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Time is short for me right now. I’ve just come back from a few days
leave and I’ve got a sermon to write. Half my head is still where it was
yesterday: on a beach on the Tasmanian East Coast. Another half is
thinking ahead to Sunday’s sermon, trying to get its head around 1 John
3. Yet another half (does that maths work?) is trying to decide how I
should be feeling about the American anti-abortionist who at this very
minute is being detained at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne in
compliance with an order made by our Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton.

I’ve
got to be honest about this and say that I would really prefer to go
back to the beach, or on to the sermon. But for some reason I just can’t
let this issue go.

The American anti-abortionist is Troy Newman. He is co-author of the book Their Blood Cries Out, written in 2000. And from what I can gather he has argued in that book that those who carry out abortions are murderers and that they should be tried, convicted, and sentenced as murderers.

Newman believes, as many of us do, that human life begins at conception and that, as a consequence, abortion is the taking of human life. He also believes, as many of us do not, that a convicted abortionist should be executed.

The law isn’t on his side. Lawmakers in the US and Australia agree: abortion is not necessarily murder.

So why has Peter Dutton ordered that Newman’s visa be cancelled? Because Dutton has been persuaded that Newman fails the requisite character test under section 501 of the Migration Act (it’s a long section of the Act, and you can read it here.)

How did Dutton hear about Newman’s visit? On 28 September, Terri Butler, the Labor member for Griffith, wrote to him and told him that Newman was on his way here. She wasn’t the only one alerting the Minister for Immigration – there was also a change.org petition calling on the government to cancel his visa. In her letter, Butler writes:

“I am concerned that Mr Newman’s presence in Australia will cause significant harm to our community. In a media release published today his hosts, Right to Life Australia, promise that MrNewman will “stir up” debate throughout the country. There is a risk that this will involve the harassment and intimidation of women accessing reproductive services and professionals offering those services at medical clinics, and result in their vilification within the community; especially vulnerable women. Mr Newman’s conduct may incite discord within the community and disrupt the ability of women to access lawful reproductive medicine.

Furthermore, I am most concerned that Mr Newman’s call for “abortionists” to be “executed” could lead to threats or the commission of acts of violence against women and medical professionals. The risk of this type of violence is not theoretical. On 16 July 2001 Peter Knight stormed a medical facility in Melbourne with a shotgun, murdering a security guard, Steven Rogers. Many others may have been injured if it were not for the bravery of a young man at the scene who wrested the weapon from Mr Knight and overcame him.”

Dutton was persuaded to exercise his discretion. And, because Newman’s appeal to the High Court this afternoon was unsuccessful, he will soon be deported back to America.

Now all of this is an oversimplification of the issues, but still, I am left feeling pretty uncomfortable.

On the one hand I know that Peter Dutton is an intelligent man. He almost certainly has more information about Newman than we do. Exercising a Ministerial discretion to deport someone under section 501 of the Immigration Act is not something done on a whim. So I need to assume the best of our Minister rather than the worst. If Dutton has grounds to reasonably believe that Newman should be excluded from Australia then I should be okay with that.

But on the other hand, I am not okay with that, even though I tell myself that I should be.

For Terri Butler to argue that Newman’s presence in Australia “will cause significant harm to our community” and that it “could lead to threats or the commission of acts of violence against women and medical professionals,” and perhaps murder, seems like a very, very long bow.

And if Newman’s arguments are as pathetic and thin as his opponents say they are, shouldn’t the Australian public be given the respect of being allowed to come to that conclusion itself? Part of me thinks that the best way to silence an irrational extremist is give them a good microphone and an intelligent audience.

But then, I don’t know if Newman is an irrational extremist, because I haven’t been allowed to hear what he has to say, other than in news snippets or extracts from a book published 15 years ago.

I simply have to trust that Peter Dutton is right to have silenced him. There doesn’t seem to be any allegation that Newman is a convicted criminal or that he will himself be committing acts of violence. It’s his arguments that are keeping him out.

All of this is to say: I am confused about how I feel regarding Troy Newman’s exclusion.

In the immortal words of Bob Dylan, The Times, They Are A Changin’. And there are lots of people, like me, who wonder and worry about how Christians will live in a world where we silence those we disagree with.

I still don’t know what to make of the silencing of Troy Newman, and the times we live in may be changing, but the creator of heaven and earth says “I the Lord do not change” (Mal 3:6). The best we can do for ourselves, and others, is to remind each other that God will not be silenced. No one can cancel his visa.

Image from Operation Rescue.

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