‘The words were wrong’: Dons saga pastor backtracks, Costello pushes for bill of rights

In a different recording, another City on a Hill leader said practising homosexuality was a sin.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich said he was pleased the words had been removed.

“I’m glad that the reference was excised from the original text”, he said on Thursday evening, but added “Pastor Mason will not get a free pass for leaving the video of the sermon on the site.”

He said it made may wonder about whether the church understood the gravity of the “exploitation of the Holocaust” and called on them to remove the video.

“I also urge the pastor to provide an assurance that he will refrain from invoking the suffering deaths of millions to promote their agenda. That is the least he should do.”

The apology from the church comes after prominent Christian and gambling reform campaigner Reverend Tim Costello said the fierce debate over Thorburn’s resignation highlighted the need for a bill of rights.

Meanwhile, Premier Daniel Andrews responded to criticism from Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli over his commentary on the issue.

“[I’m] not here to be having a debate with faith leaders,” Andrews said. “I’m a Catholic. I send my kids to Catholic schools. My faith is important to me and guides me every day.”

Costello, a former CEO of World Vision Australia, said the nation needed to have a more nuanced conversation about balancing religious freedom and inclusivity than had unfolded since Thorburn’s departure from the Bombers, over his connection to a controversial church.

“I think we’ve had a rush to judgment. I think it’s been probably unfair to Andrew. Sadly and depressingly, for me, it’s triggered the culture wars,” Costello told ABC Radio National on Thursday.

“We’ve got warriors on both sides wanting to fight the culture wars. And then there’s most of us, like me, who are the exhausted middle, who are going, ‘Who can win a culture war? What’s the point of this?’”

Thorburn, a former boss of National Australia Bank, was appointed Essendon’s CEO on Monday but resigned on Tuesday amid criticism of his role as chair of the conservative City on a Hill church, which is part of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.

Mason’s contentious sermon had been on the church’s website since 2013, but came to prominence this week when Thorburn landed the job at the Bombers.

Costello said, if Australia had a bill of rights the competing views of its complex, multicultural society would be managed in a more civil way than this week.

“I think it’s outrageous we’re the only western democracy without one. That’s the way you actually deal with this, particularly in a multicultural society,” Costello said.

“A bill of rights is the mechanism to say how we actually settle this down and make sure that there is a legal framework for both respect and tolerance, and freedom of religion and conscience.”

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne Dr Philip Freier told ABC Radio Melbourne he had advocated for a national bill of rights based on Victoria’s human rights charter.

He said it was “crazy” Thorburn had been “forced” to choose between his Essendon job and chairing his church.

Freier, who oversees the Melbourne Anglican diocese – which includes the City on a Hill church – said Anglicanism was a “diverse organisation” but disagreed with the controversial sermon’s view of abortion and gay marriage.

Freier, an Essendon supporter, said the club’s decision to ask Thorburn to pick between chairing his church and continuing as the Bombers’ boss was a “knee-jerk reaction”. He added similar religion-based employment decisions were prohibited in Victoria under the state’s bill of rights.

“It just seems remarkable to me that it exists in all of that space, but just kind of overflows into this chaos in other circumstances,” he said.

The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act establishes 20 rights, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.

“I think Victoria has a good opportunity for pulling back a bit and understanding the good principles we have in the bill of human rights and responsibilities and how we enact that more broadly. I’ve been advocate for that to happen at the national level,” Freier said.

Costello, also an Essendon fan, said he knew Thorburn during his tenure as NAB boss.

He said Thorburn was “very principled”, but acknowledged he “looked very ordinary” after adverse findings from the banking royal commission. Costello added Essendon should have paused to consider his church’s views after the issue arose on Monday.

“When Essendon says, ‘We want to be the most diverse club in the AFL’, they really now have a problem,” Costello said.

“This has ripple effects that we just need to pause and think about.”

The Victorian premier, state Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sparred over the controversy on Wednesday, with the Liberal leaders depicting Thorburn’s resignation as a form of religious persecution.

Costello, a senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity, said Thorburn’s personal views on same-sex marriage and abortion were unclear because it would be wrong to assume all churchgoers agreed with every word of the pastor’s sermons.

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