Controversial religious leader Margaret Court has spoken about the ongoing criticism over her elevation to the Companion of the Order of Australia.
Speaking to Liam Bartlett in Perth radio station 6PR Reverend Court said people needed to realise that her most recent award for her champion tennis career, while claiming her previous appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia was solely recognising her community work.
“The AO I received was for community work, I think people thinking “Why am I getting another one?” but I never been honoured for my tennis and you know when I won the Grand Slam, that was a hard thing.” Reverend Court said.
Despite her claims to the contrary, the citation for Reverend Court 2007 award made mention of her tennis achievements, it reads; “For service to tennis as a player, as a mentor to junior female elite competitors and through professional development programs; and to the communities of Australia and Sri Lanka as the initiator of a range of pastoral care, social support and emergency accommodation projects.”
A few moments later in the interview Reverend Court spoke about her upbringing in the Christian faith and said the values she’d been taught had guided her through her life.
“I had traditional values and you keep them all through your life, you never change your biblical values, I was taught not to lie.” Reverend Court said.
Reverend Court said some of the comments attributed to her about “transgender’ were never said and have been misreported in the media.
“I was on a radio talkback show and somebody had phoned in and said something and I got blamed for saying it.” Reverend Court claimed.
It’s not the first time Reverend Court has tried to attribute the comments she made during an infamous radio interview in 2017 to someone else. Speaking to Vision Radio Australia Reverend Court made a rambling statement linking transgender children and “the devil”.
In October 2020 she claimed to have never made the statement despite audio of the interview still being online.
Reverend Court told Liam Bartlett that she did not have anything against people who are gay or transgender, and many gay and transgender people received services from her charity and attended worship services at her church.
Reverend Court said her view remained that marriage could only be between a man and a woman and homosexuality was a choice.
“To me homosexuality is a choice, and I share my views on the Bible, but I have nothing against the people. Like everything we do in life we have free will – it’s a choice.” Reverend Court said.
“That’s a person’s choice, they have a right to live their life how they want to live, but I teach what God says about marriage, about family.”
Reverend Court said children in school should be taught traditional values such as the ten commandments and should not be told that they can choose to be a boy or a girl.
Challenging Reverend Court on her declaration that sexuality is a choice, Liam Bartlett asked Reverend Court if she could see that her statements were insensitive.
“We were born male or female, it says that in the Bible” Reverend Court responded. “God made man in his image and then he made us out of the dust of the earth and he breathed life into us, he made Adam and Eve, then he said go multiply the earth.” Reverend Court said.
The religious leader said people make choices everyday from getting out of bed, to choosing to lie about things, and her biblical studies have taught her that what you think about will affect the direction of your life.
“We can say here’s a better way if you’re double-minded or not sure of which way to go.” Reverend Court said sharing that she was concerned that people were planting seeds in the minds of children in day care that lead then to believe they might not be a boy or a girl.”
OIP Staff
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