Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI210513A
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00:27 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:29 This is a program designed to bring you up to speed, 00:32 catch your interest and inform you 00:34 on religious liberty developments 00:36 in the US and around the world. 00:38 My name is Lincoln Steed, host of the program 00:41 and for 22 years editor of Liberty magazine, 00:45 and nearly as long on this program. 00:47 And I'd like to take you far away 00:51 where I originally came from, way down South. 00:55 I've told people for years talking to audiences in the US, 00:57 I'm from the Deep South. 00:59 Well, it's Deep South, 01:01 the South of the great Southern land of Australia. 01:03 But talking about religious liberty, 01:05 it's hit me that something took place down there 01:09 a few decades ago 01:10 that was very telling 01:12 on the nature of religious liberty 01:14 and how easily societal attitudes 01:16 can turn against those of faith. 01:21 Perhaps a few of the viewers remember, 01:24 especially if you are readers of Adventist books. 01:26 When I was book editor 01:28 at Pacific Press in Boise, Idaho, 01:30 I was under assignment to get a book 01:32 based on the story I'm about to share a little with you, 01:37 the saga of the Chamberlains, 01:40 Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. 01:42 A Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor and his wife, 01:44 who with their infant daughter and two young sons 01:48 went out into the desert 01:50 in the Center of Australia at Ayers Rock 01:52 where there's a massive monolith 01:54 surrounded by mostly desert plains 01:58 with a few scrubby eucalyptus, 01:59 and kangaroos, and emus but not much else. 02:02 They went camping there and while... 02:06 Even to this day, 02:07 it's a little obscure what happened. 02:08 It appears 02:10 that while they were gathered around the campfire 02:12 with their children in a nearby tent, 02:15 a dingo or a wild dog crept into the tent 02:18 and took the child out of the sleep 02:21 of a little bassinet is the term 02:22 they use down there, 02:24 in the presence of the two boys. 02:26 But it was never clear 02:27 if they saw it or what they were doing. 02:30 It was an incredible headline used item for years 02:34 and I was in Australia during much of that period. 02:38 And initially, people were just overwhelmed 02:42 with sympathy for the family 02:45 as you'd expect because to have a child 02:48 that's just a few weeks old 02:50 taken and probably eaten by the wild animals 02:54 was horrific. 02:57 Unfortunately, the family didn't help a lot. 03:00 The father was a Seventh-day Adventist minister 03:03 and I think because of their faith, 03:07 they were able to bear up reasonably well, 03:11 and make statements to the media 03:13 that they were not worried. 03:14 They knew they would see their daughter again 03:17 beyond this veil of tears, 03:19 but they had hope for another time. 03:22 That was good. 03:23 But unfortunately as time went on, 03:26 that seemed to translate 03:27 into a rather careless attitude in the public mind 03:31 because the next day 03:32 Michael was there taking photographs. 03:34 He said he was going to write a book 03:36 about the event. 03:38 In the inquest 03:39 that was followed closely by the public. 03:41 The wife turned up in a different dress every day 03:44 and the newspaper started covering it like 03:47 a fashion moment 03:49 and so people became a little ambivalent. 03:52 Were these truly grieving parents? 03:55 So a lot of gossip grew up 03:58 that maybe something happened different than an animal. 04:03 Then a misunderstanding kicked in 04:06 Seventh-day Adventists Protestant Christians, 04:10 Bible believing and prophecy explicating 04:16 Protestant Christians 04:18 and one of the emphases 04:20 of the Adventist Church is on health. 04:22 We're very much opposed to alcohol, 04:24 tobacco and other habits and substances 04:26 that will ruin our body's integrity 04:29 and, of course, cloud our minds about 04:31 understanding spiritual things. 04:33 And in spite of that the husband 04:35 had run anti-smoking clinics in his church and as a gimmick 04:39 but very unfortunate 04:40 when the media attention focused on them. 04:42 He used to carry a little coffin down 04:45 in the middle of the church 04:47 and have people throw their cigarettes into it 04:50 as he was asking them to stop smoking. 04:52 Well, a little coffin seems more than prescient 04:56 for a family like that. 04:57 People started to wonder, 04:59 "Was it foreshadowing 05:00 their efforts to do away with a child?" 05:01 So rumors grew up like crazy. 05:04 But the judge, like most judges kept to the law 05:09 and tried to have personal justice 05:11 as well as legal justice. 05:13 And so at the hearing, they made it public 05:16 and he decried all of the rumors and innuendos 05:19 that were going on. 05:20 And he said, "These are truly grieving parents." 05:23 He says they did not harm their child 05:25 and exonerated them. 05:27 And that should have been the end of it, 05:30 but unfortunately there was a fight 05:32 even within the church. 05:33 And a dentist 05:36 from the same religious community 05:39 was convinced that they had done something 05:42 so he went to the police. 05:43 They gave him the little jacket that had been found 05:46 and he took that to England 05:48 and here is where farce kicks in. 05:51 He took it to England and had a dingo expert in England. 05:53 There's no dingo in England, examined it. 05:56 And the idea that he brought back 05:59 was that there was not teeth marks on it. 06:01 These were scissor marks. 06:03 And so a whole scenario was cooked up 06:06 whereby with the group around the fire 06:11 the mother had ducked away for just a moment, 06:13 killed the child with scissors, 06:16 stuffed his body in a camera bag 06:17 and come back and acted normally. 06:20 The timing was improbable, 06:22 as well as the rationale was crazy, 06:25 so then the police started really checking on this couple. 06:30 Again, they didn't help themselves 06:32 very much. 06:34 They separated them with quiz separately, 06:36 of course, with tape recorders rolling. 06:39 And the wife sure of her innocence said 06:42 to the policeman in the car, 06:44 she said, "Even if I did it, you couldn't prove it." 06:47 And he says, "You're a very clever woman, 06:49 but we will get you." 06:51 So those were all unfortunate human elements 06:53 that contributed to it, 06:55 but there's no question 06:57 that as this thing revved up religious prejudice, 07:00 misunderstandings, 07:02 and then outright disliked minority group kicked in. 07:07 And it went on for years and years 07:09 and in the end, 07:11 Lindy Chamberlain was put on trial, 07:14 convicted and sentenced to, 07:17 I think it was 20 years but a lifetime, 07:19 essentially with hard labor. 07:22 Her husband was convicted of being an accomplice 07:25 but given a suspended sentence, 07:27 which is where the judge showed his clemency 07:29 because the judge was very easy on them 07:32 but the community were not 07:37 and the jury in that area were very prejudiced. 07:41 They even allowed to go home at night and discuss things 07:44 and what's the news and all the rest. 07:45 But in the sentencing guidelines for her, 07:48 the judge had no choice so it was obligatory. 07:52 With the husband, he showed 07:53 that he didn't really think that this even happened. 07:57 And the government, as I listened to it, 07:59 were looking for an excuse to release it from prison 08:02 because it's not unusual. 08:04 Even when a parent does kill a child like that, 08:08 they'll put it down to extenuating circumstances 08:11 like postpartum depression or whatever. 08:15 But what I really want to bring up 08:17 here in this short discussion 08:19 is once religious prejudice kicked in, 08:23 it then divided the church. 08:27 And half of the church members 08:30 believe she'd done it, half not. 08:32 In the wide community, 08:34 the vast majority of citizens believed 08:36 that this woman was guilty. 08:38 They do till this day, incidentally. 08:41 So there was infighting in the church, 08:43 half of the church members were prayerful about it, 08:48 the other half were politically active, 08:50 and used to hold rallies on the Sabbath day, 08:53 even demanding her release. 08:55 And I talked to some of them 08:57 and they did notice that there was a connection 09:00 between for one of a better word, 09:04 religious liberalism and the political activism 09:07 of those that were supporting political reasons 09:10 to get her out of prison. 09:12 But it tore the church apart and the country 09:14 was in a turmoil periodically over this. 09:18 In the middle of all of this, 09:20 I was listening to the legal programs 09:23 on government radio. 09:25 And there were two things that happened 09:27 that made me realize 09:28 the stakes were very, very high. 09:33 As in America, Australia has great guilt 09:36 about its treatment of the indigenous peoples. 09:41 The United States 09:43 has gotten over it to a large degree, 09:45 but you know, there were land grants, 09:47 reservations and so on given to the Indian tribes 09:50 and they're out of sight, out of mind for most people. 09:53 In Australia, it's a little more public 09:56 because of the civil rights movements 10:02 of recent years. 10:03 They've taken up the cause of the Aboriginals 10:06 and given them the land back also 10:08 and recognizing sacred places and so on. 10:11 But in recognition of the abusive nature 10:15 of colonialism 10:16 and the White settlement in Australia, 10:19 they have long allowed native peoples 10:23 to give unsworn testimony in court. 10:26 That's not allowed in the US that I know of 10:29 and that was out of deference to the fact. 10:31 And Australian Aboriginals are not an aggressive people, 10:34 nothing to do with colonialism or whatever. 10:36 There are just a very passive quiet, sorts of, 10:40 a nature of their race. 10:43 And so to allow them to appear in court 10:46 were normally under cross examination, 10:49 they could be intimidated, 10:51 and they would say nothing 10:52 or crack under the attorney's questions. 10:56 It had been allowed 10:58 that they could give the testimony. 10:59 It would be unchallenged to go into the record. 11:02 In the middle of this Chamberlain thing, 11:04 where the followers of Lindy were trying to elect 11:08 their own representatives 11:09 into the Northern territory where this took place, 11:14 into the Northern territory assembly with the stated aim 11:17 that they would then use their legal powers 11:20 to release her from prison. 11:23 And one of the Adventist lay people, 11:27 a wealthy journalist had uncovered 11:30 supposedly new testimony from an Aboriginal tracker, 11:33 who could prove, 11:35 "prove that the body had been dragged 11:39 under the home of a ranger 11:43 who then shot the animal and disposed the body." 11:47 Crazy stuff. 11:49 And here on the legal program, they were saying, 11:54 "No reference to the Chamberlain thing." 11:55 But suddenly in the middle of this 11:57 that they were in the process of removing this clause that... 12:01 or this provision that allowed natives 12:05 to give unsworn testimony. 12:08 So it removed a massive protection 12:12 from an entire people 12:14 in trying to get this one person out of jail. 12:17 That was bad enough but then a few weeks later, 12:19 I heard something that is much more relevant now 12:23 but it was very frightening at the occasion. 12:25 This was not well before 9/11. 12:27 This was in the 1980s. 12:31 And the lawyers came on this program 12:33 and they said the greatest threat ever 12:35 to civil liberties is taking place 12:37 in the Northern Territory. 12:39 They said they're in the process of... 12:41 They put forward a bill that would... 12:44 an anti-terrorism bill. 12:46 And at that point, 12:47 there had never been a terrorist act in Australia. 12:51 The closest to it, 12:52 there's a lot of Serbs and Croats 12:54 that have made their way to Australia 12:56 and because we know the Balkans War, 12:58 what that produced there 12:59 but in Australia it was just antagonism 13:01 between the elements of the community. 13:03 And I remember on one occasion 13:05 someone exploded the garbage can, 13:07 probably put a firecracker or something in. 13:09 That was the closest to a terrorist action. 13:11 So here according to this 13:14 law review report, 13:18 they said this great threat to civil liberties 13:20 was coming under an anti-terrorism bill 13:22 and the bill will be set up this way. 13:26 They would establish an anti-terrorism Commissioner, 13:30 who would not be bound by the rules of evidence. 13:34 Now that's quite startling. 13:36 Both in Australia and England and also in the US, 13:42 there's the rules of Habeas corpus 13:44 and the conventions of, 13:47 you know, a trial by jury 13:48 and you know, all of these conventions of fair trial, 13:51 fair and speedy trial and you're innocent 13:53 until proven guilty and so on. 13:55 That wouldn't apply in this case. 13:56 He's not bound by the rules of evidence 13:59 and he would hold a secret list of terrorist organizations, 14:03 a secret list, never made public. 14:06 And if you belonged to a member 14:09 of one of these secretly listed organizations, 14:13 you would be subject to immediate 14:15 and arbitrary arrest 14:16 and imprisonment without trial 14:19 on hard labor for the rest of your life. 14:21 I mean, it's just... 14:22 You couldn't hardly credit such a thing. 14:24 And it clearly was a response 14:28 to the political pressure being brought 14:31 to gain release of Lindy Chamberlain. 14:35 A very sad situation. 14:37 I will speak a little bit more about it 14:39 after the break but stay with me. 14:41 And we'll continue the tale of the desert 14:45 from Australia and civil and religious liberties. |
Revised 2021-12-09