Ex-Essendon CEO Andrew Thorburn isn’t a victim, he made a choice

Ex-Essendon CEO Andrew Thorburn has called his exit “troubling” but there’s something more worrying going on.

City on a Hill founder and pastor Guy Mason speaks with Andrew Thorburn, who quit as Essendon CEO after one day over his links with the church. Picture: YouTube

OPINION

This week, new Essendon Football Club chief executive Andrew Thorburn lasted less than 24 hours in his job. He resigned after criticism mounted about his role as the chairman of City on a Hill church.

Mr Thorburn made a choice. He wasn’t sacked, he chose to step down. He could have left his role at City on a Hill but instead he chose to leave Essendon.

“It is troubling that faith or association with a church, mosque, synagogue or temple could render a person immediately unsuited to holding a particular role,” Mr Thorburn said in a statement on Wednesday.

Andrew Thorburn was less than 24 hours in his new role at Essendon.

Much is now being said about freedom of religion in Australia and whether it’s at risk, but many people are missing the point. Mr Thorburn wanted to be in two senior roles that directly conflicted with each other.

Mr Thorburn made a choice about what was most important to him and he chose the church over a club.

I was brought up Catholic. I attended church each week and was made to go to confession to repent my sins before I even knew right from wrong.

But as soon as I became old enough to understand that the Catholic Church did not align with my views, I left it behind.

How could I have gay friends and attend a church that saw their love as sinful? How could I fight for women’s rights while also supporting an institution that condemns contraception and abortion?

I made a choice that I couldn’t have both – I couldn’t be Catholic and claim to be a friend to gay people or a feminist.

And that’s exactly what Mr Thorburn had to do this week – decide what was most important to him.

Sermons from City on a Hill have likened abortion to concentration camps and concluded that “practising homosexuality is a sin”.

A quick look at the City on a Hill website gives you an indication on the church that Mr Thorburn has not only chosen to attend but also be chairman of.

City on a Hill founder and pastor Guy Mason speaks with the church’s chairman Andrew Thorburn. Picture: YouTube

In an article from 2016 about whether Christians think it’s OK to ever have an abortion, City on a Hill founder Guy Mason cites unknown statistics about how 80 per cent of woman who’ve had an abortion have regretted it. There is no indication of where this information comes from or how it was collated.

Furthermore, I could find no evidence to back up this statistic – although I did find a study from the early 1990s on women who have had first trimester abortions and two years on from the abortion, 72 per cent of the women were happy with their decision. If his statistics are incorrect or not substantial, then that is very dangerous.

In another article about what would Jesus say to someone who is gay, Guy Mason starts the article with the phrase “unclean sinners”, compares being gay to adulterers and says Jesus offers “forgiveness” to anyone who’s same sex attracted.

In my experience, gay people don’t want forgiveness – they just want acceptance.

The church’s views are not ones which align with what Essendon is about.

On Essendon’s website, it states in the club’s code of conduct that members will “refrain from engaging in or endorsing any form of threatening conduct, or vilification or abuse on the basis of race, gender, religion, disability or sexuality”.

Essendon has the Purple Bombers, who are official diversity and inclusion supporters of the club. They have a gay pride guernsey and describe themselves as becoming “truly whole” when their AFLW team joined the women’s national competition in 2021.

Mr Thorburn cannot be both supportive of gay people and women in one job, and imply they’re sinful in another.

Australia is not a country that is intolerant of people of faith. Until recently, we had a Prime Minister who is Pentecostal and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet are both Catholic.

They are allowed to lead our country and states while being religious. However, if they were to hold a role within a church which directly conflicted with their roles as our leaders then that would be another matter.

And that’s why there should be no pity for Mr Thorburn. He chose the church over a club and that was his decision to make as a free man in a fair country. He isn’t a victim or a pariah. He’s just a man who made a choice.

Riah Matthews in the commissioning editor for news.com.au