In the early days of the pandemic we learned to accept the natural inequalities in the treatment of professional sports people, miners, celebrities, religious or gaming institutions, but now religious leaders are coming down from the mountain demanding a level playing field .

Furious religious leaders are claiming they feel "mocked and discriminated against."

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, tweeted he was: "deeply shocked at the disparity imposed on Vic's faith communities by the Victorian Government", while Sydney's Anglican Archbishop is making representations in his own state on the basis of community health and wellbeing and the evils of loneliness and isolation.

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It may be that as a result religious organisations will now repent of their intended "religious freedom legislation" enshrining the religious prerogative that negatively impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of minorities.

Like so many biblical narratives, prejudice comes into sharp focus when you are on the receiving end.

Ironically, for a range of conservative religious institutions that have demanded the right to discriminate in schools and other places, the pub rather than the pulpit test might deliver clarity when those insisting on special treatment can't see the writing on the wall

Fr Peter MacLeod-Miller

Rector of Albury

St Matthew's Anglican Church

Once more Father Brendan Lee rears his ugly right-wing head in his latest attempt at political commentary (Loss of Voice Will Echo Through the Community, BM 22/10).

His penchant for drawing the longest bow to link criminal behaviour, loss of regional media, to the landslide victory of Jacinda Ardern, is not only sympathetic to increasingly right-wing commentators like Greg Sheridan, but indicative of the misogynistic attitudes which underlie such commentary.

If Brendan were actually credibly serious in this veiled attack of the left, that Ardern has failed so badly at delivering her party's promises to help the poor, he might like to direct his concern at Australia's own Prime Minister, who has been dragged kicking and screaming to the negotiating table, reluctantly admitting that climate change is a reality, that his government's incessant penchant for three-word slogans left Australia in a vulnerable position and the nation was heading for a recession regardless of the pandemic.

Perhaps if Brendan were to admit that Murdoch's media ownership has aided in Australia being a scared, racist, divided nation, he may actually display some of the compassion that Ardern is globally recognised for.

That the sheer scale of a media bias providing more right-wing political commentary than actual reporting, is pandering to the worst in us.

If Brendan were to appeal to our own politicians to show humanity, compassion and consideration, instead of forced handshakes and building chook pens, we might be able to mimic what Ardern shows: the best in us.

Simon Goss, East Albury