By Steve McAlpine (adapted by Alasdair Belling from ‘Faith Under Fire’ on the Delorean Philosophy podcast)

My first memories of Australian Rules Football, or ‘footy’ as we call it, were from primary school mid-1970s.

Standing sodden in the midwinter rain, in a pair of shorts, boots and a classic “Aussie Rules” jersey (sleeveless, blue with a red stripe, and – for some unknown reason made of wool), perfect for getting soggy in the rain and therefore heavy enough to ensure that the brute chasing me down would do so with ease.

Footy was a manly man’s game and I preferred soccer. Soccer and writing. 

Footy was played on Sundays. We went to church on Sundays – twice! Every time I played footy, I was outed as a non-footy player.

Friends sometimes asked me to join a different team, but it played on Sundays. I’d make some excuse.

I remember too the first time I was outed for being a Christian at school – an embarrassing moment in the early 80s.

As a writer, I have a certain turn of phrase capable of putting people in their place – which I duly did one day to a bloke at school, in front of everyone. They laughed. Job done. Until he spat out this:

“Well, at least I don’t go to church!”

Burn! But not a burn of horror. How evil of you to go to church? To be a Christian? You bigot! But a burn of  “church? How pathetic!”

Manly men played football – they didn’t go to church! There I was a non-footy-playing churchgoer – ticking all the wrong boxes. Best to hang around with all the other outcasts that public school has a perverse way of finding. Then labelling, then ignoring, and then mocking when some sport is needed. We weren’t accepted, but we weren’t a threat to the particular social order either.

So it’s something of an irony that footy and church have clashed again in Australia. Not at the local grassroots level, but at the elite national level. Essendon Football Club has forced their one-day-in-the-role CEO to resign because as a Christian he is the chair of a church that holds to a set of values that the Football Club rejects.

Andrew Thorburn has been ‘outed’ as a Christian.

But the footy crowd in 2022 no longer scorns the faith as weak or pathetic. It shuns it as bigoted. Words such as “abomination” and terms such as “not in line with diversity” have signalled the public fallout for Thorburn. That and a scorching media abuse campaign towards the church he attends.

Thorburn came a cropper because footy today showcases a different manly man. To reach the pinnacle of acceptable manhood is to not simply accept the sexual practices that footy once scorned but to celebrate them publicly. To determine that everyone who is involved in the club is an ally – and the opposite of any ally is an enemy. Thorburn was left with no choice; he had to go.

 So where’s it all going?

A lot of ink has been spilled in assessing the situation. Was it a just decision because of religious bigotry? Is it discrimination against a religiously observant person? Would Thorburn have been able to hold the tension of promoting values he didn’t share? It felt like the event was an earthquake, and the aftershocks are still being felt.

In a sense, it’s too soon to know definitively if this is a line in the sand for religious people in high-profile roles whose values don’t always align with those of their organisation.

How did we get to a situation like this?

A situation where the political leader in the state that Essendon Football Club is based in questioned the decision to employ Thorburn not because of his actions, but of a church sermon preached in 2013 before Thorburn had ever attended the church.

Let me make some observations:

The Western World is Wrestling Over Rights

Whose rights trump whose rights?

Currently, rights around sexual practices hold sway over religious rights. At the bedrock level, the reason is pretty simple. Sexuality is considered to lie at the core of our identity.

And religion?

Well, in a secular place such as Australia (and the West in general), religion is something you take on and you can take off – a bit like a shirt. It’s not intrinsic to who you are.

Sexuality on the other hand?

It’s a bedrock identity marker – so its rights are primary. Theologian Carl Trueman puts it like this;

“The intuitive moral structure of our modern social imaginary…regards traditional sexual codes as oppressive and life-denying, …sees selfhood in psychological terms …and places a premium on the individual right to define his or her own existence.”

The traditional teaching around sex by the church is therefore immoral and unacceptable in the public square. Why? Because it’s not simply a diverse point of view. It’s oppressive, it denies life, and is a threat to human flourishing. 

In other words, this is not just a Secular Age – It’s a Sexular Age.

Sexuality, your views around it and your practices of it determine whose in and whose out in our culture. If that is true about sex, and if it is also true that the individual gets to define their own existence, then to object or disagree is to perpetrate violence towards a person’s autonomy. 

Andrew Thorburn could have all the best credentials to be a Football Club CEO. But to fail on this one in our Sexular Age? Well, that simply makes him the equivalent of a smiling racist.

Social Policy is Driven by Culture

Why are issues about inclusion and exclusion, especially around sexual identity, so prevalent in sports? Why are clubs promoting Pride rounds Why are those who demur given short shrift?

There have been three major clashes with religion within the three major football codes in Australia in the space of three years. Australian Rules, Rugby Union and Rugby League all made headlines, and all caused media firestorms.

Large corporations, including sporting clubs, are culture setters. They have become the mouthpieces of what is wrong and right, and indeed what is moral and immoral, in our culture. In the absence – or rejection – of traditional institutions in the West, something has to fill the gap – and sporting clubs are ubiquitous enough, and fanatically followed enough to fill that gap.

The result?

They are the new priests, pronouncing blessings and curses. They have a loud voice in saying what is right and wrong about a culture. They reach more people than traditional moral institutions. From the corporate banker in the heated box with canapes and chardonnay through to the mums and dads, bums on seats in the freezing rain; Sport gets to everyone.

It’s the modern town square – clubs now have immense reach across a wide range of the population.

If as many people as possible are going to hear the Diversity and Inclusion Sermon Sports clubs make great pulpits. They are culture shapers, prophets pointing to a vision of the country we wish to have – a more diverse and inclusive country. 

Well – for some.

Some rights are more important than others. And at the moment religious rights are clashing with sexual rights.

Here’s my suspicion – and it’s a well-grounded one. It’s going to be increasingly difficult to attain any significant public – or indeed private – role if you hold to a traditional religious ethic around sex. This brings me to a third observation;

These battles are skirmishes in a bigger battle

Today it is the public problem experienced by a prominent CEO of a famous football club. Tomorrow it is the private problem experienced by a middle management employee of an accounting firm.

How do I know? Because it’s already today’s problem.

I hear tale after tale from people concerned that they are being asked to go against their conscience in their workplace. And if they keep their heads down, and try to offer silence they are told silence is violence. How did we let it get to that?

Journalist Janet Albrechtsen observed in a column in The Australian that Australia in particular is in catch-up mode when it comes to protecting religious rights.

“In the hierarchy of human rights, religious freedom – a central tenet of liberty and our history – should trump feelings. That means, at a minimum, a person should not be effectively sacked because of their faith.”

This is about protection – she observes that Western governments are failing to protect the religious sensibilities of their citizens. But because of what Carl Trueman observes, that’ll continue. How did Trueman put it? “Self-hood is seen in psychological terms”.

How I feel is more important. How I feel is precarious, and it can be affected by what you think about me, and the way I live my life. If I don’t feel welcomed by you, no amount of you declaring that your honouring my humanity will cut it. That’s why there has been dead silence on this issue – or indeed support for Essendon’s stance – by Australia’s Human Rights Commissioners.

Feelings have trumped rights. Feelings are now the basis of rights. And it’s coming to a middle management office floor near you.

One final observation

Truly inclusive societies don’t grow on trees. Pluralism is a creation of Christian culture.

The confidence to not simply allow other ideas to exist but allow them to flourish in public life sprang up from Christian soil. It sprang up from Christian ideas around the dignity and worth of every human, with the central – and brilliant –  conclusion that we teach people to follow Jesus, not coerce them, on the basis of freedom of conscience, and freedom of religion.

No other religious or political framework allows genuine pluralism. If Christianity recedes from public life so too will pluralism – and we’re already finding that.

So what can we do about this? 

Take a deep breath.

Perhaps you’re not Christian reading this, and you’re either wondering what all the fuss is about, or you’re not sure which side of the fence to land on. Essendon, or Andrew Thorburn?

Social media has changed the landscape and discourages civil discourse – ironically at the exact time we need it more than ever. Mob rule is unhelpful. Don’t pour petrol on the fire with an intemperate comment.

Secondly – if you are Christian reading perhaps it’s time to play up how different we actually are. If our goal in life is to fit in to look no different then we are not offering an alternative.

We don’t accept the secular assumption that faith if private.  We don’t accept the materialist assumption that reality consists only of those things we can see. We believe in heaven above, hell beneath and earth in the middle. And they leak! They’re porous!

Rory Shiner and Peter Orr have written a book called ‘The World Next Door’ – an overview of the Christian faith for smart people. But even so, it starts off not with “smart” ideas but the daring reality that Christianity believes in a world of angels and devils, a world that is porous, that has an invisible reality beyond even the level of Stranger Things! We will do well long-term by playing up our differences, by saying something from the outset.

This Christianity thing hits different.  There are plenty of people looking for something different, looking for something with meaning and purpose. That isn’t tied to their sex or gender.

Third – Christianity can hold the tension of loving someone for who they are, but not approving of what they do. Australian historian and Christian author John Dickson recently reminded us of this when he stated that Jesus was able to love those who he didn’t agree with.

That’s where our framework comes from, one which the secular world does not have. All it can do is get people to publicly agree with a stance, whether or not they privately do. That does not sound like a happy society, nor does it sound like a future we all want. External agreement but internal disagreement – that’s the pathway to tyranny, be it hard political tyranny, or soft cultural tyranny.

And finally, if you are a Christian, or you’re thinking of becoming one … being scorned for it is a feature, not a bug. Don’t give up on Christianity because like me at school, back in the day, you get outed for it. Central to Christianity is Jesus, and he was crucified by his society.

But now?

Billions across history have worshipped him. They still do. And they have enriched the world in doing so. Andrew Thorburn said this to reporters when he announced his resignation;

“My faith is central to who I am. Since coming to faith in Jesus 20 years ago, I have seen a profound change in my life, and I believe God has made me a better husband, father, and friend. It has also helped me become a better leader. That is because at the centre of my faith is the belief that you should create a community and care for people because they are created by and loved by God and have a deep intrinsic value.”

My suspicion?

What Jesus can do for a person and a society a football club cannot, and never will be able to.

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