Do to others what you would have them do to you

In recent weeks many Australian Christians have been crying foul at the saga that has taken place at the Essendon Football Club regarding the appointment and subsequent ‘resignation’ of Andrew Thorburn as CEO. For those unaware Thorburn resigned one day into the role when it came to light that his chairmanship of a church would not align with the values of the Essendon Football Club, primarily on matters of sexuality.

And so hence begins another small chapter in what some would describe as the culture war between Christendom and the western world. Everyone wants religious freedom as long as that freedom doesn’t offend anyone. Everyone wants protection from discrimination but also the freedom to discriminate against anyone who doesn’t ‘align’ with their ‘values’.

To echo Tom Hanks from the movie Sully – can we please get serious now? To my Christian brothers and sisters I will say that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. For decades now Christian schools have been constantly advocating their right to hire Christian teachers claiming that those teachers must align with the schools ‘values’. Well if you value that right then you must also respect Essendon’s right to sack a CEO they felt did not align with their values. Fair is fair.

We as a country can scramble around and write as many pages of religious freedom/anti-discrimination legislation as we like to try and avoid an Essendon type situation in the future. But we will just end up creating a legislative noodle salad that will make us more confused than ever. It seems a better idea to me that we critically reflect and wrestle upon the instruction of Jesus to ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’. It’s only in pursuit of this that a diverse and multi-cultural society like Australia can continue to flourish.

Doing this is hard work and frankly excruciating. Seeking to understand how one would want to be treated involves placing yourself in the shoes of that very person. This should be an activity of daily discipline and it is fundamentally predicated on the ideal of truth being pursued. As Jordan Peterson articulated a few years ago, the pursuit of truth will inevitably involve exercising one’s freedom of speech/enquiry. This will inevitably risk causing offence. Can we ourselves handle being scrutinised and being offended in that process?

I certainly hope so. The day I stop embracing my offence is the day I stop growing. As my MBA friends all too frequently trope out, ‘let’s learn to get comfortable in the uncomfortable’.