1/10 First there was Jordan Williams, who wanted to take arts grants from Eleanor Catton after she criticised John Key. Then there Elliot Ikilei, who campaigned against drag queens reading in libraries. Now the Free Speech Union has found another representative opposed to freedom
2/10 Jonathan Ayling is the FSU's new Campaigns Manager, & has led recent attacks on critics of Matauranga Maori. Ayling is a fire & brimstone Baptist, who dislikes democracy & yearns for the old days when churches like his held sway over NZ society.
3/10 Before he took a job at FSU, Ayling worked as a lobbyist in Wellington. He campaigned against euthanasia, abortion, & the legalisation of cannabis. He also wrote a series of bizarre articles for the NZ Baptist magazine.
4/10 Ayling's articles for the Baptists' in-house journal make torturous reading. They are studded with quotes from the Bible & strange asides about martyrdom & spiritual treason. Ayling's articles make his antipathy to democracy & freedom of choice very clear.
5/10 In a June 2020 piece called 'The Politics of Heaven', Ayling laments the way that 'individual sovereignty' & 'freedom of choice' have removed 'brick after brick from the foundation of our society'. That is rather strange language for a defender of free speech to use.
6/10 In an article from last November called 'High Treason', Ayling criticises NZ's 'democratic system', & complains that our country is headed in an 'anti-theistic direction'. Ayling is nostalgic for the 'prominent & revered position' churches once 'held in our society'.
7/10 Ayling seems to miss the days when NZ was a de facto Christian state, & when books & films & Maori culture could be banned because of the objection of clergymen. I would wager that most NZers don't want a return to those bad old days.
8 On behalf of the FSU, Ayling has defended the 7 scholars who wrote a letter to the Listener arguing that Matauranga Maori did not qualify as science. For Ayling & the FSU, any criticism of the letter-writers amounts to an 'assault on free speech'.
9 Ayling & the FSU don't want to defend free speech: they want to shut down criticism of the scholars who wrote to the Listener. Ayling has attacked Barry Hughes, the University of Auckland scholar & spokesman for the Tertiary of Education Union.
10 On behalf of the TEU, Barry Hughes issued a statement in which he supported the right of the letter-writers to free speech. But Hughes added that many TEU members found the letter to the Listener 'racist' & 'patronising towards Maori'.
11 There is little doubt that Hughes is right, in his estimation of opinion amongst the TEU's rank and file members. Over two thousand NZ scientists & academics signed a letter disputing the claims that the seven scholars made in their epistle to the Listener.
12 But Ayling has characterised Hughes' statement as 'outrageous', & called it an attack on free speech. Ayling & the FSU are even angrier at the Royal Society Te Aparangi, which has started an investigation into the letter-writers, after receiving complaints about them.
13 The Royal Society Te Aparangi is a private organisation whose rules provide for investigation of complaints by one member against another. Ayling & the FSU object to the mere fact that the Society has acted on those rules. No complaint about the letter-writers can be allowed.
14 Ayling & the FSU are not trying to defend free speech - they are trying to quash it. They brand any response to the letter to the Listener an assault on free speech. They are trying to intimidate the Royal Society from following its own rules & investigating a complaint.
15 Jonathan Ayling is nostalgic for the bygone era when churches dominated NZ society. The Tohunga Suppression Act was a product of this era. This 1907 law banned Maori religion & Maori intellectual traditions. It sent Maori intellectuals to jail.
16 When they demonise defenders of Matauranga Maori today, Ayling & the FSU are acting in the spirit of the Tohunga Suppression Act. They stand not for free speech, but for the hegemony of Pakeha Christianity. Ayling's role at the FSU confirms its anti-democratic character.
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