Qld Labor MP’s brazen attack on churches

…Ensure that Redlands Youth and Families experiencing disadvantages, hardships, and isolation are identiï¬ed, connected, and supported through practical, innovative, and person centered services

Local Federal Parliament Member, Andrew Laming (LNP), posted a screen shot of Don Brown's similar comments also on Facebook (since removed) and had this to say:

Just gutted to see the Capalaba MP spend his Friday night sh#t-canning The Cage Youth Foundation, Redland's best youth skilling service.

In response to Don Brown MP's snide remarks, Linda Grieve, Cage's director, replied:

Excuse me Don! How long have you actually been in Redlands? …It's not a church… That self-funded charity has been providing support in Redlands for over 19 years for our young people and families! Don't use us in your negative, back-stabbing, bullying practices – it's offensive.

The election promise for funding is a paltry $50,000 to relocate a nearby church hall onto The Cage's premises, which Mrs Frecklington said was part of the LNP's plan to boost social and economic strength.

I find it remarkable in this modern era of bountiful tolerance and pluralism that a government MP should be so oblivious as to not even be capable of blushing when manifesting such religious intolerance and bigotry. One could be forgiven for concluding he harboured a now not so secret proclivity for Christophobia.

Of course, this could be easily disproved by him producing evidence of similar levels of hostile commentary towards the tax free status of trade unions, which do not pay tax on the vast quantities of cash received by them in membership fees and donations – exactly like churches.

An inconsistent level of antipathy would seem to indicate religious bigotry (intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from himself) inasmuch he only publicly criticises the tax free status of Christian not-for-profit organisations.

Instead, Brown offered his extraordinary attack couldn't be motivated by Christophobia because he's a "Catholic", and was only concerned about the "$0 for state roads vs $50k to move a church hall".

Neighbouring Member of the Queensland state Parliament, Mark Robinson, summised Brown's apparent discrimination demonstrated need for the federal bill protecting religious freedom:

So Don, your "faith" leads you to believe that Labor Governments should discriminate against ALL faith based welfare programs – The Cage, Salvos, Catholic, School chaplaincy… But you're not #faithphobic? You are the reason we need the LNP Federal religious protection Bill.