Christian Privilege in Australia, as demonstrated by our Prime Minister

When a wacky fundamentalist Islamic Cleric Samir Abu Hamza says that its okay for men to rape and beat their wives our Prime Minister rightly condemns it. 

"Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia – under no circumstances," he said.

"Under no circumstances are other forms of violence, physical violence, acceptable towards women in Australia nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teachings.

‘"Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don’t belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise."

[Daily Telegraph January 22, 2009]

But when talking about Catholic Clergy Abuse he had this to say to David Speers of Sky News:

SPEERS: Just quickly Prime Minister your meeting the Pope today. The apology issue, the victims of sex abuse within the church. How important is an apology from the Pope in your view?

PM: This is a matter for the church and I respect the internal judgements of the church. I don’t stand outside the church and provide them with public lectures in terms of how they should behave. I’ve noted carefully what his Holiness has said in the United States. Obviously that was a source of great comfort and healing in the United States. I’m like all Australians very much looking forward to what the Pope has to say here in Australia as well, as I am to my own conversation with the Pope later this morning.

[Interview with David Speers, Sky News]

So is this a matter of picking the low hanging fruit to score some points with red neck Christian Australia?  Fear of flack from Catholics, from the Church?

Very easy to criticise a radical cleric, but when it comes to putting pressure on an organisation involved in world wide systematic sexual abuse of children it’s hands off.  Because the church can be trusted to self regulate.  Check out Broken Rites to see how well they self regulate.

The message:

Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia… unless you’re catholic clergy.

And this government has the gall to cry out “Think of the Children” when it comes to internet filtering.

H/T John Brown

Related posts:

1. Sometimes chickens do come home to roost All too often news can leave you feeling jaded –...
2. Should the Australian Prime Minister be able to express his religion? News.com.au reports on John Howards tacit support for a Fundamentalist...
3. Another church paedophile brought to justice. While we don’t seem to have the political will...