Listening to the Religion Report this morning on the ABC-RN (my favourite radio station *G*) I was struck by a comment made by the Hindu religious leader who was asked about the western Sydney council that wants to ban religious shrines from suburban front gardens. The response was "I live happily with my Gods, they are part of my family. I'm not going to stop a member of my family from standing in my front garden"!

There is the other side to the question though. At what point is the council in question trying to enforce the building codes for the area that influence the additions to one’s home such as a pergola or deck or swimming pool. Is this something to prevent people being hurt that is being misinterpreted? Or is there something else at the base of the question?

It is an interesting thought that as there is a growing separation by Anglo-Australians (or Anglo-anything) from the "God of their fathers" to quote the old hymn, there seems to be a desire to make other people stop demonstrating their connections to their ancestral deities. Almost as if seeing other people enjoy that aspect of spiritual expression is troubling; that it becomes a reproach to those who have “abandoned” their childhoods’ Gods that others still have a condition of belief.

In ancient Greece there was a tolerance of the Gods of other nations. St Paul even commented that Athens had an altar to The Unknown God, which he apparently then claimed for his God. The Athenians had their own deities, but they allowed space for other expressions of Godhood from other cultures and religious traditions. Even the Romans maintained that, though their Gods were obviously more powerful than those of the peoples they conquered, different countries have different expressions of similar Gods.

So what is so hard about allowing space for believers of other religions to celebrate by building shrines in their front gardens as is their custom; or is it a situation of knee-jerk reaction to the enforcing of building codes and different cultures of celebrating deity and a lack of understanding on both sides?