MEDIA RELEASE: Should bakers be forced to bake cakes for same sex weddings?

September 28, 2015

2015 Acton Lecture — Archbishop Fisher — October 14

In the face of recent controversy about conscience votes and plebiscites, the 2015 Acton Lecture considers how important religious liberty and freedom of conscience is in modern statecraft and nation-building.

Do they foster social cohesion and mutual respect, or are they sources of division and vilification in diverse societies?

Long seen as bedrock foundations of the democratic-liberal state and the common good, freedom of conscience and religion are increasingly under threat and treated with suspicion in contemporary Australia.

In reflecting on how we resolve competing claims of conscience and law, the 2015 Acton Lecture given by His Grace the Most Reverend Anthony Fisher, Archbishop of Sydney, will also defend the continuing importance of conscience and religious liberty in democracy today.

2015 Acton Lecture
Should a Baker be Forced to Bake Cakes for Same Sex Weddings: Democracy and the Rights and Limits of Religion and Conscience in Contemporary Australia
Date: 14 October 2015
Venue: Charles Perkins Centre Auditorium, University of Sydney
Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm

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