bible-bashing ****
Footballer Fraser Gehrig is under investigation by the AFL for religious vilification when he allegedly called (Christian) Fremantle defender Shane Parker a “bible-bashing ****”. I am not being prudish - I have not seen a report which actually quotes his alleged statement exactly.
Listening to the talk back on sports radio tonight, commentators were questioning whether this actually qualifies as religious vilification under the AFL code. I am assured by those close to the game that it is an infringement of their code. It is the first time that there has been a report for religious vilification under the code (as distinct from racial vilification).
I wonder whether there will be discussion about this issue, and I suspect that people might be inclined to be more forgiving of alleged vilification against a more mainstream faith. This makes sense in some ways - intuitively I feel that calling someone a black cunt, as Damian Monkhorst famously called Nicky Winmar is worse than if Nicky had vilified Monky for being white.
What do people think?
UPDATE - this report in the age suggests that Parker was not offended by the statement and had been previously sledged by a St Kilda player for his beliefs:
Dockers champion Pavlich revealed in a column in a Perth newspaper earlier this season that Parker was targeted by a senior Saint in round two at Aurora Stadium in Launceston. Pavlich wrote: “It was along the lines: ‘Should you be playing today — the Pope is dead’.” It is believed that it was not Gehrig on that occasion.
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:44 am
I’m offended by your language.
August 23rd, 2005 at 10:05 am
Yeah I think you’re right, it will perhaps be treated a little less seriously, as although Australia is far from being a Christian nation, it is still the most predominant religion.
It’s like in school footy when we used to get called a bunch of skippies, we totally didn’t care though-we still knew that by and large we were in the majority in Australia compared to our ethnic opponents.
I wrote on the same topic this morning too, will be an interesting case to watch.
August 23rd, 2005 at 10:52 am
The West Australian quotes Gehrig as calling Parker a, “bible-bashing c***”.