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NEWS

Clerics Angered In Armidale

THE northern NSW city of Armidale has become the site of a rabid campaign against homosexuality, anti-discrimination legislation and the member for the Northern Tablelands. A small local group. The Armidale Gay Society (TAGS) has been single-handedly combatting misinformation and prejudice inspired by Festival of Light-type ministers and publicised by the local newspaper, the Armidale Express.

Debate began when the Express published an attack by Baptist Minister, Bill Taplin against the local MP Bill McCarthy on the issue of his voting record.

Taplin is also Secretary of an association of an Armidale clergy, the Ministers' Fraternal, and used his position to imply that there was broad agreement within his organisation on this question. The Express headed the piece, Churches Irate

at New Laws.

Two days later the Express carried three pieces on the controversy. A letter from Taplin quoted a resolution from the Ministers' Fraternal expressing opposition to the Anti-Discrimination amendments and went on to give Taplin's own reasons for opposition. These included the misapprehension that the internal workings of Church bodies would be subject to prosecution under the Act.

On page one the Express reiterated Taplin's attack on McCarthy, carried as a news story. There was also a boxed insert headed, Fraternal Unimpressed, which said in part, "The organisation (the Fraternal) is upset the Government has given the green light to the legislation when it was twice defeated in parliament last year."

On March 18 a minister, of the Free Presbyterian Church, W. Peter Gadsby weighed into the debate with a long letter attacking McCarthy and reinforcing the distortions created by Taplin. He asserted, for example, that the legislation makes it possible to prosecute churches "which refuse ecclesiastical office to a known homosexual." Gadsby at least realised that the AD Act had already been amended, and called for its repeal.

The Express however, stuck to its guns and on page three of the same issue wrote up Gadsby's letter as a call "to oppose the loosening of homosexual laws as proposed by the State Government." The article was editorial headed, Homosexual Law Must Be Opposed.

On March 21 the newspaper officially took a stand with a remarkable editorial titled NSW In a Morals Decline.

It began: "The State Government is allowing New South Wales to plunge into the depths of permissiveness and immorality and if unchecked, will lead this State into social disorder."

"The real issue," the paper went on, "is the reaction of the majority of people in this State who are sickened by such activity." Obviously, the editors of the Armidale Express had still not realised that the Bill had in fact been passed and assented to last year. They thundered: "The amendments have gone virtually unpublicised so the majority of NSW is unaware of the damaging impact this Bill will have when it is approved."

Completely unacknowledged in this

journalistic tour de force was a letter in the very same issue from Uniting Church minister Ian Fardon that concluded, "As the longest standing member of this fraternal and as its minutes secretary I can assure the public that Mr Bill McCarthy's voting record or attitude in regard to homosexual bills has to date never been on the fraternal's agenda. The fraternal has never had before it or much less adopted a motion concerning these matters and Mr McCarthy. From today I have resigned from the Armidale Ministers' Fraternal."

Two days later another Uniting Church minister, Graham Brookes, tried to disassociate the Fraternal from the attacks on the local member and threw doubt on the representative nature of the Fraternal.

IN the course of the debate in the pages of the Armidale Express the Secretary of the Ministers' Fraternal sought to distance himself from the Festival of Light. He said, "I find it strange for him, Mr McCarthy, to refer to the Reverend Fred Nile and the Festival of Light, when I have no contact with that organisation on the issue I see it as a smokescreen". On the 23rd of March the following letter appeared in the Express.

Sir,

I see that Rev. Bill Taplin is claiming that Bill McCarthy "has lost credibility" because of his support for changes to Anti-Discrimination legislation affecting, among others, homosexuals.

He also supports that he finds it strange that Mr. McCarthy should try to connect him with Rev. Fred Nile and the Festival of Light, because he has had no contact with him on that issue.

Rev. Fred Nile came to Armidale on the campaign trail before the last state elections and spoke at great length and with great passion on the subject of homosexuality, which is one of his obsessions.

I recall being present at that meeting, which was chaired by Rev. Taplin. Perhaps his credibility rating isn't all that it should be, in which case he is in no position to criticise Mr. McCarthy.

Gwen Meale

"It is time we recognised that discriminatory statements always tell us more about the person making them than they tell us about the people being discriminated against," he said.

TAGS also released a statement supporting the local member and denouncing the hate campaign against "the homosexual women and men of our community".

Ruling Council for the Right

MELBOURNE: A new coalition of right-wing forces was established over the Anzac weekend at a training camp for "conservative activists". Called the Council for a Free Australia, its stated aim is to fight the enemies communists, feminists who are infiltrating society on our home ground."

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8 CAMPAIGN MAY 1983

Invited from overseas were a veritable WHO'S WHO of the American Right. The special guests included: Ronald Godwin, Vice-President of the US Moral Majority; Phyllis Schlafly, President of Stop-ERA and the Eagle Forum (a key coalition of the Republican extreme right), Paul Weyrich, political strategist for the New Right; and National ProLife Political Action Committee director, Peter Gemma.

The main role of these special guests was instruction of camp participants in political lobbying, fund-raising techniques, media relations and electoral strategies.

Phyllis Schlafly

The camp was neither advertised nor open to public participation.

The conference also included representatives from various Christian fundament-

alist, anti-abortion and "pro-family" groups, as well as the Festival of Light and Women Who Want to be Women. According to The Australian, the new Council

Although the Express did not carry the TAGS statement until five days later, they did print a letter from the publicity officer of TAGS attempting to set the debate back into some factual and rational framework.

The ABC carried the TAGS statement and local station 2AR-FM gave over half an hour to the group's spokesperson when Gadsby and Taplin failed to show up for a live debate.

The President of the Minster's Fraternal spurred by resignations and criticisms from among the clergy, also released a statement, distancing the Fraternal from the attack on McCarthy.

"Everyone has a right to express his or her opinion, but it has been extremely embarrassing to the Fraternal that the personal comments of the Secretary have been taken to represent the views of the whole Fraternal."

For the remainder of the month the letters pages of the Express were filled with comment and counter-comment, accusation and counter-accusation.

Gadsby, in one of his contributions, asserted that, "I am not a homophobe with all my failings. I have enough love for homosexuals to warn them of the eternal consequences of their sin; and for society to wish to see it protected against an escalating moral decline which will mean the destruction of us all."

TAGS turned its attention to the fact that both Taplin and Gadsby are official chaplains to the University of New England. In a letter to the Registrar suggesting that official recognition be withdrawn, TAGS requested that a meeting of the University Council consider their request.

On April 15 the University Council discussed the complaint by TAGS and decided that because the Ministers were not employees, and because they believed in free speech, no action could be taken.

Publicity Officer Oakley told Campaign that he was happy that they had managed to get the matter onto the agenda, but felt that the Council had not dealt adequately with the pastoral and counselling role of the two men.

The debate in Armidale, however, is far from over. TAGS is "stronger and more united than ever before". Many people who would ordinarily not take public positions have placed themselves on the public record in favour of the AD amendment and the conservative opposition has been forced into a more and more hysterical tone to make its point.

"Five Christian laymen of this fair city" denounced homosexuality as a "filthy perversion and a abomination in the sight of God", while David and Sandra Bland advised that "to those who do not live according to the truth we say one thing, 'Repent' ".

elected a 30-person steering committee which will be responsible for formulating the organisation's policies.

Mrs Jackie Butler, a conference spokesperson, said that the Council would be Australia's answer to the US Moral Majority. "Our first target will be the Attorney-General, Senator Evans, who has said he will move quickly to see Australia ratifies the United Nations convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women," she said.

While in Australia, women's rights opponent, Phillis Schlafly, will be speaking at a conference on Women and the Family, organised by the Festival of Light Women's Auxiliary, for April 30 May 1. Schlafly, who the Sydney Morning Herald described as a "loyal member of the John Birch Society", will be speaking on Women's Place in our Nation and

Woman's Place in Women's Issues. On the Sunday of the Conference Schlafly will address a public Family Rally at Macquarie University.