I’ve used this technique before, but I think Margaret Court’s latest rant on homosexuals and same-sex marriage in today’s Herald-Sun warrants another reality check.

Sometimes a different ‘spin’ on an argument helps us recognise just how cruel, outdated, hateful, ignorant and just plan batshit crazy it is.

In the following article, based on Margaret Court’s opinion piece in the Herald-Sun, the words highlighted in red are mine, and not Margaret Court’s.

I have used the basic structure and logic of Court’s  article, not to argue against homosexuals and same-sex marriage (as she does in the original) but, in this case, to argue in favour of treating mental illness with exorcisms (as carried out by Jesus).  If this seems a rather bizarre idea, remember that exorcisms are still performed today and that, not so long ago, Hillsong-aligned Mercy Ministries was exposed for conducting exorcisms on young, vulnerable girls admitted to their program with the promise of comprehensive medical and psychological support for depression and eating disorders.

The Herald-Sun should be ashamed for printing this disgusting drivel from Mrs Court.  Mrs Court has every right to her obscene opinions, but the Herald-Sun has no more obligation to give her a platform for her views than some raving racist who wants to tell the world that Indigenous Australians are biologically inferior to caucasians, or that all Muslims are terrorists.  By giving Mrs Court a forum, the Herald-Sun is complicit in adding to an anti-gay culture which results in unacceptably high rates of youth suicide, self-abuse, self-harm, psychological distress, alcoholism and drug abuse.  They should be ashamed.

If you’re as disgusted as I am, contact the Herald Sun and direct your remarks to the editor:

Phone: (03) 9292 1226
Fax: (03) 9292 2112
Email: news@heraldsun.com.au

An argument in favour of exorcisms ‘in the spirit’ of Margaret Court

Court’s original argument against homosexuals and same-sex marriage is here.

NB: This is a satirical re-write of an article by Margaret Court. Words marked in red are mine.

Matthew 17:14-18: “There came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed…And Jesus rebuked the devil “

WE live in a blessed nation but Australia is on a steep moral decline.

Everywhere you look we are making excuses for a sliding lifestyle and more people are blind to it than ever before.

Our Constitution is based on biblical principles and our nation is great because of it.

We are a country with a moral fabric and families … But increasingly our kids are being taught that anything goes. Today, more and more Australians are afflicted with mental illness, and, as the Bible tells us, this is not due to chemical imbalances in the brain, or psychological trauma, but demon possession.

As a society we are losing touch with fundamental Christian values, as our leaders lean towards an agenda of political correctness, spreading the myth that mental illness is something other than a punishment for one’s sins or spiritual weakness.

We live in a world of moral values. Even those without faith know what is right and what is wrong. We all have a conscience and so many people get trapped in the pattern of saying something is right when deep down they know it isn’t.  Deep down mentally ill people know they are sinners and that God has inflicted this as punishment upon them.  Effectively, they have chosen mental illness, and by submitting to an exorcism they could choose to be free of this affliction.

… Looking back, you can see that there has been a steep decline, especially when it comes to the issue of mental health. There is so much scripture within the Bible that points to the cause of mental health problems.

Let me be clear. I believe that a person’s mental health status is a choice. In the Bible it says that mental health issues are inflicted as punishment for sin. It is not something you are born with, or something which occurs because of physiological or psychological causes. Mental illness is caused by sin or spiritual weakness; by demon possession.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; 
   fear the LORD and shun evil. 
This will bring health to your body 
   and nourishment to your bones.

– Proverbs 3:7-8

My concern is that we are advocating to young people that it is OK to suffer from mental illness; that it’s not their fault and they shouldn’t be stigmatised. But I truly believe if you are told being mentally ill is not your fault, it will  impact your life and you will never see the need for repentance. If somebody is told mental illness can be helped by drugs and cognitive therapy, they may start to believe it. Acceptance is ultimately unkind.

We are living in a society that takes the easy way out. Drugs and cognitive therapy, are the soft option; only exorcism can drive the demons from your soul!

Exorcisms are traumatic. But people suffering from mental illnesses need exorcisms – and I think we are losing sight of this.

We are led by politicians and mental health ‘experts’ who lie and spread deceit. They no longer accept the Bible as the last word on health issues and that affects us all, as a nation. Lies that demons don’t exist, and don’t cause illness,  just don’t seem to matter much any more.

There is so much deception in the world and it’s getting worse by the minute. The Gospel of John speaks of a mad man being possessed by demons so there is the proof. … We have lost our way and have been deceived by the secular view that illness is not supernaturally imposed for sins against God.

It worries me because I fear our next generation will lose all direction and become more possessed by demons than ever before.

I can’t understand, if we are a blessed nation under a biblical Constitution, why there is such a push to send people with mental health problems to psychiatrists and psychologists?  Indeed, our church coffers would swell significantly  if mentally ill people were forced to attend churches for exorcisms. We could provide these at exorbitant prices and pay no tax on the profits. My own church could certainly do with the cash …

That is why I believe we need to stop all government subsidies for mental health treatment because mental illness is God-ordained and only exorcism in a House of God can set you free.

The New Testament is the greatest book on psychology. It shows you how to live victoriously. It’s our TV guide to life. It has everything in there for every facet – even how to run a nation…

A nun at my primary school once held my head under water for several minutes in order to drive demons of disobedience from me.  It was one of the best experiences of my life. She could see the potential in me long before I did.  I just had to get rid of those d****d demons! She gave me a grounding for the future, for which I remain grateful … That’s what our kids need right now: people who are willing to physically abuse them into submission, people who will make them submit to exorcisms if they suffer from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or depression. This is what the Bible prescribes …  in a world where we have become far too scared to reject unbiased research, scientific and medical consensus and the rights of individuals to be treated with dignity, respect and acceptance.

Margaret Court is a pastor and a current world No.1 fundamentalist, homophobic, bigot.

Chrys Stevenson

See also Mike Stuchbery’s: Margaret Court, Translated

Court’s original op-ed piece in the Herald-Sun is here.

Furious Purpose’s, Stirring the Pot for Shits and Giggles contains the brilliant quip:

“The former Catholic turned fundie evangelical who runs her own church in Perth should have stuck to hitting tennis balls. Her intellectual stamina is to her forehand what Tony Abbott is to Plato.”

Margaret Court’s views increase gay suicide risk: health advocate, The Australian

Other commitments have prevented me from weighing in to the debate about anti-abortion, anti-porn lobbyist, Melinda Tankard Reist and her threat to sue, blogger, Dr Jennifer Wilson for defamation. In the meantime, much has been written – both in the media and in numerous blogs and twitter comments (see the twitter stream for #MTRSues). This is my contribution. I hope it is fair, but I make no pretense at being unaligned – I stand firmly in Dr Wilson’s corner.

Dr Wilson angered Ms Reist by claiming in a blog post that she is ‘deceptive and duplicitous’ about the religious agenda which drives her activism. A lesser claim is that (shock, horror!) Wilson wrongly characterised her as a Baptist.

Melinda Tankard Reist admits to being a Christian – although, from what I’ve seen, when questioned on this topic  she affects the demeanour of a dental patient, just prior to a painful extraction. By her own admission, the impression Ms Reist wants to give is that although she tries to follow the teachings of Jesus, her opposition to pornography and abortion is based entirely on credible, unbiased evidence without any ideological spin.

Ms Reist claims to be a feminist and wants her work accepted under that banner. And yet, feminists who have worked long and hard to advance women’s rights and freedoms object vehemently to Reist co-opting the word to advance an agenda which calls for women’s rights to be curtailed (allegedly in their own interests).  Ms Reists’s paternalistic (maternalistic?) view of women as victims who must be protected is inconsistent with the tenets of modern feminism.

The meaning of words usually has some ‘wiggle room’ but meaning cannot be infinitely elastic. I could call myself a Christian but inevitably people are going to look at my work and the kinds of people I hang out with and suggest that to do so is ‘deceitful and duplicitous’ –  and they’d be right.

The parallels between Tankard Reist’s views and those of far-right, conservative, religious institutions and organisations, raises  important questions as to whether she can be rightfully characterised as a ‘feminist’. Reist, it seeems, is the ‘pin-up girl’ for a regular tea party of fundamentalist religious organisations whose dogmatic beliefs favour discrimination, chauvinism, misogyny and paternalism.  (I’m reminded of Jim Wallace’s view that female soldiers should not be able to serve on the front lines because his wife needs his strong, male hands to get the lid off the Vegemite jar at breakfast time.)

Inevitably, these synergies and relationships raise doubts about whether Reist’s views are genuinely based on what is best for women. Is it possible, instead, that her views derive from the right-wing religious groups in whose company she is so often seen?

Certainly ‘rebranding’ these dinosaurs’ antediluvian views as ‘feminist’ and disseminating them via a young, articulate and attractive woman would be a particularly ingenious marketing strategy. (Despite Melinda’s extreme sensitivity to the sexualisation of women, there’s nothing more compelling than a foxy fundamentalist.) Sadly, I’m not totally convinced Pell, Wallace and their ilk are that clever. Perhaps Reist’s role as the marketable face of out-dated dogma is purely serendipitous – like the rookie golfer who, with no skill whatsoever, just happens to hit a hole in one.

Regardless of how it came to be, it is true that evangelical and conservative Christianity could do with an image update. The likes of Jim Wallace, Bill Muehlenberg, Fred Nile, Peter Stokes, Cardinal Pell, Peter Jensen, Steve Fielding and Danny Nalliah aren’t exactly a big drawcard for women and Gens X and Y. Even that cool-cat hipster, Brian Houston, is beginning to look uncomfortably like Glenn Robbin’s Uncle Arthur kicking up his heels to Lady Gaga at the family Christmas party.

But, getting back to the threatened defamation action; Ms Reist objects to Dr Wilson calling her ‘deceptive and duplicitous’.  Perhaps ‘evasive’ or ‘coy’ may irk her less? Whatever terminology is used there is no doubt that Ms Reist, herself, has spoken of her desire to keep her religious views out of the public sphere so that her work will be viewed without the imputation of religious bias.

I don’t know Ms Reist’s work well enough to comment on its content. But others, whose opinions I respect, suggest that it does not come from a place of pure research, scientific objectivity, or an ideologically unhampered commitment to women’s rights.  And, if this is true, women have a right to know what interest groups, religious views, or non-feminist agendas may influence Ms Reist’s choice of source material and filtering and selection of data.

There are many credible academics and scientists who somehow manage to separate their religious beliefs from their research. Honest researchers – whether secular or religious – go where the facts lead them. They don’t begin with an immutable position and then try to assemble facts to prop it up.  The fact that Ms Reist is a Christian – even a fundamentalist Christian – shouldn’t negatively influence her work if it is backed by credible evidence drawn from reputable, mainstream sources or based on methodologically sound research. Indeed, if this was the case, Ms Reist would stand out as a shining beacon of hope in the stench-ridden swamp land of fundamentalist propaganda.

But, if it’s true that Ms Reist’s approach to research is obtaining anecdotal ‘evidence’ from a carefully pre-selected, non-representative cohort of women; if she buys in to hysterical and unsubstantiated Catholic conspiracy theories about abortion rights and a Nazi-style secularist eugenics agenda; if she spreads rumours about the medical ‘risks’ of abortion which have long since been debunked;  if her arguments on the psychological toll of abortion and pornography on women and the wider population don’t stand up to expert scrutiny – then she is not disseminating information, she is disseminating propaganda, and the public deserves to know the difference.

Whether Ms Reist is genuinely able to separate her religious views from her academic research, or whether she is a shill for a fundamentalist boys’ club, her ‘brand’ has almost certainly been irreparably damaged by the foolish decision to threaten Dr Wilson with legal action.  Instead of silencing rumours about religious bias, she has ignited a firestorm of international publicity. While it is (remotely) possible she may have some legitimate complaints relating to Dr Wilson’s critiques it seems Ms Reist made no attempt whatsoever to resolve the issue through discussion.

Whether at Ms Reist’s hand or not (who are you jjane246?), the recent sanitising of her Facebook page and Wikipedia entry to expunge her numerous links to the religious right, play to Wilson’s advantage rather than Reist’s. The decision to threaten heavy handed and intimidatory legal action on what any court must surely decide is a trivial matter, makes Reist look like a schoolyard bully.

Worse, because defamation actions are notoriously costly, Reists’s threat sets off even more rumours that her legal costs might be underwritten by one or more of the wealthy religious institutions which so enthusiastically support her views. There is no doubt there are quite a few right-wing homophobic, misogynistic religious wowsers who would like to see bloggers like Wilson, Leslie Cannold and, dare I say, me, cowed into silence.

Finally, this whole debacle has brought Melinda Tankard Reist’s work to the attention of a whole host of feminists, academics, writers and journalists who may not otherwise have heard of her.  Melinda may be enjoying the spotlight, but I doubt the added scrutiny is going to work in her favour.

Chrys Stevenson

Please consider signing this online petition which requests that MTR stop her legal action against Wilson:

On Wednesday, 18 January, I spoke, on behalf of Reason Australia,  to a group of about 40 people at the Maroochydore branch of Dying with Dignity (Voluntary Euthanasia Society) Queensland.

(Illustrated) audio is now available online in 2 x 15 minute videos.

Here’s the crux of my speech:

“… it’s probably not going to come as a great shock to you when I suggest that most of the misinformation about [voluntary euthanasia] comes from religious institutions and their fundamentalist supporters.

But, today, I’m going to take this argument further. I’m going to suggest that you aren’t the only victims of religiously motivated propaganda. I’m going to suggest looking at the issue of voluntary euthanasia more broadly; and I’m going to ask you to consider forming alliances with groups which are fighting on other fronts, but which share the same broad goals as you.

And what are those goals? It seems to me, you aren’t just fighting for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.  In broader terms you’re fighting for a secular government, for a clear separation between religion and state.  Because, if we had a truly secular government – one which based its policy decisions on reason and credible evidence – voluntary euthanasia would be legalised tomorrow …

The forces that oppose voluntary euthanasia are the same forces responsible for the pernicious infiltration of evangelical religion into our governments – and particularly into education, health and welfare, They’re the ones delaying justice for those who’ve been sexually or physically abused by the clergy. It’s religious groups and their supporters who oppose stem-cell research. These are the same people who believe their values should determine what websites you can access on the internet, or what movies you should be allowed to see.

At the very core of all these disputes is your right to freedom from other people’s religions. On this basis, the battle to be able to die with dignity, is not that different to the battles being fought over, let’s say:

• women’s reproductive rights
• same-sex marriage and adoption rights
•  the insanity of placing evangelical religious chaplains into schools at the expense of youth workers with tertiary qualifications in mental health.

Any of these issues might be won tomorrow if governments could be persuaded not to buckle under pressure from religious groups and, instead, make decisions based on credible evidence. ”

I’ll be speaking on this same topic at Dying with Dignity’s NSW AGM and conference in Sydney on 24 March 2012.  The public are welcome to attend.  Contact DWD NSW for more information.

There’s been a largely positive response to the speech – particularly in comments to the version of the newspaper article published online.

One of the audience members on Wednesday asked why, when gay marriage affects such a very small proportion of the population and voluntary euthanasia potentially effects 100 per cent, the gay lobby is getting all the attention.  I replied, “Because they’re better lobbyists than you.”

All of us, for example,  could learn a lot from the efforts of Alex Greenwich and his Australian Marriage Equality lobby.

I did have quite a giggle at one of the letters to the editor in this morning’s daily which reminds me somewhat of a Ronald Reagan movie – it’s so bad, so full of wrong, that it’s actually incredibly entertaining:

“Religious atheist preacher and author Chrys Stevenson told the govern-bent that religious groups (other than her own) often used misinformation and discredited research to prop up their own ideology. What, and the church of atheism doesn’t?” Atheism is as much about faith as any other belief. Still haven’t found those missing links yet have we, Chrys?” – Greg , Caloundra

But then, there was this:

Chrys Stevenson, it’s good to see someone standing up for a secular government. Religion – any religion – has no place in government, especially in a multi-cultural, modern nation like Autralia. The only way to ensure fairness for everyone is by keeping the law and government segregated from religion. We aren’t living n the dark ages any more, where the most ignorant screams the loudest. So let’s hope the government is swayed by researched logic rather than unsupported beliefs. Chrys, you have respect and support from me and my family.” – CP, Warana

So there’s hope, yet, isn’t there?

Thanks CP, whoever you are.

Chrys Stevenson

If you’re at the Sunshine Coast and agree with the sentiments expressed in the video, please consider joining the Sunshine Coast Atheists.  For more information email:  sunshinecoastatheists@gmail.com

In July, Peter Ellerton and I spoke at the Reality Writes literary festival about our chapters in Warren Bonett’s The Australian Book of Atheism.

Geoffrey Datson did a great job of recording our presentation and festival organiser, Annette Hughes, gave me permission to use it.

Unable to do anything by halves, I used the audio to create a series of four x 15 minute (approx) videos.

In this discussion I talk about religion (or the lack of it) in early colonial Australia. You’ll hear about saucy female convicts, the flogging parson, and how a group of outback workers payed a travelling parson to ‘clear out’. I also talk about the links between trade unionism and atheism and the atheist origins of the Eureka Stockade.

Peter discusses his chapter, Theology is not Philosophy. He explains why philosophy (at least in the modern Western tradition) has little to do with finding the “Meaning of Life” and much more to do with critical thinking and reason. Peter explains why he doesn’t really care what you believe – as long as you can explain why you believe it. He also discusses why opinions are not facts and why it is not an act of personal disrespect or vilification to criticize ideas.

It’s an interesting mix of atheism, history, politics and philosophy and I do hope you’ll enjoy watching the videos.

Chrys Stevenson

If you enjoyed these, you might consider subscribing to my new YouTube Channel.  I hope to add more content during the year.

The Australian Book of Atheism is available from Embiggen Books and all other good bookstores. It is also available on Amazon and in a Kindle version,

Readers who’ve been following my adventures doing battle with the organizers of Woodford Folk Festival and anti-vax campaigner Meryl Dorey may be interested in this rather rambling ‘candid’ interview with Peter Bowditch of the Ratbags Radio podcast.

Radio Ratbags:  Chrys Stevenson

This year, the Christmas present our family is most anxiously awaiting is the birth of a new baby boy to my nephew and his wife.  ‘Lucky’ as we are calling him for now, is due tomorrow.

“Have you had that baby, yet?” I say to my nephew’s wife.

“Not yet!”

I imagine having to roll her up like a tube of toothpaste until young Lucky pops out all bright, shiny and minty fresh.

As far as we know, his real name is yet to be decided.  At a recent family confab (around a  table littered with pizza, Fashionista Barbie, and big-sister-to-be bling) we favoured a name that meant ‘Lucky’, but sounded something less like a member of the Sicilian mafia. Google was consulted but, sadly, Acarapi, Eyolf, Faust, and Feliciano just didn’t seem to roll off the tongue.  (Actually Feliciano rolls off the tongue just fine, but comes to a screaming halt when you add Stevenson to the end of it.)

There was some half-hearted support for Felix, and I’ve warmed to the name. Any name with an ‘x’ in it has to be cool.  Sadly, my nephew can’t quite get the image of Felix-the-Cat out of his mind so I’m thinking Felix may not make the cut.

On the way home in the car, great-grandma-in-waiting whispered to me, “When’s he due?”

“Christmas.”

“What are they going to call him?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Well, I hope they don’t call him Jesus!”

I’m guessing that’s at even longer odds than Felix.

When my friends Warren and Kirsty were expecting, they called their baby ‘Monty’ as a kind of a gag until they decided on a real name.  But nine months is a long time and by the time their little girl was born it was inconceivable that she could be called anything but Monty. I heartily approved, although I don’t envy them having to ‘fess up’ to the inspiration for that particular moniker!

Given the ‘Monty’ experience, I reckon we should just make it easy on ourselves and call the child Lucky. After all, it’s Christmas for Christ’s sake (literally!). We have turkey to cook, ham to glaze, potatoes to Dauphinoise and plum pudding to drown sadistically in brandy custard. We’re simply not going to have time to come up with another name between now and New Years.

And let’s face it, Lucky will be lucky.  He’ll be born into the heart of a happy, loving (if slightly weird) family. He’ll have two great, outrageously intelligent parents, a very bouncy, blingy, beautiful big sister with a formidable wardrobe full of fairy costumes, a doting grandma, a devoted great-grandma, bucket-loads of uncles and auntses and cousins of various ages, sizes and postcodes, and a rather eccentric great-aunt who inexplicably calls his father Space Monster and spends a great deal of time writing cranky rants on the internet in the vain hope she can make the world a slightly better place for him and his sister.  He’ll also have enough soft toys to populate a small African nation.

Lucky will be born to a life where he’ll be safe, warm, well-fed and well-educated.  He’ll live in one of the most peaceful, secular, wealthy, and democratic nations in the world.  How lucky is that?

He’ll never have to beg for a bicycle, a text-book or his next meal – although if he wants a horse, he’s going to have to learn to grovel.

Sure, as he grows up, he’ll have moments of difficulty, sadness, grief, ill health, and heart-break. But for all that, by the mere chance of being born into this century, this country and this family, he’ll have more advantages than it is fair to ask Santa for.

I hope he grows to appreciate his luck and to use whatever talents he has to make other people’s lives ‘luckier’ – even if only in a small way.

So, yes! Let’s just stick with ‘Lucky’ and, when he’s old enough, we will sit him down quietly and sensitively explain why we named him after the cat in the ’80s sit-com, ALF.  I’m sure he’ll understand ….

With muchlove to Lucky, his parents and Miss Bling – 

Aunty Chrys

Nicholas Stevenson (aka Lucky Monster) – finally born …. and named:

Nicholas (Lucky) with Great-Aunt Chrys

Following Meryl Dorey’s anti-vaccination interview with Tiga Bayles on the National Indigenous Radio Service this week , I wrote an article.  I couldn’t write it immediately afterwards. First, I was crying too much.  Second, I had to go to Brisbane.  Words rattled around in my brain all the way down to the city and all the way back.  The next morning I turned on the computer and a story just flowed out.

It sometimes takes me up to three weeks to write an article. This took less than three hours.

The team at Mama Mia who have been heroic in opposing Dorey’s anti-vaccination propaganda agreed to publish it.  I’m very grateful because this article is rather ‘left of centre’ .  But it’s what I had to write and I can only hope it’s something that people may feel they had to read.

I wrote with respect for the indigenous community and with no ill-feeling towards Tiga Bayles. I hope that comes across.

Anyway, here’s a taste.

“I’m sitting in the Griffith University Library at Nathan. It’s the mid-90s and I’m researching an assignment for my Bachelor’s degree. One of my subjects this semester is Aboriginal Studies. I open the study guide and turn to the required reading.  As I read, great silent tears start to flow down my cheeks, splashing onto the page below. I don’t sob. There are no histrionics.  I don’t make a sound. My face just starts to resemble a waterfall in slow motion.  It is the strangest, saddest feeling, and one I will never forget.”

For the rest go to MamaMia: A three part tragedy: how Meryl Dorey is affecting Aboriginal health.

Chrys Stevenson

I had hoped to wind down in the fortnight leading up to Christmas. I was picturing picnics at the beach, a swim or two in a friend’s pool, some leisurely Christmas shopping, perhaps a movie …

Sadly, I didn’t account for the notorious anti-vaccination campaigner, Meryl Dorey, scoring not one, but two, speaking spots at the Woodford Folk Festival.

The brilliant and talented Peter Tierney (aka Reasonable Hank) first alerted me to this appalling discovery on Friday, 9 December.

Peter’s a member of Stop the AVN. Stop the AVN is a Facebook group which won the Skeptic of the Year award in 2010 for their community activism against the misinformation disseminated by Ms Dorey and her Australian [anti] Vaccination Network.

I support Stop the AVN but I’ve never been particularly active in it. I’m more of an admirer than a member. I know Peter only slightly as a Facebook and Twitter friend. The same can be said of my ‘association’, if any, with the ‘leaders’ of the group: Daniel Raffaele, Wendy Wilkinson and Ken McLeod.  They are Facebook friends but, until this past week or so, I doubt if Wendy and Ken, in particular, would have been able to pick me out in a crowd. Daniel might recognise me, but probably wouldn’t be able to say much more about me than, “She’s that atheist writer.”

So, this was really out of my usual area of ‘politics and religion’ and while I’ve ventured into skeptical areas before (homeopathy and Qlink Mobile Phone Radiation Scam)  it’s not the area where I’m most comfortable.  But,  when it seemed that Meryl was venturing on to my turf I began to get stroppy.

I live in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – not all that far from Woodford. Vaccination rates here are already low. Last year an outbreak of whooping cough effected 700 people. This year there’s been a case of diphtheria reported. These are diseases which are preventable and can even be eradicated by immunisation.  We know this for a fact – how many cases of smallpox and polio do you hear of nowadays? (And no, Meryl, better nutrition and sanitation didn’t eradicate smallpox, you silly, silly woman.)

This is very personal for me. I have a four year old great-niece and a soon to be born (any day now!) great nephew. Outbreaks of communicable diseases in my area mean an increased risk of our family babies getting ill.  Miss Bling is fully immunized, but vaccines aren’t 100% effective (but will almost certainly result in a milder case of the disease should she catch one).  It will be some time before Master ‘Lucky’ has all his shots and until then he will be very vulnerable.

When I heard that Dorey was going to preach her deadly message at Woodford I seemed to morph into Mama Bear mode (or should that be Aunty, the Cross-Eyed Bear?).

My first move was to ring the organisers at the Woodford Folk Festival. That was only fair. Surely there had been some terrible mistake. Surely if they knew Meryl Dorey and her Australian [anti] Vaccination Network were the subject of a Public Health Warning from the Health Care Complaints Commission they would never have booked her.  I would put things right! I’d just ring them and point this out and they’d say something like:

“Oh, silly us! We booked someone who’s been caught out telling great big hairy fibs to parents! We respect our patrons and, while we know they enjoy vigorous debate on controversial subjects, we would never knowingly engage a speaker who has been proven to base their arguments on false, misleading and biased information which endangers public health.”  

Yeah, right.  Instead they said:  “We’ll get right back to you.”

They didn’t, so I rang them back.  I was stonewalled.  My background is in PR and marketing. I know a story that has legs. I knew this one had legs. I warned them, “Do something now – not tomorrow, not next week, now – because this is only going to get worse, much worse.”

I don’t think they believed me.

So, having got nowhere with the “Give them a chance to fix it” approach, I wrote a blog post – but somehow, that just didn’t seem to be enough. So, I decided to plant the story with a contact at the Sunshine Coast Daily. A phone call and an email covering the salient points was all it took.

Click photo to enlarge

With that success, I figured, (doing my best Tim-Minchin-in-Storm impression) “… in for a penny, in for a pound!”  So I rang the health writer at the Courier-Mail and left a message on her voicemail.

“Worth a try,” I thought.

In the meantime, there was lots of lobbying and blog-writing going on behind the scenes. The master of Wikis and Skepticators, Jason Brown (aka A Drunken Madman) started keeping a list (and, in keeping with the season, checking it twice). No prizes for guessing who was the naughty one, Meryl.

I started tweeting to @WoodfordFF about Dorey speaking at Woodford, and soon a twitter storm blew up. It’s been ticking along  very nicely for 11 days now with new names popping up every day to join the protest.

Science and skeptical blogger, Professor PZ Myers was quick to lend his considerable weight (no pun intended PZ) to the story. Professor Myer’s Pharyngula blog is one of the top-ranking science blogs in the world and read by millions. Not good international publicity for the Woodford Folk Festival.

WIN News saw the article in the Sunshine Coast Daily and contacted the Australian Skeptics asking (I assume) if they could contact me or if they had someone else in the area who could make a comment on camera. I’m barely known to the Skeptics and there was someone much better qualified than me to speak who lived nearby. I enthusiastically agreed that, if she was available, she should definitely do it. But, as it turned out she wasn’t available, and lived a little too far away for the camera crew.  So, if it was to be, it was up to me.

And now I need to make another disclaimer. I am a member of the Australian Skeptics but only technically. The Australian Skeptics don’t really have ‘members’ they have people who subscribe to their journal. I’m one of them. But I’m definitely not in the Skeptics ‘in crowd’ – I read their magazine and I had fun, once, at one of their conferences. But I’m not in the same ballpark as real skeptical activists like Dr Rachael Dunlop and Richard Saunders.  At the 2010 Skeptics conference (TAM) they were the ones up on stage – I was the anonymous blonde sitting wide-eyed in the audience.

In this case, I just happened to be ‘on the spot’ and the person closest to the television station – it took no special talent to get picked for this assignment!

Neither the Australian Skeptics nor Stop the AVN ‘organised’ the media. This wasn’t an orchestrated media campaign at all. The reason the Skeptics got involved (I suspect) was because I mentioned in the interview with the Daily that I was a member – but stressed that I didn’t represent the Australian Skeptics or speak on their behalf. Nevertheless, Chrys Stevenson a member of the Australian Skeptics got into the paper so, when journos were looking to contact me, they understandably emailed the Australian Skeptics.

It’s probably worth noting at this point that, despite Meryl Dorey’s frequent assertions the Australian Skeptics and Stop the AVN are two entirely different groups. Stop the AVN is not a ‘branch’ of the Australian Skeptics. Certainly the two groups share some members, but not all Australian Skeptics are ‘friends’ of the Stop the AVN Facebook group and not all Stop the AVN supporters are members of the Australian Skeptics.

Probably nothing I say will convince Meryl otherwise, but this story took off because it was newsworthy – not because there is some Big Pharma funded highly-organised hate campaign being waged against her.

I used to work in PR. Bosses and clients always want you to get their story into the news. But, no matter how well you write or how clever you think you are at ‘spin’, if a story isn’t newsworthy there’s little chance of getting it into anything other than a community newspaper – if that. Because this story was newsworthy, it took only some minimal effort from a demonstrably not-funded-by-Big-pharma middle-aged lady sitting on top of a mountain to light the match that set off a firestorm.

That’s the truth and it’s a truth that Meryl and others of her ilk should find very scary. The internet makes community activism easy.  It makes having one on one contact with journalists easy. And once someone like Meryl becomes ‘newsworthy’ in a ‘Peter Foster’ kind of way, getting more bad publicity for them is really too easy to take any credit for.

As for the companies and venues that might, unwisely associate themselves with the ‘notorious’ or ‘controversial’, they quickly learn the truth of the maxim, “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.”

And so, the media circus began. The next thing I knew there was a television crew (of two) at my doorstep and we were down in the vegetable garden filming – much to the bemusement of my next door neighbour’s Christmas guests who must have wondered what the hell was going on!

Here’s the result:

I must say that Daph, my 87 year old Mum, seemed much more excited that her agapanthus were on the telly than her daughter – but then, they are very fine aggies!

The next day both the Australian Skeptics and I got emails from Channel 10. Mine went to the Sunshine Coast Atheists gmail which I check less frequently than my ordinary mail, so the first I heard was another email from the Skeptics. Would I be willing to do another television interview?

There was some discussion about what I would say – my position on the matter was slightly different to the Australian Skeptics’, but not irreconcilably so. I made it clear that if I was going to go on television again, I could only represent my own view and the Australian Skeptics were happy with that and generously gave me permission to say I was a ‘member’ of their organisation, given that interviewers kept insisting that I have some kind of title other than ‘unsuccessful freelance writer’, ‘village dweller’, or ‘local wit’.

The fact is, I had my 15 minutes of fame on television, radio and newspapers back when I was working.  It wasn’t a novelty for me, and it wasn’t something I was keen to repeat. That was my ‘old life’. As I said to a friend last night, when you’re a size 24, being on the telly is really one of the last things you wish for!

Anyway, duty overcame vanity and, as there appeared to be no-one else close enough to serve, I rode once more unto the breach – or unto the television camera. Here’s the result:

On the same day that Channel 10 filmed, Janelle Miles, the health writer from the Courier-Mail returned my call. We had a good chat and the story went into the paper the next day under the title:  “Anti-vaccination activist Meryl Dorey needles opponents of her speaking at Woodford Folk festival.” I suspect Janelle actually wrote a much better article than this, but sub-editing is a difficult art which isn’t always kind to good copy.

During the day I got a tip that the Queensland Health Minister would be making a statement. Geoff Wilson is not my favourite  fundie government minister – but, while he didn’t threaten to pull the government’s sponsorship if Dorey spoke, he did good.

In the meantime, the story was picked up by Mia Freedman’s MamaMia blog and comments (mostly pro-vaccination) started pouring in.  Peter Bowditch wrote the article for MamaMia and did a fine job of it. You can read it and its 1,729 comments here: This festival allows dangerous anti-vaxxer to spread misinformation. Why?

In the afternoon I got a tweet from a producer at Gary Hardgrave’s drive-time program on Radio 4BC. She wanted to know if I could speak on air just after the 5pm news.  I was in two minds as to whether to publicize this interview – suspecting that Meryl’s ears were now roughly three times the size of Dumbo the elephant’s – but I wanted people to listen in, so I threw caution to the wind. Of course Meryl saw my tweet and rang 4BC demanding an invitation to the party.

Meryl speaking cut down on my air time, but I actually think it was a better interview for having her rabbit on, followed by me coming in at the end to calmly point out that while she sounded credible, she was really talking a great deal of total crap – a fact proven by the HCCC.

Thanks to Ken McLeod – a tireless campaigner against Meryl and the AVN – here’s my part of the interview.

If you really want to hear Meryl you can download the full interview from Skeptimite’s excellent skeptical blog.

At the time of writing, the Woodford Folk Festival organising committee are yet to make a statement about Meryl Dorey’s attendance at the festival.  Had I been their PR adviser, I would have told them 11 days ago, after they were alerted to the HCCC ruling against Ms Dorey, that they should quietly cut her loose. It provided a good enough excuse and anyone with an iota of media experience should have given them the same advice I did on  9 December:  “This story will take off if you don’t act now.”

Why let a speaker who is essentially a ‘filler’ rather than a ‘drawcard’ for the festival, overshadow the event? A quick risk/benefit analysis would have quickly determined that Dorey was going to be far more trouble than she was worth.

If  the Festival commiteee had been pro-active, they could have looked like responsible corporate citizens. Instead they look like rabbits caught in the headlights – stunned and silent as the media B-double bears down on them.  And what do they think is going to happen when Dorey speaks? More negative media, more scrutiny of the kinds of quacks and kooks to whom Woodford (unwisely) provides a forum – partially at the tax payers’ expense.  Having been given such great media mileage this year, do you think the media won’t be itching for another whacko to make good copy next year?  This is the kind of thing that makes sponsors very, very nervous. If I was the marketing manager for a large corporate entity approached to sponsor next year’s Woodford Folk Festival I’d be saying,  “No, it’s too risky.”

This can all still be stopped. It would have been better if it was done earlier, but a good PR company could still get rid of Dorey and ‘spin’ the story to make Woodford look good.  After she’s spoken, they’re only going to look very, very silly.

The argument that Ms Dorey has a right to free speech has been floating around so let’s deal with it before I finish. The argument is specious. The woman has a website and her own magazine!  She is free to speak any nonsense she likes on her own dime.  But the Woodford Folk Festival has no obligation to provide a platform for anyone to speak – let alone someone who has a public health warning issued against their organisation!  The Festival committee, however, does have an obligation not to damage the brands of its sponsors. And, I think,  it does have an obligation not to endanger public health by providing a venue for the dissemination of demonstrably false propaganda.

So, that was wot I done on my summer vacation. It wasn’t quite lazing around at the beach, but there is a certain satisfaction in knowing I can still do the job I was trained to do – no longer to make money for myself and the companies I represented, but hopefully, to help make the world a slightly safer, happier and healthier place for all of us; and for Miss Bling and Master ‘Lucky’ in particular.

Chrys Stevenson

Breaking News:  ABC radio slams Dorey for speaking off-topic, making disingenuous claims, and providing misleading and unsubstantiated information to the public.  Full story here from Reasonable Hank (aka Peter Tierney).

A baby with whooping cough - whooping cough can cause broken ribs, brain damage or death - but it is preventable.

It is not too strong a statement to say that, in booking Meryl Dorey of the Australian [anti] Vaccination Network to speak at the Woodford Folk Festival, organisers are potentially putting the lives of thousands of Australian children at risk.

* I acknowledge that this may be inadvertent, but it makes the matter no less serious and their immediate attention all the more urgent.

Ms Dorey’s organisation was, this year, the subject of a public health warning from the Health Care Complaints Commission.

Is this really the kind of ‘health’ information the Woodford Folk Festival wants to disseminate to its patrons? Doesn’t it have a duty of care to do some basic research on participants booked to give health advice?

Apparently not.  Because Ms Dorey is listed on the Festival’s website as follows:

Investigate before you vaccinate is the motto of the AVN. Having collected reports of thousands of Australian families whose children have been killed or injured by these shots, Meryl knows that the benefit of vaccines don’t always outweigh the risks. Her information is sourced from medical data and is necessary for anyone who is thinking about being vaccinated.

It does not mention that Ms Dorey has no medical or scientific qualifications. It does not mention that she has been found to quote ‘selectively’ from medical data or that she has been found to provide false and misleading information on her website.

Nor does it mention that when asked to place a warning on her website in the interests of public health, Ms Dorey refused.

This is not a case of the Festival organisers providing an ‘alternative view point’. Ms Dorey’s assertions about vaccine safety and links with autism are not based on medical evidence or scientific research.  They are based on conspiracy theories, bias and a pitifully poor  understanding of the data.

As Dr Rachel Dunlop reports:

” In August 2011, an exhaustive review of the scientific literature by the Institute of Medicine in the US concluded that overall “few health problems are caused by or clearly associated with vaccines”. And when I say “exhaustive review”, I mean 12,000 peer-reviewed articles, covering eight different vaccines were pored over by a committee of 18 experts in the largest review of adverse events associated with vaccines since 1994. It was a thorough and herculean effort concluding that there is no causal relationship between vaccines and autism.”

Millions of children are vaccinated every day and every day many children fall ill for all sorts of reasons. It is not surprising then, that some children get sick after having a vaccination. But, it does not follow that the vaccination caused the illness.

Claims that vaccines contain dangerous amounts of mercury are also untrue.  Dr Dunlop continues:

“Mercury was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in Australia in the year 2000 (with the exception of one type of HepB vaccine which contains trace amounts) and it was never in the MMR vaccine. Prior to 2000, thimerosal, an organomercury compound, was used in the manufacturing process of vaccines as a preservative. The process left only trace amounts in the finished product – you ingest more mercury when you eat a can of tuna than you would ever get from a vaccine. Also there are two types of mercury – methyl mercury is the scary environmental toxin that “bioaccumulates” in your body, and ethyl mercury the type found in thimerosal, which does not bioaccumulate.

If thimerosal was implicated in autism, you would expect a significant drop in cases after its removal. Instead the opposite is true – autism rates continue to rise.”

Ms Dorey compalins that vaccines have not been properly tested.  Dr Dunlop explains why vaccines cannot be tested to suit Ms Dorey’s demands:

“When people claim that vaccines have “never been tested” they usually mean that they have not undergone randomized placebo controlled trials (RCTs). To do an RCT of a vaccine you would need to take two groups of kids, give one group the vaccine, and the other a placebo, then expose both groups to the disease to see which ones survive. Raise your hand if you can see the problem here…

Not only would such an experiment be unethical, it’s unnecessary. We have extensive evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of vaccines; the eradication of smallpox and the near-eradication of polio from the world are just two examples.”

The medical community is not hiding information about vaccinations and, of course, parents should ask questions from an informed and reliable source – ie. someone with a medical degree – before vaccinating their child.  Doctors freely acknowledge that vaccines are not 100 per cent safe – no medical intervention is without risk.  But the chance of your child being harmed by a vaccine is infinitesimal when compared with the risk of an unvaccinated child contracting (or passing on) a potentially deadly disease.  

People like Meryl Dorey do not make it easier for parents to make an informed decision – they make it harder.  They muddy the waters with half-truths, conspiracy theories and anecdotal evidence. They also endanger children’s health and safety.

In September this year, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported on a local outbreak of whooping cough which effected 700 children.

Public health physician for Queensland Health, Dr Margaret Young said the outbreak was due to the percentage of vaccinated children dropping below the state average.  As Ms Dorey is the most vocal opponent of anti-vaccination in this country, at least some of those cases can almost certainly be attributed to her efforts.

All of this information is readily available on the internet and the Woodford Folk Festival could have checked before booking Ms Dorey – but they didn’t. If the Woodford Folk Festival doesn’t have the resources to check on the credentials of those it books for its health forums, perhaps it should stick to what it knows and leave the health advice to doctors.

Again, this isn’t about someone having an ‘opinion’ about whether about whether organic food is better for you than supermarket food, about whether meditation is helpful or not, about whether you should use a crystal instead of commercial deodorant.  This is a matter of life and death for children and it warranted some basic research on the part of the organisers.

I have spoken to someone from the Woodford Folk Festival this afternoon and I’m assured they are ‘looking into it’.  When I hear that they have ‘looked into it’ and uninvited Ms Dorey I will happily remove this blog and write another one congratulating them for taking positive action in favour of children’s health and safety.

Until then, I suggest you contact the Festival organisers yourself on: (07) 5496 1066

You can tweet them at:  @WoodfordFF

Their email is:  qff@woodfordfolkfestival.com

You can also contact their sponsors.  Reasonable Hank has a list with links on his website.

You can tweet some of the sponsors at the following addresses:

ABC Sunshine Coast FM – @abcsunshine

Triple J – @triplej

Brisbane Marketing (a subsidiary of the Brisbane City Council) – @brismarketing

Chrys Stevenson

NB: I am reliably informed that the Woodford Folk Festival organisers were not entirely unaware of Ms Dorey’s reputation. They had been warned about her prior to her last appearance at the Woodford Folk Festival in 2009 but ignored the advice.  Peter Bowditch has the information here.

Meryl Dorey - putting a face to the name