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http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/03/18/FFXKB3M6EKC.html ==================== Holy? Or wholly without grounds By TERRY LANE
PERSPECTIVE
Sunday 18 March 2001 An email came yesterday from my new friend, the Reverend Charles Simpson. Charles is an American, but somehow he has got hold of my email address, and he is offering to ordain me as a minister, which will allow me to perform weddings and baptisms, forgive sins and start up my own church. All for only U$29.95.

There are real advantages in being a religion in this country. You can employ priests and priestesses without paying pay-roll tax. Religions are generally exempt from GST. You don't have to serve in the army.

You are protected from mockery on the airwaves - unless, of course, you are a Roman Catholic.

The High Court ruled in 1983, in the case of the Church of the New Faith (Scientology) v. Victorian Commissioner of Payroll Tax, that if you call yourself a religion then you are a religion. You don't need to believe in a god or have rituals or a moral code or any of the other folderol associated with the word church. The state has no way of defining a religion, and if you say you are one then it is your constitutional right to be one.

For some reason, this judgment is usually attributed to the late Lionel Murphy but, in fact, it was a judgment of the full court. The bench allowed that Scientologists might call themselves a church "to serve an ulterior purpose", as Judge William Crockett had said in the Victorian Supreme Court, but, they went on, "charlatanism is a necessary price of religious freedom".

Judge Murphy's contribution to the judgment was delightfully mischievous. He said that the taxation commissioner was right to try to collect the payroll tax. "The crushing burden of taxation is heavier because of exemptions in favor of religious institutions, many of which have enormous and increasing wealth." But, as he also said, where the law is concerned, it is a case of "one in, all in". Not very judicial language, but it summed up the situation - if some organisations that call themselves religions can get away with it, then the court has to find that all self-styled religions must get the same privileges.

As I read Murphy's judgment, it is not a finding in favor of Scientology; it is a finding against the absurdity of granting special benefits to this precious group of businesses that call themselves religions.

All the judges in the case agonised over the definition of a religion and displayed in their judgments an extraordinary knowledge of comparative religion. They were at pains to avoid a definition that was formed from personal prejudice and, at the same time, they were anxious to avoid giving the impression that they were making any value judgment about Scientology or any other religion. They found the writings of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard impenetrable and unintelligible.

They accepted that he appeared to be running a business and not a charitable institution. They make the point that if his followers break the law in their observances, then the fact that they call themselves a religion will not protect them from the sanctions of the law - even if their unlawful acts spring from deeply held "spiritual"

convictions. They cite the case of Mormons and polygamy. Mormons may believe in it, but they may not practise it.

Their honors concluded that freedom of religion meant that one may believe what one chooses, no matter how idiotic, irrational, dangerous and exploitative the beliefs may be.

And, under the present rules, that means that you can apply for and must be given certain benefits that religions enjoy, including protection from ridicule. Reading between the lines, it seems that the High Court was inviting the parliaments to revisit the laws that confer privileges on religions and to repeal them.

What we need right now is a brave politician who is prepared to take the first step to remove from the statutes the privileges that are accorded superstition and scams.

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