ABC TV on November 17, in a five-minute segment before the evening news, presented to the viewers what was purported to be an amusing sketch. Two characters, presumably Mary and Joseph by their garb, were shown during the last moments of Mary’s pregnancy.
It is later revealed that the real Mary and Joseph were next door – a subterfuge plagiarised from the film The Life of Brian. A modern day time-travelling messenger, in a suit and tie, arrives appealing to the supposed Mary to delay the birth to give the government more time to pass legislation before Christmas as they had promised. The mother in the sketch was in extreme labour.
One can only wonder at the lack of wisdom and maturity among ABC programmers. For obvious and practical reasons they would avoid, quite rightly, lampooning the spiritual traditions of our First Nations people, Muslims or any other community of faith. Do not Christians deserve the same respect and courtesy?
The ABC frequently airs the Australian song We are One, but We are Many (I am Australian). The national broadcaster should not be a source of divisiveness in our multicultural and multifaith society.
Mgr Rob Egar
North Plympton
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