By James Moylan
I am standing in the current election as a candidate for the Senate in Queensland, but do not panic – I am not about to launch into a ‘vote for me’ pitch. Rather I thought I’d talk a little about the email traffic that every candidate receives.
Having been a candidate a couple of times I knew to expect a flood of emails into my inbox from individual voters and from community organisations. Normally these letters arrive in the form of a request for a statement regarding a policy position. Sometimes I am asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding a group of issues. Sometimes the petitioner just asks that I keep a particular issue in mind whilst campaigning.
I mostly enjoy going through these emails of a morning. I got involved in politics largely because I feel that the partisan nature of our political discourse tends to lock out the majority of Aussies from getting involved and adding their opinions to the mix. So these direct communications from interest groups and individuals can be a terrific way of getting acquainted with exactly what other Queenslanders think about all sorts of things.
However at each election there are also two segments of my email traffic that really do cause me some grief. First there are letters from individuals and groups that I disagree with heartily. These correspondents I call the ‘anti’ brigade. I receive literally dozens of emails from people and groups that are anti drugs, anti free speech, anti public schooling, anti refugee, anti immigration, anti immunisation, anti fluoride, anti live-export, anti anti-bullying, anti gay, anti Israel, anti Christian, anti Muslim, anti democracy, etc.
I have learned to largely ignore the anti emails. During the first couple of campaigns I would often agonise over a particular email and write out a long detailed response that would invariably end up in the bin. This is because even the most politely worded response, expressing even the mildest hint of disagreement, would likely prompt an indignant reply. Then sometimes, instead of a correspondent remaining a total stranger, they would transform into an angry campaigner who would certainly advise: ‘everyone I meet, from now until election day, that you are a complete and utter doofus. Yours sincerely; your enemy forever’.
The second segment of my email traffic that causes difficulties are those received from the religiously devout. During the last couple of campaigns these have usually been from individuals who are trying to save my soul or sometimes trying to save the rest of humanity from the consequences of failing to believe in whatever it is the correspondent believes in. Often they will be ‘praying for me’ or ‘praying that I follow God’s will’ or they will invite me to comment on how much I agree with them that Australia is ‘a Christian Country’.
However this election is different. During this election there has been an orchestrated campaign by the religious right to try and ensure that every candidate in the current election is inundated with emails asking that they promise to never support Gay marriage.
In the last few days my inbox has been at times flooded by these emails which are all readily identifiable as they all bear the same heading: ‘I support man-woman marriage. Do you?’
To say that I find most of these emails to be objectionable and downright misguided would be to understate my reaction. I have taken to deleting them without even looking at the contents – otherwise I get upset and distracted.
How can it be that in the 21st century there are still so many Australians that are so grossly bigoted?
These emails are often intimidating and threatening. They hint at the likelihood that I will go to hell if I dare support same-sex marriage. Or if I support the right for all citizens to marry that will somehow lead to the end of our civilisation. They also demand that we stop teaching tolerance and equality in our schools or otherwise unspecified horrors will certainly descend on our children and our communities.
I have had a gutful of all this gross intolerance masquerading as concern. So I thought I might advertise the views of this small segment of correspondents a bit more widely so that other Aussies might become aware of this ongoing letter writing campaign.
Below are a few snippets drawn from these emails (that are currently sitting in my digital bin):
- I believe in the creation of Man and Woman for the procreation of children by God. It was God that defined marriage between a man and a woman, therefore it is my opinion that Man does NOT have the right to re define something that God ordained and put in place for the nurture, protection and optimal environment for the raising of children.
- You and your party will be judged by the future generation on the ethical and moral outcome for the nation from this election. Further, the sovereign God of the universe is not mocked without consequences.
- Please let me know what is your stance on marriage as it is important to my family at this election, and will absolutely determine who gets our primary vote, and also our preferences.
- Marriage between a man and a woman is a key Biblical and social institution that transcends time and culture. It provides an optimal environment for the raising of children – and is about a lot more than just “love”.
- Throwing children into these unnatural relationships is a social disaster!
throw in the safe schools socialist sexual indoctrination of children, and it becomes the thing of nightmares! - All those involved with the creation of this deception of sexual grooming of children under the safe schools anti bullying program should face criminal charges, and be placed on the sexual offenders list, automatically dismissed from ever working in the education system!
These religious zealots are undertaking this lobbying campaign in a covert and surreptitious manner largely because they know that the vast majority of Aussies not only disagree with their stance on gay marriage but would also likely feel aggrieved if they knew about the tactics being employed in their fight on behalf of continuing inequity and discrimination.
I feel that if these people want to be able to continue to discriminate against those who are homosexual then they should at least argue their case in public and stop filling my inbox, and that of all the candidates, with a constant stream of bigoted and obnoxious opinions.
