"Victorians may no longer be free to act on their religious beliefs, after the VCAT ruling against a church campsite," said FamilyVoice Victoria state officer Peter Stevens.
"I am very concerned that this decision was based on the law as it stood before recent changes weakening provisions protecting religious freedom," Pastor Stevens said. "Churches, religious based schools and service organisation are all threatened by this ruling, and by the changes to the Equal Opportunity Act."
Bill Muehlenberg, a lecturer in apologetics, ethics and theology at several Melbourne theological colleges, expressed his concerns of the implications of this ruling.
"When governments grant special rights to activist minority groups like the homosexual lobby, they of necessity take away rights from the majority. And many of these discrimination laws are doing just that.
"What it amounts to is reverse discrimination. If a court says a homosexual cannot be "discriminated" against under any circumstance, that means religious bodies for example will be forced to employ homosexuals, even if it goes against their deeply held religious beliefs."
The incident began in June 2007, when project coordinator Sue Hackney called Mark Rowe of the Phillip Island youth centre requesting use of the camp to raise awareness about the needs of homosexual young people, the nature and effect of homophobia in rural communities and the effect of discrimination on young people
In a judgment handed down last Friday, VCAT judge Felicity Hampel claimed that Christian Brethren "are not entitled to impose their beliefs on others in a manner that denies them the enjoyment of their right to equality and freedom from discrimination in respect of a fundamental aspect of their being."
She further stated that the home page of the adventure resort website made no reference to the Christian Brethren religion, the Christian Brethren Trust or to any of the resort's overtly religious purposes.
Australian Christian Lobby director Rob Ward noted that Section 14 of Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 states that, 'Every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, including the freedom to demonstrate his or her religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching, either individually or as part of a community, in public or in private'