admitted as much in a press release that that followed in response to the media reports. This is a Christian school – allegedly – and staff are worried that non-Christian students will be offended by a fellow Christian student wearing a cross. A triggering moment came recently when a non-Christian student complained to a teacher – in class - that a fellow student’s cross necklace offended her. The teacher promptly demanded the removal of the necklace. This has been verified by multiple eyewitnesses – it is no urban myth.
According to the Herald-Sun, one student reported:
“My friend was wearing a cross, and there was another girl in our class who said she found the cross really offensive, and so the teacher told her to take it off,” she said.
There are many other similar reports emerging. A group of Year 12 Christian students have called out the teachers and the school, but the school is sticking to its guns.
Yet, in this same Christian school, students are freely able to wear furry animal ears, (and tails!), as well as gay pride rainbow symbols from socks and badges to pendants. There is no objection to any of this from teachers.
The article raised several issues for me. Of course, the main one was that a fundamental freedom of religious expression - by all accounts quite innocuous - was being stifled. So, the school proudly advertises and promotes itself as Christian school, but students are not permitted to be, er, too Christian, as it may offend the non-Christian students whose parents have knowingly enrolled them in that same Christian school. So many comments and questions here! When is a Christian school actually a “Christian” school, and when is it not? When is a Christian school only using the name “Christian” to promote itself, yet has no real interest in Christian values? I’ll tell you when – when basic gospel values are thrown out the window in preference to worldly and anti-God values and demands.
The Herald-Sun reported that “the school has a strong policy on diversity and actively seeks to include and support gender-diverse and sexuality-diverse students.” The exception to all this “inclusion” seems to be Christians. So, there is no real inclusion at all, really.
It is no surprise that the Australian Christian Lobby has latched onto this story. I am glad they have. In their campaign against the State Labor Government’s proposed new anti-vilification laws, they have noted, among many other stifling strategies, that, “the wearing or display of clothing, signs, flags, emblems and insignia, observable by the public”, including on private property such as schools and workplaces, would amount to vilification if considered offensive by someone else. That wording – and more – is in the draft. Have a read of it (let me know if you want an overview paper prepared by the ACL).
This proposed anti-vilification draft legislation is an attack on free speech and freedom of religious expression. These MLC students were hardly carrying placards or wearing T-shirts emblazoned with hate speech. They were not ranting and raving in protest either. They were quietly going about their education as Christians. So, if a Christian school is going to start behaving like this – stifling even benign Christian expressions of faith because a non-Christian is offended – what will a socialist-left government put in place to allow the wokeists to perpetually complain about the offense of Christianity and the offense of the cross, until Christians are silenced on everything?
This is a far more serious matter than most realise, and we busy people need to make time to engage with this matter – and to pray for the legislation to be defeated. The MLC matter is just a warning flare and we need to see it as such. If this legislation gets through and becomes law, then just about anything can be targeted if ANYONE is offended – sermons, biblical views on ANYTHING, if someone is offended. Offense is the trigger!
Friends, we live in a world where the perpetually outraged are constantly looking for soft targets to exact some kind of revenge, satisfy some imagined right to moral reparations, or demand some “rebalancing” in our culture. They’re aggressively looking for ways to silence the voice of the Bible, to marginalise and even silence the witness of Christians – even in Christian work spaces and educational environments. If this legislation succeeds, it is just the beginning of a torrent of tweaks and adjustments to follow – none of which will enhance or increase freedom of speech or religious expression. It is Orwellian in its reach and intentions.
Why is this happening? Well, there are several reasons. The main one, I believe, is that Satan has many footholds in the highest levels of the bureaucratic, judicial and governmental systems of our nation. He has power and influence in many of the highest levels where public policy is shaped. And he is perpetually outraged that Christ has defeated him on the cross. Of course, he will incite someone, anyone not born again, to find offense with Jesus and especially with the Cross ...
The great preacher or the 20th century, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once preached on Galatians 6:14 and, here is some of what he said:
To the non-Christian, the cross is an offense. The preaching of the cross has always been offensive. If preaching of the cross does not offend, it is not being preached properly.
The cross offends the mind because it cuts across human ideas and philosophies. It says we are not saved by human wisdom or understanding.
The cross offends human pride because it says all people are sinners, all people are equally sinful, and all people are helpless to save themselves. This contradicts human belief in self.
The cross offends the human will because it says human will and effort cannot save. Salvation is by grace alone.
And so, it is no wonder that the unregenerate mind is offended by the cross of Christ! Satan is the source of all such offense. But Christians? We glory in the cross of Christ. We do not merely believe in it, or accept it intellectually. No, we glory in it because we know what Christ did with it. It is everything to us. Nothing compares to the importance of it. Christ shed His blood on it. God made atonement with it, and because of that, for the Christian, the old has gone and the new has come!
1 Corinthians 1:21-31 (NIV)
“23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. … 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before Him.”
Think on these things and pray for the defeat of this new anti-vilification legislation.
Ps Milton
[Sources: ACL newsletter Oct. 21st, 2024; Herald-Sun newspaper, Oct. 19th 2024; “The Sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones”, MLJ Trust Audio-Library]