Not in my name

[dolorosa_12]

In the summer of 2003/4, when I was 19, I spent some weeks transcribing my great-grandfather's World War I journal. He was in his late 20s when he joined up, and he fought on the Western Front. For the most part, his journal is pretty banal, full of remarks about the weather and train journeys. Every so often, however, his emotions break through, in comments like 'Today was unbearable. May God forgive us all.' I like to think that such sentiments were the expression of the grief of an ordinary man, conditioned to think of his enemies as inhuman, forced to recognise their humanity. As far as I know, my great-grandfather joined up for a combination of the usual reasons: some degree of social pressure, some degree of a sense of responsibility ('doing one's bit'), some desire to see the world and some degree of patriotism. What this patriotism was not was a desire to 'preserve the Australian [read: white, Anglo, Christian, heterosexual] way of life'. When, on Anzac Day, I commemorate and think about the soldiers who fought and died in the First and Second World Wars, I am thinking of, and commemorating people like my great-grandfather.

And when I see racist, homophobic fuckwits using the memory of men and women like my great-grandfather to propagate an ideology of hate, a definition of 'the Australian way of life' that means 'monocultural, racist and homophobic' that I will not dignify with the name of 'Christian', I am outraged and disgusted. The first person, Jim Wallace, retracted his remarks after dissent from several other Christians, including a member of the Wayside Chapel. The second person, Bill Muehlenberg, did no such thing. His blog post is a mess of the usual garbage:

1. Godwin's Law (referring to detractors as 'the Gaystapo' - stay classy, dude)
2. Misuse of the term 'political correctness' to mean, as so perfectly expressed by my friend Ange, 'you're no fun if you disagree with my choice to say hurtful or racist/homophobic/sexist/misc. things'
3. Equating GLBTQ people with paedophiles, and the 'license' to allow same-sex marriage as allowing paedophilia
4. 'Oh noes! Same-sex marriage will DESTROY the tender, fragile institution of marriage and the foundations of the family and The Australian Way of Life™!'
5. 'Being gay is a choice! It is a lifestyle! And those who choose it shouldn't flaunt their lifestyle in my face at the Mardi Gras!' *pearlclutch*
6. 'Freedom of speech=freedom for me to say whatever racist, homophobic bullshit I like. Freedom of speech is gone if people are allowed to criticise said racist, homophobic bullshit.'

I like to think that, if, indeed, my great-grandfather was fighting for patriotic reasons, his patriotism was similar to mine: a pride in a secular, humanist country, a country that has been enriched by immigration and multiculturalism, a country that has a way to go in regard to GLBTQ equality but which at least recognises that one's sexual preferences, gender performance and identity are nobody's business but that person's and a country with genuine freedom of speech. And I like to think that, if anything, he was fighting for a country where Anzac Day is not tainted by association with the hateful ideology of people like Bill Muehlenberg.

I don't like the views of people like Muehlenberg. Unfortunately, I have to share a country with him (for all that I currently live in the UK). But I can choose to avoid people like him, and he can choose to avoid people like me, with our dirty, multicultural, socially liberal 'politically correct homosexual agenda'. The country is big enough. 'We've boundless plains to share,' after all. The national anthem says so. Deal with it.