Doug PollardI like the boy – the second coming
March 14th 2010 06:21
You have to feel sorry for Tony Abbott. He has been criticised for speaking without thinking, in his comments on women’s virginity, and on homosexuality “challenging orthodox notions of the right order of things”.
The criticism is misplaced. As a devout Catholic, he does not think about these things – the Catholic church does that for him.
Of more interest is his remark that he feels “a bit threatened” by homosexuality.
I suspect most ordinary straight Aussies of his age (the ones who don’t know that they know any homosexuals), would give a similar response. Especially men who were educated in single sex Catholic schools.
It’s hardly surprising these blokes feel uncomfortable and vaguely threatened around gay men. They spent their formative years in schools and churches under the authority of some men who were a very real sexual threat. And they will have been aware of this, even if only subconsciously.
It’s no surprise that boys like Abbott carry into their adult years a lingering sense of threat in the presence of men with a veiled sexual interest in them. Such scars run deep. As the Jesuits say, “Give me the boy, and I will give you the man.”
The church also teaches that homosexuals are intrinsically disordered, evil. This too will have left its mark on the young man.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean the (allegedly) grown-up Abbott is homophobic. I have spoken to gay people who call him their friend, and they quote his 2008 remarks on marriage.
“The love and commitment between two people of the same sex can be as strong as that between husband and wife. . . . . . . . There is more moral quality in a relationship between two people devoted to each other for decades than in many a short-lived marriage.”
Doesn’t sound homophobic to me.
Of course Abbott then had to spoil it by throwing up a piece of church-think: “A relationship between two men or between two women may be every bit as admirable as one between a man and a woman but it isn't the same, and it can't be a marriage however fulfilling and loving it might be.”
This is just a more tactful way of saying that we challenge “orthodox notions of the right order of things.”
No, the worry is not that Tony Abbott might be homophobic. The worry is that he is prepared to light a bonfire of prejudice under gay people to get to the Lodge, despite his personal feelings.
Now that part of the boy, I definitely do not like.
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Comment by Bruce Llama
Comment by Anonymous
Desperate days of the liberal party and the gay vote and how times have changed,where are the cool progressives of the party!!??
Comment by Spring-Heeled Jack
Over.Exposure
Never before has a more perfect encapsulation been made. To which the only fitting response is the old adage that evil can only occur when good stand by and people do nothing. So much wrong occurs in this world not because the majority actively perpetrate it, but because they refuse to stop and think before accepting that it must be so.