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On the Basis of Bigotry—SBS’ Steven Trask Objects to Humanitarian Help
There is a curious malady that afflicts a small minority of people: a hatred of those who help. Possibly you’ve had the occasional odd conversation wherein you find yourself arguing in favor of some charitable action or selfless deed that the other person for some reason raves is reprehensible.
Such people have a problem with help. They can’t stand the idea of someone actually, for real, helping another person. There’s got to be some “angle,” some slant or pitch to it. To such a person there’s no such thing as actual help.
Steven Trask of Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) appears to be one such person. In a recent article for SBS he condemns the Church of Scientology for doing good works and for helping people in developing countries.
Trask devotes column inch after column inch in a full-color article—photos included—to Church-supported effective rehabilitation of prisoners in Indonesia; successful literacy campaigns in infrastructure-strapped Samoa; human rights education programs in East Timor; as well as the Church’s support of humanitarian work in the fields of drug rehabilitation and disaster response in, among others, Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands.
They can’t stand the idea of someone actually, for real, helping another person. There’s got to be some “angle,” some slant or pitch to it. To such a person there’s no such thing as actual help.
He presents success stories, accolades, glowing statements from prime ministers and social leaders all praising Church-supported charitable works.
Per Trask, such behavior is not to be tolerated.
Trask plainly needs an outlet for his venom against well-intended groups. Perhaps a series of exposés is in order, including articles on the Red Cross, Catholic Relief, Jewish Home for the Aged, the Salvation Army, Mother Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi. All to be roundly railed at for helping people.
Meanwhile, earlier this summer, Trask published an article detailing the oppression of members of the Baháʼí faith in Iran, who, like Scientologists, are a peaceful religious minority.
Trask’s news outlet SBS is also no stranger to hypocrisy. In its 30-page Code of Practice, SBS preens that it “holds itself accountable—Trust, Transparency and Respect” and “SBS seeks to counter attitudes of prejudice against any person or group on the basis of race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion, disability, mental or physical illness, marital, parental or occupational status.”
Furthermore, on its website, SBS boasts, “Diversity and inclusion are part of the very fabric of SBS: they are at the core of our Charter, at the centre of our purpose and strategy, and at the heart of how we tell stories, connect with audiences, and recruit and engage our people.”
Nevertheless, concerning the religion of Scientology, Trask deprecates, denounces and decries, and SBS—Code of Practice and all—abets the hatefest.
Aiding Trask are two notorious Scientology apostates, Mike Rinder and Aaron Smith-Levin, the former a wife-beater who has referred to the good people of his former faith as “rats,” “fleas” and “vermin,” and the latter an individual with anger and violence issues who has threatened mayhem on family members.
These are the theological experts Trask leans on for his outraged condemnation of a religion that—like other religions—is trying to do God’s work on earth by making life more livable for those in need.
