The agendas behind "rationalistic" rights campaigns

Anyone who has ever been engaged in discussing "rights theory" knows, or should know, what a terrible mess a system of abstract rights can develop into if one attempts to be too precise. Incoherence, inconsistency and contradiction will continually assault such an attempt. It was wise and prudent of the authors of Victorian Equal Opportunity Act to provide exceptions and exemptions to deal with the myriad concrete circumstances the act would have to deal with.

It is a regrettable fact of human society that the incoherence, inconsistency and contradiction that arise from tight rationalistic rights campaigns to promote "equality" actually degenerate into injustice and oppression. That the Victorian Government has set up a review of the exemptions and the exceptions to the Equal Opportunity Act without causing much of a fuss in the community is evidence that people have either forgotten or are ignorant of what can happen when rigid ideologues manoeuvre themselves into a position where they can pursue their agendas under the guise of equal rights. The shibboleths of rights talk cause an entrancement like the wave of Merlin's wand.

What are we to expect from the review when the consultant on human rights to the Victorian Government for the review and the author of the Options paper is a rigid academic feminist whose agenda is as plain as the point of a pikestaff? A brief read of Assoc Prof Beth Gaze's CV, academic interests and the Options paper will leave one with little doubt. Note her research interest in "tribunal enforcement of discrimination law". It is equally plain as the point on a pikestaff that feminist Gaze has a warped and prejudiced idea of what religious belief entails and the rational processes that brings a person to believe.

There is a good reason that the dominant political class is jubilant about the opportunity and its overseer, and Christian groups are alarmed and dismayed.  That pikestaff is aimed at the hearts of people of faith and their associations. 

Rev Dr Mark Durie has prepared some instructive briefing notes on the Options paper. Recommended reading.