Same-sex marriage: Totalitarian tolerance

QANTAS’ Alan Joyce is doing a good impersonation of a dictator, demanding that corporate Australia promote same-sex marriage, says Miranda Devine.

This family of Syrian refugees are part of the 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Greek island Lesbos.

ALAN Joyce, the charming Irish-born Qantas boss, is doing a pretty good impersonation of an authoritarian dictator with his demands that corporate Australia promote same-sex marriage. Or else.

And if the public isn’t happy about this militant politicisation of Australian business, too bad.

“If you’re unhappy with a company that’s involved with the campaign you won’t be able to bank and you won’t be able to fly anywhere,” Joyce told the gay and lesbian newspaper the Star Observer.

So much for diversity. Inclusiveness and tolerance is compulsory in this brave new world of “Marriage Equality”. That is unless you ­believe in traditional marriage, the kind between a man and a woman, the kind that has always existed in every civilisation, until now.

Then you’re a bigot, a homophobe, a non-human who ­deserves nothing but the cruellest excommunication.

So, whether it’s Qantas or Virgin you want to fly with, whether it’s Westpac, or the Commonwealth Bank, or Bankwest, or St George, or ANZ you bank with, whether it’s Telstra or Optus’s brand on your phone, no dissent is allowed. Everyone has to be seen to be marching merrily in lock-step towards the mandated redefinition of our foundational social institution.

Or else.

Just look at what happened to Telstra this week, monstered by the tolerance police into a humiliating backflip on its minor concession to the Catholic Church that it would tone down its campaign promoting same sex marriage, out of consideration for one of its biggest customers.

The Archdiocese of Sydney’s business manager Michael Digges had written a letter to Telstra and other companies which do business with the church after their logos were used in a Marriage Equality advertising campaign last year.

Same-sex marriage is the easiest virtue signaller we’ve ever seen, says Miranda Devine.

The letter expressed Archbishop Anthony Fisher’s “deep disappointment” at their public advocacy for the redefinition of marriage and pointed out that the Archdiocese’s “business partners” and suppliers had signed up to an agreement that “an appreciation of Catholic values and the conduct of business which is consistent with the moral and social teaching of the Catholic Church would be upheld”.

There was no threat, just a firm reminder of legitimate views in the community other than those being pushed by the same-sex marriage lobby. Telstra responded with a private assurance that, while it would not remove its logo from the Marriage Equality ads, it would not “add further to the debate on marriage equality” before the plebiscite, as CEO Andy Penn put it.

But the minute Telstra’s undertaking was leaked to the media, Penn buckled under the ensuing vicious firestorm of criticism.

“Rather than Telstra stepping back we should in fact step forward and support our view for marriage equality and so that is what we will do,” Penn said this week, looking even more like a hostage under duress than Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Other companies watched Telstra’s crucifixion and learned the lesson.

Many company boards had no idea their executives had signed up with the Marriage Equality lobby last year. By the time directors found out, it was too late.

This is just one example of the totalitarian overreach of the same sex marriage lobby. Everywhere, there are signs of a frightening and escalating intolerance before the plebiscite which will put the issue to rest (if it is conducted fairly).

One small sign of intolerance was the catcalls of “good” from Labor benches this week when the Senate president acknowledged the resignation of Labor stalwart Senator Joe Bullock, a politician of integrity who could no longer ­belong to a party that would not allow him a conscience vote.

The direction Labor is heading was even clearer in Bill Shorten’s pledge at a Guardian Australia same-sex marriage event last month to oppose any protections for freedom of conscience.

Asked about the baker who mightn’t want to sell a cake for a gay wedding, Shorten said there would be no religious freedom under Labor: “We don’t need to water down anti-discrimination law to keep some people) same-sex marriage opponents) happy.”

Going by the overseas experience, people have been prosecuted and lost their jobs for failing to conform. Even using the terms “husband and wife” or “mother and father” are punished as a form of bigotry. But the establishment has nailed its colours to the mast, from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ bogus report claiming a wildly inflated cost for the upcoming plebiscite, to Facebook’s censorship of views ­opposing same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage is the easiest virtue signaller we’ve ever seen. ­Attach a rainbow to your company logo and you can pose as a modern and progressive brand, with the added bonus of being protected from “pink-mail” attempts to force you to conform. But the vicious punishment of dissenters shows you how fragile is the facade of ­enlightened social consensus.

WHO CARES FOR CHRISTIAN REFUGEES?

POPE Francis says it was just a humanitarian “gesture” to invite three Syrian refugee families to live in the Vatican after he visited a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week.

But all three families are Muslim. Not one of the 12 refugees he plucked out of the camp was a Christian.

Compassion and ecumenical outreach are commendable. But how must the Pope’s gesture look to all the Christian families fleeing persecution in Syria, and abandoned by the world. How do they feel about being ignored by the head of the Catholic Church, not worthy of being included even in a “gesture”.

“I didn’t make a choice between Christians and Muslims” the Pope told reporters when questioned about the odd. “I gave priority to children of God.”

That’s all very well, but it’s the Pope’s own flock who are most at risk in the Islamist horrors which have engulfed the Middle East.

This family of Syrian refugees are part of the 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Greek island Lesbos.

How does Pope Francis’ decision to invite the Muslim refugees to the Vatican look to Christians?

Adding insult to injury was a statement saying the Vatican had contemplated inviting two Christian families but their papers weren’t in order.

Christians are the most persecuted people on earth. Driven out of their homes in Syria, they can’t even live in refugee camps because they are bullied, harassed and assaulted by Muslim bigots. That’s why their papers aren’t in order.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Woelki, warned earlier this year that Christians are even under threat in German refugee camps.

Protestant pastor Gottfried Martens said Christians are so unsafe in German refugee accommodation they should be housed separately from Muslims. Christians had been assaulted, and had crosses removed, were forced to watch videos of beheadings, and banned from kitchens because they were “unclean”.

In the Middle East, only about ten per cent of refugees live in camps and most are Muslim. At the UN’s Zaatari camp in Jordan, housing 83,000 refugees, there are mosques but no church.

“It is increasingly clear that because Christians fear that the persecution and genocide will continue in these refugee camps, they often don’t enter them, and as a result find it nearly impossible to qualify for resettlement as refugees,” said Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus.

“Christians are afraid to live in the camps,” says Father Andrzej Halemba of Aid to the Church in Need.

That might explain why the Vatican couldn’t find any Christian refugees to invite to Rome. But it doesn’t excuse a tragic oversight that tells the world Christians don’t matter.