“Legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others, but it does mean no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my league.”
With the words of Thomas Jefferson, Dr Keith Thompson, Associate Dean of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, launched the institution’s annual Religious Liberty Lecture and Conference held over 11 and 12 September, an event which seeks to provide practical suggestions on how to better the lives of all religious peoples in Australia.
According to Dr Thompson, constitutional guarantees for religious liberty and freedom in the Western can only do so much to protect religious communities.
“Constitutional provisions does not protect unsocial or subversive actions towards a religious community, or within the community itself,” he said.
“Consequently, the liberty and freedom guaranteed and protected by the Constitution is subject to limitations which the courts of law must expound to religious communities… who, according to some lawmakers, can look after themselves.”
Dr Thompson also questioned whether Western countries were well versed in human rights analysis to legally assist religious communities in pursuing religious liberty and, therefore, human flourishing.
“Should the moral qualms of the majority or legislature be enforceable against minorities, even if they do not ‘pick my pocket or break my league’ as Thomas Jefferson alluded?” he asked.
“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Liberty holds that such governmental regulation is legal only if it protects the public safety, health and morals, and the rights and freedoms of others. To emphasise, what we believe and think cannot be regulated by law under modern human rights instruments.”
In a first for the Conference, the university also awarded its inaugural Interfaith Dialogue to Rev Dr Patrick McInerney, Director of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, for his work is furthering ecumenism at both a local and global scale.
Rev McInerney said anyone willing to bolster interfaith relations need only follow five steps to bring conversation to the table.
“Interfaith dialogue can be summarised in ‘five ups’: to show up, to front up, to face up, to shut up and to speak up,” he said.
“Dialogue is often understood to be two people talking, but if there’s no listening, then there is definitely no talking. And in today’s world, listening is especially important.
“The only way to overcome polarisation is to listen deeply, absorb what the other person is saying and then speak up, because when we are in conflict, we remain paralysed and deafeningly silent.”
In a seminar the next day, Emeritus Professor Michael Quinlan, speaking on the schism between legislature and ‘faith and reason’, expressed concerns surrounding Australian state legislation regarding anti-discrimination, voluntary assisted dying and surrogacy, particularly over its tendency to dismiss natural law for a more politically scientific framework.
“What the law is has been increasingly important because as religiosity and respect for tradition have waned in the West, more people have looked to the law, justly or unjustly composed, as the boundaries of moral behaviour,” he said.
“This disconnect has become evident across Australia. In New South Wales, the government is looking to remove or reduce the current protections for religious schools and universities. The Northern Territory is looking to join the rest of Australian in the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying. And while commercial surrogacy is illegal, no-one has been prosecuted in Australia for the practice despite legitimate and known concerns about the industry.
“These sorts of conundrums do provide an opportunity to expose the irrational nature of laws in Australia, and makes it clear that we should activate our Christian needs to affect change in one’s country.”
