Acute Angles: An Unwelcome Ritual

AN UNWELCOME RITUAL

Dear Rabbi. You wrote some time ago denouncing an Aboriginal smoking ceremony at a Jewish event in Melbourne. Apparently, a Christian preacher is being hauled before the Queensland Human Rights Commission for refusing to perform one at a Christian gathering. What’s your take on that? Max B.

Dear Max.

This gentleman, Dave Pellowe (who incidentally is a philosemite and lover of Israel) is an absolute hero. I only wish it had been a rabbi!

The event you cite was a conference set up by the Australian Christian Lobby in a Queensland church. Pellowe was the organizer of the event. One of the participants apparently queried Pellowe’s recitation of Psalm 24 in lieu of performing a “Welcome to/Acknowledgment of Country” ritual, whereupon Pellowe took him aside and responded, politely but assertively, to the effect that such rituals are animistic (worshipping polygenetic spirits in nature), laden with pagan (i.e. idolatrous) beliefs and ancestor-worship, and incompatible with monotheistic faith. He went on to assert that these rituals “describe Aboriginal sovereignty over this continent as a spiritual and sacred notion: the land as an entity they are born from, remain attached to and return to upon their death.” I must say that I have never before heard such a clear and lucid exposition of what constitutes indigenous belief.

The result was that the questioner, who presumably was of indigenous ancestry, took offense and reported Pellowe to the state’s Human Rights Commission. Consequently this Christian preacher could now face prosecution for standing up for his religious beliefs.

Pellowe, in turn is invoking Section 116 of the Australian Constitution which stipulates that the Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance … and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth. He maintains that the imposition of a “Welcome to Country” ritual at public events is in breach of this section of the Constitution.

I believe that he is absolutely right! This could turn out to be a landmark case in the social and cultural history of this nation.

We are seeing increasingly at public gatherings and even on domestic flights in Australia that nothing proceeds before the invoking of the following incantation, and I quote from this month’s Qantas magazine: We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians (replete with capital letters) of the land on which we work, live and fly. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and are committed to honoring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationship to the land, water and sky.

Thanks to Dave Pellowe, my eyes have been opened to the full extent of the irreconcilability of this statement with Jewish belief, and indeed all monotheistic belief. 

The incantation – for that is what it is – goes way beyond expressing honor and respect for indigenous elders. Indeed, Torah teaching tells me I must honor every living man and woman created in the image of G-D. But this invocation requires me to honor “elders past” who, traditional Aboriginal culture demands, are not only to be venerated but worshipped, as well as ATSI’s “unique …spiritual relationship to the land, water and sky”. In other words, I am being asked to honor idolatry, which I will not do under any circumstances! And this even without the smoking ceremony to ward off evil spirits, Heaven help us!

This issue should rouse all sections of Australian society. Firstly secular Australian who are having a quasi-religious ceremony imposed upon them.  Secondly, adherents of monotheistic faiths including of course our own. And thirdly ATSI peoples themselves, more than 98 per cent of whom, according to veteran ATSI campaigner Warren Mundine, do not adhere to Aboriginal traditional religions or beliefs. According to the 2016 census, 54 per cent of ATSI peoples reported a Christian affiliation. Mundine avers that Aboriginal meetings are as a rule commenced with a Christian prayer, or maybe a Psalm of David!

So for whom is the Welcome to Country ceremony pandering? Neither secular, nor Christians, nor Muslims, nor Jews, nor ASTI peoples themselves. I shall give you three guesses and you will need but one: yes, the subversive far left and its wokeist allies who are determined to throw Australia’s Judaeo-Christian heritage onto the garbage heap. This is, of course, the same segment of society which bears a visceral hatred for Israel and call us genocidalists.

And we Jews, who would protest vehemently if we were being forced to sing Christian hymns or bow in reverence to Christian prayers, where are we? Why are we not protesting, alongside Dave Pellowe, this invasion of our religious rights, having “Welcome to Country” rituals thrust down our throats?

At least one man is determined to resist and to loosen the chains of these authoritarian, cultish, coercive new orthodoxies that are insidiously worming their way into mainstream culture. One man is unafraid to stand up and shout out: the king is naked! Dave Pellowe deserves our unreserved support and our admiration!

As I said at the outset – I only wish it had been a rabbi!