'Inequality in a dog collar': how the Religious Discrimination Bill hands more power to the powerful

Of course, most people don't hear these stories as I've told them because supporters of Folau and Porteous spin misleading narratives in which these two men are the helpless, blameless victims of a web of politically correct regulations and secular officials.

But as absurd as this myth-making is, it matters.

If these false narratives are allowed to carry the Religious Discrimination Bill into law, two powerful men who believe they should be above the laws that apply to the rest of us will have caused a multitude to suffer.

Reasserting the power of pastors and prelates

That is the "religious freedom" movement in a nutshell.

Its proponents want you to believe it's about classic Enlightenment freedoms like freedom of religion and free speech.

But it is really about freedom for powerful pastors and prelates, slyly posing as faux victims, to force their views on the rest of us.

Consider those bishops who shouted about their freedoms being curtailed when we have marriage equality. They were the very same bishops who punished and silenced those among the faithful who spoke out in favour of that reform.

Consider the pastors who clamoured for state schools to be free from "transgender ideology". They insisted no-one should interfere with their power to exclusively teach their own brand of "gender complementarity" in their (government-funded) religious schools, and even insisted on their right to teach their ideology in state schools (which the Religious Discrimination Bill gives them).

Consider the conservative "Christian" advocates who frighten their base with tales of litigious homosexuals taking Christian bakers to the cleaners. They now demand those multi-million dollar religious corporations that provide health and aged care have the right to sack any employee or turn away any client who doesn't conform to traditional "Christian sexual ethics".

Consider the attitude of the religious establishment when lone, unaffiliated religious individuals are taken to court for inciting hatred and defend themselves by claiming "religious freedom". The hierarchs and their media cheer squads are silent then.

Powerful religious figures do not care about the principle of "religious freedom". They have no respect for the freedoms of others, religious or otherwise. They only endorse "freedom" insofar as it gives them license to do what they want.