Until recently we have been proud that our ancestor Rev Joseph Orton and others brought the Christian message to colonial Australia; advocacy for indigenous people and convicts seeming a natural expression of an authentic message to the marginalised.
However serious defects on some old models have emerged necessitating urgent recall and possible compensation.
The looming Tasmanian repeal of anti-discrimination legislation and the national marriage equality plebiscite are grubby with fresh fingerprints of pre-enlightenment Christian intolerance, with rising fears of compromising other human rights issues in Australia.
Imposing primitive assumptions of former millennia on a new generation is an act of brutality to both the contemporary community and the ancient documents that give rise to them.
If local stockists have run out of updates then perhaps historians, sociologists, lawyers, musicians and artists will come to the rescue of politicians so that the religious right can be consigned to the recycle bin rather than hold the national homepage.
Archdeacon Peter MacLeod-Miller, Archdeacon of Albury and the Hume, St Matthews Albury NSW, 2640
