Fred Niles Quits Uniting Church To Join Christian Taliban
Harold Hark
22 July 2003

I haven't voluntarily entered a Christian church of any denomination since the days when my mother used to grab me by the ear on Sunday mornings. She was probably grabbing my father's ear as well, but I never noticed. My reticence at the time was due to the excruciatingly boring process that involved putting on silly clothes and sitting for an hour with people who were only there because they were afraid not to be. The old codgers used it as a chance to chat among there own, but I was light years from them. Later in life I stayed away permanently because it had become obvious that there was more to creation than an ectoplasmic white bloke with a beard who acts as a hanging judge on behalf of hateful reactionaries like today's headliner, Fred Nile.

But not all Christians are traitors to the teachings of the admirable carpenter, Jesus H. Nice, who remains a shining example of human potential, regardless of his putative lineage.

There is a Uniting Church at a busy intersection near where I live. It has a big sign which displays those homilies we are used to seeing outside churches, such as "Good News! God is Love!" Or "Jesus Died For Your Sins!" The sort of drivel that is only hastening the end of organised religion.

But lately the homilies at this church have been mind blowing. The most recent: "Is anyone else sick of government by deceit?" caused me to cheer as I sped by on the way to Dan Murphy's for the fortnight's purchase of alcohol. There have been many others.

It turns out these homilies coincide with the church's new Minister. I called the man to thank him for giving me a boost on my errands to wherever. He said some 100,000 cars pass by daily and the response has been positive. We talked about Fred Niles and how people like him continue to misread the Bible on homosexuals, blacks, de facto relationships etc, and how the last thing that would have ever entered Jesus' mind was a religion of exclusion.

So Niles has resigned from the Uniting Church. He said the church's recent acceptance of gays and lesbians in the clergy breaks with the "tenet of faith and obedience [that] are regulated and nourished by the Bible." (Italics mine.) Those who agree with Niles speak of the Church playing into Satan's hands by believing his lies, or that it constitutes a war against God.

But then, we all knew the Taliban was just an Islamic version of Christian fundamentalism.

The legion of psychologically disturbed men and women over the centuries who have used the obedience and regulation that is the foundation of organised religion have done as much or more to impede human evolution than the politicians who use their hatred as an excuse to dominate, repress and kill. The two are working hand in hand today in a symbiosis not seen since the Spanish Inquisition.

And they have barely hit their stride.

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