This week in theocracy #4

Thanks to Jeremy (and NIC in the comments) for raising these amendments to the World Youth Day Act 2006.

“7 Control of conduct within World Youth Day declared areas
(1) An authorised person may direct a person within a World Youth
Day declared area to cease engaging in conduct that:
(a) is a risk to the safety of the person or others, or
(b) causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a
World Youth Day event, or
(c) obstructs a World Youth Day event.”

(NSW Government Gazette, 2008 )

Causes annoyance? Like, blaspheming to one’s self in public, in earshot of a World Youth Day participant? Public observance of uniquely Anglican practices? Reading The God Delusion?

What if two participants annoy each other? What if I go and I find George Pell annoying? Indeed, what if many Catholics, some of whom attend, continue to find George Pell annoying?

If God is omnipresent, wouldn’t that make Him a participant? Actually, I’ll leave this one alone…

And inconvenience? The utterance of inconvenient truths? Makes historical negationism a tad easier, although that may be inconvenient to some Catholic historians who insist on a less triumphalist treatment of history. Who gets clamped down upon, one, the other or both?

The last Pope spoke a few inconvenient truths that would grate with Pell and Ratzinger, being both potentially annoying and inconvenient. What if Catholics in attendance dredge those up?

The state constitutions need a bit of work to stamp out crap like this, although it does add context to the nature of the event, and hence the nature of the Federal Government’s spending on the event.

~ Bruce