QandA Preview: Lyle Shelton

The Australian Christian Lobby held its “Cultivating Courage” conference in Sydney yesterday, a courageous conference, considering the controversial guests who appeared: Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison, and American commentator Eric Metaxas amongst others. These two are curious guests at a Christian event: Scott Morrison is best known as the Stopped the Boats man who presided over thousands of detainees in offshore gulags, and created a uniformed Border Force who look like they belonged on the Death Star. Eric Metaxas is an American conservative, best known for likening Christianity’s response to the “rise” of gay culture to the Church’s acceptance of the rise of Nazism* in the 1930s.

While social media is busy debating everything from whether a man like Metaxas should be allowed to preach his brutal intolerance of the LGBTI community in Australia, to whether people with his attitude should even be considered to be Christians, Lyle Shelton, high profile Managing Director of the ACL is suggesting that life for Christians is increasingly tough because everyone is mean to them. 

"We face false slurs and labels, designed to demonise us into silence," he said.

"Bigot, homophobe, hater, are just some of the pejorative terms that have been used to characterise us ordinary Australians, who simply believe that marriage [should be] between a man and woman."

This is, of course, in response to the ACL’s assertions that same sex marriage is the next step on the all-permeating slippery slope, and that it will harm children by denying them access to one parent. Name calling is never justified, yet when one segment of the population is repeatedly told that it is less equal, less worthy, and that making them equal would pose a greater danger to their children than the rest of the population, a few names seem at least, understandable.

If Mr Shelton and Treasurer Morrison are going to defend the rights of Eric Metaxas to speak, they must also defend the rights of same sex marriage advocates to speak with equal fervour.

We’ll get to see just how well that pans out when Mr Shelton appears on the ABC’s QandA tomorrow night, as part of a panel that includes John Haldane, Visiting Professor and Catholic intellectual; Julie McCrossin, Church elder, journalist, activist and speaker; Ray Minniecon, Indigenous Anglican Pastor; and Rev. Tiffany Sparks, Anglican Priest and representative for A Progressive Christian Voice.

It’s only 2 months since Mr Shelton appeared on QandA – he was a guest on February 29, when he hogged 27% of the conversation  by airtime. The heated topic was the Safe Schools Programme, which the ACL lobbied, unsuccessfully, to have removed from schools. I can’t remember the last time a guest has ever appeared twice in within two months, or if it has ever happened. I can imagine the producers at QandA offering that kind of open invitation to a Prime Minister, possibly even a senior Minister, but Mr Shelton is not a politician. He’s the head of a minor lobby group. 

The ACL, as their name suggests, is not a church, or even an organisation of churches. It is a powerful lobby group, professing to represent Australian Christians. As a lobby group, they bat far above their weight, with powerful contacts and supporters within both major political parties.

It’s also a registered non-profit organisation, a charity, with around 50,000 supporters on their mailing list, and a structure that they describe as similar to that of GetUp. Their 2015 Financial Statement indicated revenue approaching three million dollars, all from donations. The organisation receives no government funding.

In their defense, the ACL is skilled in the use of social media, particularly twitter. Aside from a couple of very public faux pas by Wendy Joy Francis and Jim Wallace, Lyle Shelton is almost always willing to engage in discussion and debate with his opponents. It rarely goes well for Lyle, whose basic arguments are quickly dismissed. You can follow Mr Shelton’s tweets at @LyleShelton.

If this week’s QandA is anything like Mr Shelton’s appearance two months ago, we should at least acknowledge his courage. While the ACL has a disproportionately high profile, it is not the peak body for Christian representation in the country, and many Christian organisations have openly denied any connection with the ACL. Mr Shelton will be representing the ACL and their 50,000 supporters. I don’t envy him, facing down what will be a largely hostile audience, an informed and passionate panel, a barrage of tweets and the facts, none of which seem to be on his side. 

Prepare your tweets, people. You have 24 hours.

*Invoke Godwin’s Law as appropriate