Responses
The 1973 Proclamation of Australian Festival of Light reached out to "all people of good will", but most of those who responded had a Christian background. In 1974 Flinders University historians Hilliard and Warhurst noted that supporters of Festival of Light were mainly Protestants of the Evangelical tradition and conservative Catholics and that some other Christians tended to be critical of the organisation's "overconfident presentation of complex moral issues in simple black and white terms". Hilliard and Warhurst said that despite Festival of Light's promotion among churches around South Australia, some clergy were unresponsive and many congregations did not get involved.
Sometimes there was open controversy. A week before the 1973 visit of Mary Whitehouse, students at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and the South Australian Institute of Technology (now the University of South Australia) began a "Festival of Fright" campaign against the Australian Festival of Light events, saying, "These latter-day Calvins should be met by as much opposition as freedom-loving people can muster...."
In 1978, South Australian Attorney-General Peter Duncan criticised the Festival of Light, saying: "I believe there is a desperate need to develop a tolerant society… I don't think this sort of hysteria and prejudging that is generated by the Festival of Light does anything to further this move." Duncan also spoke out against the 1978 Festival of Light-sponsored visit to Australia by Whitehouse, calling her "an agent of darkness" and an "opponent of freedom2.
Read more about this topic: Festival Of Light Australia
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