Love All: Margaret Court’s serve misses the mark

BY NORRIE MAY-WELBY

She can say what she likes about me, and I won’t care much. But now Margaret Court has had a go at my mother, and I’m going to give her a serve! In fact, she’s called every parent of a transgender child a bad parent.

I guess her copy of the Bible doesn’t have the “judge not” instruction that my Bible has. Rather, she’s based her objections to marriage equality and sex or gender diversity on a rather skewed reading of select verses in the Old Testament, while ignoring all the other prohibitions against shell-fish, divorce, mixed fabrics, and mouthy women. I write this as a church-going Christian, but my God is Love, not the words chosen by self-interested priests, however enlightened they may have been.

Why pick and choose the nasty bits like “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13, King James Bible), rather than “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28)?

Our modern society has agreed that we are not ruled by any particular priest’s interpretation of scripture. Indeed, we have a formal separation of church and state, so that no one can impose their own religious authoritarianism on any other. We are all free to choose our own relationship with our creator, or however we relate to the universe we find ourselves in. And while many people choose to get married in churches, it is a legal contract regulated by the state, not the church.

Of course, not all Australians are regular churchgoers, but also, not all churches are intolerant of diversity. My own church, South Sydney Uniting Church, according to its mission statement, is “…inclusive, affirming the gifts of people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations and identities”, which I believe is a far more Christian approach.

Judgmental scripture worshippers like Margaret want to exclude sex, sexuality and gender diverse people from the institution of marriage, from equal participation in civil society, and from church. Some Old Testament writers say eunuchs should be banned from the temple. Other writers say they should be welcomed in. If you are making rules to stop people being castrated against their will, the first stance makes sense. If that’s not the current problem facing your society, the second stance makes more sense. Context is everything, and it is stupid to take a rule made for a specific circumstance as a universal rule to apply in all circumstances.

There are, however, a couple of broad commandments Jesus made.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. “ (Matthew 22:37-39) Love, not pointing the finger and making evil accusations.

Margaret went far too far when she said that every parent of a child questioning gender was a bad parent. Every parent has a difficult and challenging job, and every good parent does their best to care for and support their children, whether the children are identical copies of their parents or not. There is often an additional challenge (and reward) for parents of sex or gender diverse children, and they should be applauded for nurturing their children and helping them be true to themselves, not called “evil” by a prominent person with their name on the side of a building.

There is nothing that gives this Margaret Court the right to publicly criticise my mother, who raised four children who are all still alive and healthy, three of whom have given my mother grandchildren, including one who is now in a lesbian relationship. She loves us all, because that’s what she thinks mums should do. She has not always instantly understood the more colourful aspects of my life, but I have never felt that I would be thrown out of the family home for being unconventional. Sadly, that’s not something Margaret’s children or grandchildren can be sure of.

As a good parent, or as a Christian, you don’t get to pick and choose which of your or God’s children you think are acceptable. As a decent member of civil society, you don’t get to tell other parents they are evil for supporting their children. And there’s no way we should force bisexual, gay, lesbian or sex or gender diverse people, or the parents of these people, to patronise a venue with the name of someone who publicly denounces them and calls them evil.