Bruce Devereaux refutes rumour he worships devil

A regional Qld councillor who advocated for a more inclusive approach to the ‘prayers’ that kick start Gympie council meetings has hit back at those circulating the rumour he worships the devil.

Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux says he has been the subject of rumours among sections of the community that he is a devil worshipper, simply because he supported another councillors move to make the council's morning prayer more inclusive.

Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux says he has been the subject of rumours among sections of the community that he is a Satanist, simply because he supported another councillor’s move to make the prayer the precedes general council meetings more inclusive.

This is his Letter to the Editor addressing the issue:

“I heard you’ve found religion, buddy,” a mate of mine said. I could hear the grin over the phone.

I assured him I have not while I waited for the punchline.

I did once when I was in high school but I lost my faith in religion shortly after, and my faith in faith incrementally after that.

Perhaps oddly, I still like Jesus though. At least the version of him I’ve built up in my head. From my readings of the Bible I reckon he was a decent dude who, to use a more modern phrase, put people ahead of profit.

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There’s the gossip people tell me about when it drops on their lap like a gift from a passing pelican.

Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux.

Like that I hate horses.

Actually, with this one I have a fairly good idea where it stems from. You see, since before the election I’ve been fairly vocal around the traps with my opinion our showgrounds aren‘t being used to their full potential for festivals and events because a handful of horses use the track daily to train. My feelings are the facility should be for the broader community rather than a few trainers.

Doesn’t mean I am against Race Days, or indeed horses. It just means I would prefer 50,000 residents were able to use our main public regional facility more often with less hassle.

When I put my hand up for the role of local councillor I was warned it’s fairly thankless.

“No matter what decision you make you’ll always upset at least 10% of the population,” a friend with some experience in politicking told me when they learned I wanted to experience this bizarre beast called ‘local government’.

I can expand on that and add in my experience it’s usually the most vocal 10%.

Gympie Regional Councillors (clockwise from left) Bruce Devereaux, Warren Polley, Town Hall, Mayor Glen Hartwig, Bob Fredman, Jess Milne, Deputy Mayor Hilary Smerdon, Dan Stewart, Shane Waldock and Dolly Jensen.

But I figured I had some experience with upsetting people, coming as I did from the world of social media influencing where you’re a chew toy for every limp whippet bare knuckling a keyboard.

In the decade I‘ve had writing up my family’s more amusing exploits I’ve been set upon for being a drain on public funds, for being a bad parent and for mentioning the sudden increase in canoodling opportunities in a post following my wife unexpectedly not dying following a 20-day roller coaster of an induced coma which left the whole family a little emotionally jittery.

But I admit, even with the thick, callus-like skin social media has caused there have been more than a handful of jaw dropping instances which have shocked me and been difficult to laugh off.

Such as when my youngest daughter told me the man in the car who just shot past us going the other way was giving us the bird.

Probably serves me right for having my name in big, beautiful letters on the windscreen, but still....my kids didn’t volunteer for this so it bites pretty hard on the ol’ daddy feels, especially when in 18 months traveling the east coast of Australia we’d been welcomed time and again by readers of our Big Family Little Income blog who were just happy to finally meet us.

Thing is, there hasn’t been a month go by when I haven’t had a call from a friend asking me if I was okay because they’d heard one thing or another which seemed a bit out of whack with the me they know and, I wanna say, love.

So while I’d be the first to acknowledge this week’s revelation wasn’t an isolated event by any means it sure did create more guffawing than anything I’ve previously had to unsplain.

Gympie Regional councillors Dan Stewart and Bruce Devereaux.

But again, I know where this particular nugget of gossip has its roots.

Following a news article in The Gympie Times about councillor Stewart’s position on the prayer in Ordinary Meetings and ways Council might look to make this item more inclusive I made known my own thoughts online, which is basically founded in the same philosophy I had as an Anglican in high school: religion has no place in government unless you want to end up like Iran with actual Morality Police (‘Gasht-e-Ershad,“ which translates as ”guidance patrols”).

One of the people who commented back at my chat was part of a group from down the Sunshine Coast and when this person wrote of looking forward to being invited to speak in a meeting I, instead of chasing them off with a verbal broom, suggested they contact their own Council.

Because – and this is something I usually try keep fairly close to my chest - I’m really rather nice.

I wouldn’t, for example, make up the following about someone even if I had a good reason to dislike them: Like if they were advocating to increase the tax on beer to fund snake farms.

“I have it on the highest authority you’ve converted,” my mate continued, telling me his minister neighbour ,of all people, had let the cat out of the bag. “Apparently,” he went on, “word going around some local ministries is you’re now a member of the Church of Satan.”

As punchlines go this wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard but it sure did make me laugh.

I feel there’s evidence enough for Jesus being an actual person but I’m not sure I even believed in Satan when I was a Christian, so if I was this really would be an act of God.

Here’s my official line on religion so everyone has it straight from the horse’s mouth: I am not a fan of religious institutions but I have no issue with the people who preach or attend services, nor more generally with people believing whatever they like so long as they don’t try to force their beliefs or their belief’s beliefs on others.

Furthermore, I am a fan of people who do good by other people, and that’s regardless of their faith position.

But also, and I can’t believe I have to type this, I am not, nor have I ever been, nor have I ever considered being, a Satanist.

Councillor Bruce Devereaux, Gympie Regional Council, Division 4