Australia's treasurer Scott Morrison criticized for participating in Christian conference

Australia's federal treasurer Scott Morrison said at the recently held Australian Christian Lobby conference that he respects everyone's beliefs, but this has been taken as a defense for the rights of a Christian keynote speaker to make controversial statements against homosexuality.

"I respect everybody's opinions, I just hope and wish others would do the same," he said, as quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald. "I have always respected everybody else's faith and always sought to respect everybody else's view."

ACL has received flak from the LGBT community for having invited Eric Metaxas, an American radio host and author who had reportedly likened the push for gay rights and equality to the rise of Nazism. The event also had Dr. Jeffrey J. Ventrella of the American Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, among others.

"Speaking alongside Scott Morrison are some of the chief leaders of the American homophobic far right including a representative of the Alliance Defending Freedom whose organisation has promoted and defended anti-sodomy laws that criminalise gay sex internationally and who have hatched a large scale campaign to roll back the rights of trans people in America," Patrick Wright, a co-convener of the Community Action Against Homophobia, told Gay News Network early this month prior to the conference.

Supporters of gay rights and same-sex marriage staged a protest outside of the Wesley Conference Center during the event, and CAAH's Cat Rose criticized Morrison's decision to be part of the conference. A petition was earlier launched calling for him to withdraw as a guest speaker, saying that it's not proper for a cabinet minister to participate in such an event.

"No member of Parliament should be involving themselves with an organisation that seeks to harm members of our community, and no member of Parliament should be speaking at this conference," the petition reads.

It garnered 1,156 signatures, short of the targeted 2,000 signatures.

Called "Cultivating Courage," the conference focused on the increasing difficulty of being a Christian. Lyle Shelton, the managing director of ACL, said during the event that Christians "face false slurs and labels, designed to demonise us into silence."

"Bigot, homophobe, hater, are just some of the pejorative terms that have been used to characterise us ordinary Australians, who simply believe that marriage [should be] between a man and woman," he said, as quoted by SMH.

Morrison's speech centered primarily on marriage and family, which he labeled as "the most sacred national institution."

"To protect our country, to protect our society, to protect our economy and to protect our children, we must protect the family," he said, also expressing, "I'm a big believer in prayer, I've seen the impact of it in my own life and I know it works."

The SMH report said that the incumbent treasurer did not want to delve into his own Christian beliefs, saying that his faith is not his politics.

"My faith is an important part of who I am, as it is of every human being, whatever their faith might be," he said. "Judge me on my policies. My faith is my business."