There’s nothing quite like an election to bring skeletons out of the closet.
Even when candidates try to be on their best behaviour, murky remarks from their past have a habit of bubbling to the surface.
Today, I can reveal the LNP candidate for the key Queensland marginal seat of Blair previously made a series of highly inflammatory comments about homosexuality.
They may have been made on the church pulpit and prior to being preselected to run for parliament, but there’s no excuse for them, whatever side of politics you’re on.
Carl Mutzelburg, a former pastor from the Catalyst Church, had suggested that being gay was a lifestyle choice and he would refuse to attend the marriages of gay friends.
‘My current personal conviction is that I would not attend the wedding of gay friend… I don’t believe that gay marriage will bring wholeness of life to that couple or any future children,’ he said in a sermon on September 18, 2015.
I should add Mr Mutzelburg has since changed his attitude on same-sex marriage, saying he would now attend the weddings of gay friends if invited.
The electorate of Blair is held by Labor MP Shayne Neumann on a margin of 5.2 per cent. Last year, the PM intervened to save his preselection, fearing that a new Labor candidate might struggle to retain the seat for the government.
Carl Mutzelburg, LNP candidate for the key Queensland marginal seat of Blair, made a series of inflammatory comments about homosexuality prior to being preselected to run for parliament
At the time of many of Mr Mutzelburg’s sermons about homosexuality, Mr Neumann – who is a devout Christian too – was also opposed to same-sex marriage.
He changed his position to be in favour of it in late 2015.
In an October 31, 2015, sermon, Mr Mutzelburg suggested that being gay was a lifestyle choice: ‘I can show you a stack of studies, scientifically conducted studies that seriously draw suspicion on that view that somebody is simply born this way, it’s in their DNA, that there is nothing you can do about it.’
Mr Mutzelburg also delivered sermons lamenting ‘sexual immorality’ in society, comparing it to cancer.
‘Jesus doesn’t directly refer to homosexuality. Well, that’s technically correct, but certainly by implication he does. He does talk about sexual immorality as being something that defiles a person,’ he told his congregation on November 14, 2015.
‘Can you imagine if you go to a doctor, and you have a tumour inside of you and he cuts you open to get that tumour out. You wake up out of the anaesthetic, you say to the doctor, “How did it go? How is everything?”‘ he said.
‘The doctor says, “Not too bad. Left a little bit in there, but I was in a bit of a rush. Just sewed you back up. Should be all good.”‘
Mr Mutzelburg also used rape and the bashing of homosexuals to make his point that ‘just because Jesus doesn’t mention something doesn’t mean that it’s allowable’.
Mr Mutzelburg’s offensive comments have been resurfaced while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese contemplates calling the federal election
‘Jesus doesn’t talk about rape, for instance, but that is not allowable, we would all agree on that. He doesn’t talk about, say, bashing of a homosexual person, that’s an abhorrent thing to do. It doesn’t mean that it’s allowable just because Jesus doesn’t talk about it.’
The LNP candidate for Blair’s sermons also suggested that being transgender is wrong and ‘postmodern’:
‘God made them male and female, and this is important because the postmodern view today is that your gender is separate from your humanity – you can choose – but the biblical view is that your gender is part of your humanity.’
His criticisms of same-sex relationships were made before the parliament legalised same-sex marriage following the plebiscite vote the Coalition in government initiated. The postal vote result in in a 61.6 per cent Yes vote and 38.4 per cent No vote, with almost 80 per cent of eligible Australians returning their ballots.
When contacted by Daily Mail Australia, Mr Mutzelburg apologised for the content of some of his sermons, pledging that if elected he would represent the views of all of his constituents in the parliament:
‘In my role as Pastor, I discussed many issues with my congregation in the context of Christian teachings. While my sermons were intended to reflect the views and teachings of the Church, the way in which I articulated these has clearly fallen short at times. I sincerely apologise for this.
‘While my Christian faith remains important to me, my priority if elected as the Member for Blair will be to fight for what my community wants, and to represent their views in Parliament.’
