Show our compassion

Andrew Quah, the 22-year-old ex-Family First candidate for Reid, was disendorsed by his party, and then expelled for admitting to using internet porn.
The irony is all this came to light because some scandalous pictures of Quah surfaced on the internet. Family First is waging what we might call (to borrow a figure of speech from W.) a “war against porn,” and suddenly Quah was on the wrong side of the trenches.
When I Googled this “member for nowhere”, I got “Australia’s smallest loser” and, on another website, “maybe this will result in a hung parliament”.
If this is the response from mainstream media, then I have a feeling the gay press will go to town on this too. I’m intrigued to see if it will rate a mention in Vanessa Wagner’s political commentary Thursday night at the Newtown.
In other words, all over Australia, people are laughing themselves sick. Another right-wing nut got humiliated. It’s natural justice. But so often “justice” is a word we use for revenge.
However much I dislike military metaphors, I need to push this further. It has been said that Christians are the only army that shoots its wounded. Just watch now as hordes of concerned, upright, well-meaning Christian soldiers stick the knife in this guy and twist it.
In the eyes of Family First, Quah’s hands are dirty now, and he’s only good to be expelled. As Felicity de Fombelle, the party’s spokesperson, said: “He does not share the party’s values.” Feel the love. A shame that Family First doesn’t treat each other like family – that is, practise what they preach.
I have often speculated that the reason God made queer people is that we have a special gift for compassion. We have experienced exclusion and humiliation. Sometimes, we have been in the closet and we have lied about who we are. Sometimes we didn’t even know who we were ourselves. And when you have been mixed up, you can show compassion to people who are also struggling.
Andrew Quah’s sexuality is none of my business. But obviously, he is struggling with it. He was a member of a political party that suppresses sexuality, or what they would call abnormal sexuality. But it isn’t all that easy to suppress one’s own sexuality.
So I’m speaking up for compassion, love, peace. Let’s show Family First that, as a community, we know what the word “family” means better than most, and it doesn’t mean condemning people who aren’t perfect.
Karl Hand is the pastor at the Sydney Metropolitan Community Church in Petersham.