- Toys For Ass Bum
- Feb 1, 2015
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Margaret Court takes defiant stance
The Australian posted:
Marika Court barely recognises the Margaret Court she has read about over the past fortnight.
“My mother has the biggest, kindest, most loving heart of anyone I know,” she says of the 74-year-old. “She is the one helping when other people have given up or just walked on by.”
Grand slam champion Margaret Court is wearing the labels racist and bigot on the international stage where she was once lauded as the greatest tennis player who ever lived. She is hearing calls for her name to be dumped from the tennis court at Melbourne Park that honours her.
Her decision to repeatedly broadcast her views about gays, including that they must not marry, and on transgender children — she says they are being influenced by the devil — are ready-made news for websites across the globe. They are also the stuff of nightmares for any publicist charged with managing her reputation. Except she does not have a publicist. Instead, she has an unshakeable belief she is following the scriptures.
So pretty much any reporter who calls her mobile can have fresh quotes from the Pentecostal pastor explaining all manner of controversial views, including that gays and lesbians can retrain their minds. “As a man thinketh so is he,” she said yesterday.
Marika, 41, who is also a pastor at Mrs Court’s church, is clearly distressed that these are the only things so many people know about her mother.
“This is a woman who found a man rummaging through her bin on the verge and invited him in for dinner,” Marika said.
“When we were kids, she was constantly pulling meat out of the freezer and giving it to people because she was worried they couldn’t afford to eat well.”
Mrs Court’s Victory Life church hands out 24 tonnes of food a week to the poor.
She said that since she excoriated Qantas for its marriage equality stance in a letter last month to her local newspaper, The West Australian, she had received some 800 emails of support. She said some may be surprised that her supporters included gay men who are part of her church and, like her, do not believe in gay marriage.
Among them is a Perth man who said he came out as gay at 17, was now married to a woman and described himself as “experiencing a degree of same-sex attraction”. He said his wife asked him to share his story anonymously because of threats and intimidation from Mrs Court’s opponents.
“Pastor Margaret Court recognises that each person’s life is a constant process of transformation,” the man said. “She knows that nobody’s life is perfect. Hers isn’t. And mine definitely isn’t. Pastor Margaret’s heart cry for children to be able to be raised at every possibility by their biological mother and father is an honourable way of standing up for the most vulnerable in our society. This should be applauded, not criticised. Pastor Margaret may not support gay ideology, but neither do all same-sex attracted people across Australia.
“Those who call her bigoted or homophobic do not know her and have never experienced the tangible compassion she has for every person, irrespective of their sexual attraction.”
Yesterday, Mrs Court said she regretted that the backlash to her comments had caused pain for some in her family.
Mrs Court’s nephew Phil Shanahan, who runs a tennis academy named for her in Albury, NSW, said he had received “ugly” abuse from around the world and threats of a boycott. He said he loved his aunt and she was entitled to express her views. He said his door had been “smashed” in the middle of the night and said his family was “nervous”.
Mrs Court said she did not understand why she has been accused of being a supporter of South African apartheid, particularly when she clearly recalled being frustrated by the policy on a tennis tour with Evonne Goolagong. The allegation stems from comments she is reported to have made in the 1970s, describing South Africa as managing its “situation”. “I don’t know what I said — I could have said something but I have never been in favour of apartheid,” she said.
On Thursday, transgender woman Catherine McGregor, a cricket writer and newspaper columnist, offered a view of the controversy over Mrs Court that was both critical of the pastor and those who wish to rename Margaret Court Arena.
McGregor said Mrs Court had gone beyond her faith in her comments but added: “I don’t think that persecuting a 74-year-old Christian pastor is actually going to take us anywhere.”
She said calls for Margaret Court Arena to be renamed was “Stalinist airbrushing of someone’s history ... that is wrong”.
Mrs Court is unguarded when talking about her experience of depression as a young mother of four. Her husband of almost 50 years, former WA Liberal Party president Barry Court, was away a lot working on the couple’s farm.
Mrs Court said it was around then that she turned from Catholicism to being a Pentecostal.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett denounced calls to rename Margaret Court Arena: “It would be an absolute travesty in the practice of democracy in this country if they bow to those sorts of pressures ... it would be a travesty if expressing one’s views somehow leads to a penalty. I don’t agree with her views, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a right to express them.”
The comments section currently has 580 replies.
Of course since only people with a subscription to The Australian can read/comment the article, it's just a massive pile of wank.
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Jun 3, 2017 13:40
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- Toys For Ass Bum
- Feb 1, 2015
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So happy Pell has finally been charged.
I have friends who have been waiting 40 years for this moment and, even though they know he'll never actually answer for his crimes, being able to watch all the horrors that man committed during his life be brought to light is as close as they will ever see to justice.
How will they get him out of Vatican City?
There's a good reason he fled the country during the first big hearings.
Crossposting from the Schadenfreude thread:
Cardinal George Pell unlikely to return to Vatican City
The article is paywalled, but here's the important bits:
quote:
POPE Francis on Thursday night offered guarded support for Cardinal George Pell, while expressing respect for the Australian judicial system that will decide his fate.
But Vatican insiders are already preparing to pension off Cardinal George Pell, regardless of the outcome of the case involving historic sex offences.
The Herald Sun has been told it is highly unlikely that Cardinal Pell, who was promoted to the Vatican three years ago to reform its multi- billion euro real estate and financial portfolio, will return to Rome in his high-profile role.
Pope Francis, while supportive of Cardinal Pell, is seeking to fend off his harshest critics and minimise any reputational damage to the church.
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Archbishop Fisher said the archdiocese would not pay legal bills arising from the charges, but would assist with the cardinal’s accommodation and support on his return.
The Catholic Church could be forced to fork out for an expensive trip if doctors decide that Cardinal Pell is too ill to fly on a standard plane.
Last year, he gave evidence to the royal commission via videolink from Rome after his lawyers argued his heart condition was not compatible with a long flight.
Cardinal Pell could take a lengthy boat trip from Europe to Australia.
Or he could be “medivacced” on a private jet, for about $15,000 an hour — more than $350,000 for a 24-hour trip.
Australian National University professor of international law Donald Rothwell said the cost would not have to be borne by taxpayers.
“He is the subject of a summons, so it is his responsibility to appear at the court,” he said.
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Officially, Cardinal Pell has been given leave of absence to fight the charges.
However, at the age of 76 Cardinal Pell is already a year past the normal retirement age, which would offer the church a ready explanation should it decide to dispense with his services.
yes
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Jun 29, 2017 13:18
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Jun 3, 2017 13:40
