How will Aust. Religious Vilification Laws Affect JWs? (& Tract Campaign)

misspeaches

A non fluff topic is unusual for me but this one has me wondering...

Currently some States and Territories in Australia are disussing introducing a new bill/law (?) regarding religious & racial vilification. Its hard for me to describe the bill but this link might help: http://www.acl.org.au/pdfs/load_pdf_public.pdf?pdf_id=661&from=#search=%22religious%20vilification%20bill%22

As I understand it, (and correct me if I am wrong) if this law is introduced and people say something anti/negative/condemns about another person's religous beliefs they potentially can get charged with breaking the law and face the consequences.

Again my understading of this is hazy but I have heard that in Victoria a church was giving an information about the Muslims and some people from the muslim faith attended. Something was said at the church that was of a derogatory nature, the muslims pressed charges and they were subsequentially punished.

So now on to my question... If the JW's are planning on a world wide campaign distrubting a tract 'exposing false religon' could they potentially find themselves under fire? At the mercy of the law?

misspeaches

Does anybody know?? I am really interested to learn more...

jwfacts

Interesting article MissP. Reading through the article it states

It is unlawful for a person, by a public act to incite hatred

towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or

group of people on the ground of any of the following

characteristics of the person or members of the group:

(a) race.

This is specifically about race. Going on it mentions that they are trying to extend it to include religion, but without too much success. It will be great if they do, as articles on how a JW is to view an apostate clearly contravenes the above statement.

I would love to put together an article to petition the Australian Government that the WTS breaches the law in regardst to freedom of expression, but the time involved is too much for me to handle at the moment. Interestingly the document mentions the case of Church of Scientolgy v Sweden, and the difficulty is to find a compromise between freedom of expression and freedom of religion. It will be a hard battle to get the goverment to take on the WTS.

Arthur

So now on to my question... If the JW's are planning on a world wide campaign distrubting a tract 'exposing false religon' could they potentially find themselves under fire? At the mercy of the law?

Well, the tract campaign is due to begin in late October right? That's only a month away. You said that the bill had been introduced in your country and not yet passed right?

I don't know anything about your country's legislative process, but here in the U.S., when a bill is introduced in the Congress, it can take up to a year for it to become law. (that's assuming that it can even be agreed upon by both chambers)

It sounds to me like there would never be enough time for such a bill to be passed into law before the JWs campaign gets under way. But, then again, maybe your country's process is quicker than ours.

frankiespeakin

Yeah that would be nice if the government cracked down on them. God knows we need a law like that when Rutherford was president.

Any way WT boldy proclaims its right give God's judgement messages against all worldly governments and every religion that is false because they are the only one true religion.

Shazard

In my country there were similar talks, but never get into law (for now).

fullofdoubtnow

It would be great if a few countries where they currently enjoy freedom to do and say more or less what they like did impose a few restrictions on them.

We've been sending the tract to various churches in this area, and the national daily papers as well. Maybe sending to our local MP, with a letter expressing our objections to it's contents, might do something. We'll give that some thought.

Elsewhere

As I understand it, (and correct me if I am wrong) if this law is introduced and people say something anti/negative/condemns about another person's religous beliefs they potentially can get charged with breaking the law and face the consequences.
Again my understading of this is hazy but I have heard that in Victoria a church was giving an information about the Muslims and some people from the muslim faith attended. Something was said at the church that was of a derogatory nature, the muslims pressed charges and they were subsequentially punished.

I wonder if Atheists will be afforded the same protections, or will there be open season on non believers.

I'm actually opposed to such laws because they are blatantly designed to inhibit free discussions and examinations of ideas, namely religions. If an idea cannot be challenged, then can can anyone determine if it is true or not?

I wonder if they will pass a law making it illegal to examine Evolution and Intelligent Design for fear of offending anyone?

Nathan Natas

What effect would such a law have on the efforts of anti-cult workers and apostates?

Wouldn't this be a government sanction of any and all woo-woo beliefs? No intelligent person can think that this benefits society or the public at large: this is special protection for parasites of all flavors.

cyberdyne systems 101

I'm all for keeping as many freedoms as we can, we dont want to legislate on everything a person can say. Obviously there are times where some things are intollerable, but if they (the dubies) got stopped for saying things, by extension could we freely talk about the dubs in the same manor?

CS 101

How will Aust. Religious Vilification Laws Affect JWs? (& Tract Campaign)

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