This is part 12 in a series. For the rest of the series, go here.
I got called an “anti-Christ person” yesterday. It happened, I am told, in Facebook postings about my reports on the Pentecostal-linked Esther Foundation, which has a history of alleged religious-based abuse of teenage girls under its care. It’s the one which Scott Morrison visited in person with a $4 million grant before the last election. Oh, and Peter Dutton signed off on a grant of more than half a million dollars at the same time. Ka-ching.
I’m not sure how I feel about the “anti-Christ” tag. It’s not quite up there with actually being the Antichrist, but it definitely puts me in the running. Team Antichrist. Is there the prospect of a reality TV series along the lines of Australian Survivor, perhaps with Lucifer as host? As the flames get higher, who will be crowned Australia’s devil?
Whatever the case, it has sent a ripple of excitement through the family who, happily, feel pretty energised by the possibilities. I can’t wait to go shake hands with the Brethren guys up the road and see their reaction.
Here’s one thing I am grappling with though. How do you become the bad guy when you are helping give voice to those with allegations that they were physically, mentally and emotionally abused; women who have lived with the damage for years, and have been too traumatised to speak about it?
All the while the Esther Foundation and its founder, Patricia Lavater, have been visited by prime ministers and premiers. They have been feted with awards. They have built powerful networks with the monied and the influential.
The young women of Esther are about as powerless as you can be. Some had psychiatric problems. Drug addiction. Dysfunctional families. Little education. No friends in the media or politics. Most were raised in extreme Christian settings where it was all but impossible to question God’s will.
In the past 48 hours, more stories have arrived in Crikey’s inbox adding to those already told. And now the WA government has offered an ear, which in itself has its own healing power.
The courage and tenacity of the Esther women has borne fruit.
See what happens when the devil gets to work?
It never fails to surprise me that there can be such a large and fundamental divide between the beliefs, words and deeds of contrived Christian religious organisations and the life and example of Jesus Christ…
Anything built on a fairy tale is mutable by the meretricious and malevolent.
I’m a bit of a fan of the old “Deeds not Words”. For some reason, it almost seems like a Commandment to me of some sort at times.. almost Religious.
Hear Hear!
Dont worry about it. Their version of Christianity is not worth having. Christ himself is surely pissed off at whats going on in his name.
Hrmmmph!! After some of the posts that I have put up here, it is you David, that gets the ‘anti-Christ’ guernsey!! Boy, do I feel ‘left-out’! Am I miffed!!
Seriously, David, do those people really expect such nonsense to be taken seriously? I wear such epithets as a ‘Badge of Honor’.
The anti-Christ accusation flung at Hardaker could be a reference to Nietzsche’s short book Der Antichrist, (The Anti-Christ), available in a fine English translation by H L Mencken. This is a splendid all-out attack on the philosophical basis and character of Christianity and the harm it has done with no resemblance to the rational pedantic empirical approach taken by familiar modern atheists like Dawkins.
Proud of ya!