Got to keep the rabble from getting themselves het up

Via Professor Bunyip, one of our fair land's most delightful practitioners of the Queen's English, comes this opinion piece from The Age. It was written by the CEO of the the Equal Opportunity Commission, and it was written to defend Victoria's anti-vilification laws.

There's plenty to hate, ironically enough, about this piece. The tone of smug Humanist bigotry, for a start. The implication that there is no need to point out faults in different religions because all reasonable people know that all religion is bunk. The ignorance of Christian dogma, and the assumption that we need a government department to tell us what we as Christians believe.

But I thought I'd put all that aside and just look at one little paragraph that caught my attention.

There are exceptions under the act that cover the work of artists, performers, journalists, academics and scientists, as long as that work is engaged in reasonably and in good faith.

Isn't it interesting that the act makes exemptions for 'artists' and 'performers' but not for religious leaders. Why? Presumably this is because, unlike Christian pastors, artists have a higher calling and, unlike Christian pastors, an intimate connection to the transcendent 'other'. Furthermore, unlike Christian pastors, it's an artist's responsibility to challenge a recalcitrant public and, unlike Christian pastors, inform them about new points of view.

Obviously you can't say the same thing about Christian pastors... unless of course you're one of those ignorant bigoted Bible-thumpers who wouldn't know an Andres Serrano retrospective if it pissed on their leg.