When former NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn was appointed the new Essendon CEO on Monday, the football club’s president, Dave Barham, declared him “a highly credentialled leader with a proven track record in development and building the leadership capabilities of his people”.

In The Age’s news story covering the appointment, the only concern raised was that Thorburn had resigned from NAB after the release of the report by the royal commission into the banking and superannuation industry and had been sharply criticised by commissioner Kenneth Hayne.

Andrew Thorburn resigned as Essendon’s chief executive the day after his appointment.Credit:Peter Braig

The story also mentioned that he was the chairman of City on a Hill church, with his biography on the church’s website stating that he became a Christian in 2002 and believes the gospel of Jesus is transformative and brings ultimate meaning to life. Social media started delving into these beliefs and it quickly became clear a controversy was brewing. The Age’s CBD column pointed out on Monday evening that, at Essendon, “There is no silver lining … that doesn’t come with a big fat cloud”.

Then media reports detailed the controversial sermons published on the church’s website about homosexuality and abortion: the most abhorrent likened abortion to the operation of concentration camps and said practising homosexuality was a sin. Premier Daniel Andrews, an Essendon supporter, described them as “absolutely appalling” views.

At the end of the day, after Barham had asked Thorburn to choose between his position at the church and his new role as Essendon CEO, Thorburn chose the church. In a subsequent statement, he laid out strongly the conflict that has roiled sport often in the past few years — in the Israel Folau case and again with the Manly Warringah players who refused to wear the rainbow jersey on pride day.

“It became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many,” he wrote. “People should be able to hold different views on complex personal and moral matters, and be able to live and work together, even with those differences, and always with respect.”

That is true. Religious freedom is a bedrock of a liberal democracy. Even as the census shows we increasingly embrace “no religion”, people still have a right to believe what they want, and to speak about their faith without fear of retribution. As Thorburn pointed out on Wednesday, they are explicitly protected under Victorian law. However, LGBTQ people equally have a right to live their lives free of harassment or vilification. Thorburn’s word is “respect”, but those sermons show little respect. He might not have said the words himself, but he is the chair of a church that preaches this doctrine.

Folau’s comment that “hell awaits” gay people saw him sacked. It turned into years of controversy, fuelled by the Morrison government, that ended with an unsuccessful piece of religious discrimination legislation and a legal settlement with an undisclosed amount of money paid to Folau and a soothing public statement. Thorburn’s new job ended after a day.

But we are no closer to solving the problem at the heart of this: how do we deal with the clash of rights inherent when high-profile people with strong beliefs say things that offend others? Losing their employment seems unnecessarily harsh, but if they are representing the views of that organisation, then surely the organisation has a right to control how it portrays itself.

Amid the mutual hurt and harm, we can conclude one thing with certainty: the Essendon football club has got this badly wrong. It should have done its due diligence on Thorburn. It’s trying to market itself as a diversity club, which made him clearly the wrong person to run it. In a long list of fails this year, this was perhaps its greatest.

Michael Bachelard sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.

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