The bishop who returned to church with a white eye patch delivered a fiery sermon in support of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Australia has returned to the church and resumed preaching two weeks after a knife attack during a live stream.
The bishop who returned to church with a white eye patch delivered a fiery sermon in support of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
In a video posted by Alex Barnicoat (@mrbarnicoat) on X, the cleric said, “I’m proud to be an Australian, and wherever I go, whenever I travel, across the globe, when I come back here, this is home.”
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Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel has returned, two weeks after surviving a stabbing attack
The priest has backed @elonmusk after the Australian government’s demand to censor his (live) video of the attack
pic.twitter.com/wjr4jcIFgw https://t.co/Op85ITOzct
— Alex Barnicoat (@mrbarnicoat) April 28, 2024
He commended warriors who “gave their lives for human rights”.
“This is why I stand for that freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Every human has a right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, every human being no matter who that is. God bless you, I’ve kept it for too long but this is my normal me again,” he said.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, carrying a gold cross and sporting a white eye patch after he suffered lacerations to his face in the April 15 attack, said he could not “fathom” how freedom of speech could not be possible in a democratic country.
“I say to our beloved, the Australian government, and our beloved Prime Minister, the honourable Mr Albanese, I believe in one thing and that is the integrity and the identity of the human being,” he said.
“This human identity, this human integrity, is a God-given gift, no one else.
“Every human being has the right to their freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”
He said Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Atheists had the right to express their beliefs.
“Also the Christians have the right to express their beliefs, and for us to say, that free speech is dangerous, that free speech cannot be possible in a democratic country, I’m yet to fathom this. I’m yet to fathom this. We should be able as civilised human beings, as intellectuals, we should be able to criticise, to speak, and maybe, at some certain times, we may sound, or we may come across offensive to some degree, but we should be able to say, ‘I should not worry for my life to be exposed to threat or to be taken away’.
“A non Christian can criticise my faith, can attack my faith. I will say one thing, ‘may God forgive you, and may God bless you.
“This is a civilised way, an intellectual way, to approaching such events.
“But for us, to say that because of this freedom of speech, it is causing dramas and dilemmas, therefore everything should be censored, then where is democracy?
“Then where is humanity, where is integrity, where are the morals, where are the ethics, where are the principles, where are the values which the Western world, more so, have been fighting for human rights, which is the value of the human.”
A debate around the proper limits of free expression has erupted in the country in the wake of the alleged Wakeley terror attack.
A 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed the bishop while he was giving a live-streamed sermon, with video of the violence quickly spreading online.
Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has ordered social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to take down certain posts commenting on the attack.
X’s Global Governance Affairs division has stated it will challenge the take-down order.
“This was a tragic event and we do not allow people to praise it or call for further violence,” X stated.
“There is a public conversation happening about the event, on X and across Australia, as is often the case when events of major public concern occur.
“While X respects the right of a country to enforce its laws within its jurisdiction, the eSafety Commissioner does not have the authority to dictate what content X’s users can see globally.
“We will robustly challenge this unlawful and dangerous approach in court.
“Global take-down orders go against the very principles of a free and open internet and threaten free speech everywhere.”
Last week, Australian police said five teenagers had been charged with terrorism-related offences following the stabbing of the Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live-streamed sermon earlier this month.