DISRESPECT FOR MARRIAGE LAWS

Last week, according to reports, a 35 year old Pakistani-born man was arrested in Parramatta for officiating at the Newcastle wedding of a 26 year old Lebanese man to a 12 year old  girl. The detectives who arrested the man apparently said that the iman was “no longer part of the mosque” that he had been involved with since 2009.

I would not wish to draw unwarranted conclusions about Muslims in Australia from this news report (I certainly am not privy to all the necessary facts) but I think I can detect the smell of audacity here.

I cannot believe that anyone could imagine it was OK to officiate a wedding involving a child bride anywhere on Australan soil. Ignorance cannot possibly be an excuse. We are left with two possibilities. Either the people concerned are simply thumbing the nose (in total disrespect) at Australian laws and values, or they somehow feel that people will respect their culture enough to turn a blind eye.

But enough clichés. It must be assumed, in any case, that they placed obligation to Islam ahead of obligation to life and citizenship in Australia.

So am I, and many others like me, wrong to fear the potential islamisation of our nation? Even apart from the fact that Islam misrepresents the Jesus that Christians love and worship,  it contradicts the values of decent Australians in countless ways.

Multiculturalism argues that we can find room for these people in our society, and that we can make some allowances for their particular cultural and religious requirements. I strongly suggest that this argument is flawed.

If we allow Muslim men to marry young girls (more than just one if they so desire) and if we allow Sharia banking, Muslim courts to rule on issues involving Muslims, public toilets and facilities to be Muslim approved, and food to be halal, the supposedly minor accommodations in the name of multiculturalism will, by stealth, completely transform our nation.

Muslims will get everything they want and the rest of the nation will just have to “get over it.”

The audacity here lies in the expectation (by some Muslims at least) that they should be allowed to fully live out their faith in Australia. It is, I’m afraid, an audacity that comes from a supremacist view that will remain largely unspoken, lest too many Australians begin to speak out against Islamic progress here.

SOCIALIST PARTY – ALWAYS UP FOR A FIGHT

I was concerned yesterday to read that the spokesperson for the group of protesters who have been trying to stop the East West Link project in Melbourne is a member of the Socialist Party. Even more troubling is the report in the Herald Sun that they have considered bringing children to the protests, just to boost numbers.

One video on the Socialist Party website shows a man speaking to a small group of protesters outside the offices of Land Lease in Melbourne. He describes the East West Link as “an unpopular project that nobody wants.”

If the letters to the editor in today’s paper are anything to go by, that description would be more apt for the protesters themselves.

The current news section of the website contains an article that says: “We are on track to turn the 2014 state election into a ‘referendum’ on the East West Link.”

The question we must ask is: Why would socialists be so passionate about a government infrastructure project? The answer: they’re always up for a fight and this just happens to be an issue that they can find ways to justify.

The socialist party claims to represent the working class (their international parent organisation is the Committee for a Workers’ International). In their own words: “The Socialist Party has a proven track record of campaigning and fighting for the rights of working class people. Over the years we have led and supported countless struggles. We have consistently campaigned against imperialist wars, racism, sexism and homophobia.”

So how does protesting against alleged marriage “inequality” have anything to do with the rights of working class people?

The conclusion is inescapable. The raison d’etre of the Socialist Party is to fight and to be seen fighting. They attack Tony Abbott as Liberal Prime Minister but they also attack Labour and even the Greens as caving in to big business.

The protesters have admitted that they are losing the propaganda war at present. Well of course they are! Anyone in this country can write articles and newsletters claiming the moral high ground, but sabotaging public works and deliberately attempting to stir up social unrest is not the way to make friends and influence people.

WHEN HATE SPEECH IS LEGAL

Anti-Christian hate speech has reached an all-time audacious low in Australia. Bill Muehlenberg, on his culture watch blog, has alerted us to a blasphemous performance on the programme of the Adelaide Fringe Festival which starts later this month.

In “Come Heckle Christ” Joshua J Ladgrove poses as Jesus so that people can abuse and insult him, or throw stuff at him. The promo says the performance is for “Anyone who enjoys yelling at Jesus whilst watching a dramatic re-enactment of everyone's favourite fairy-tale: The Crucifixion of Jesus The Christ.”

The same “show”, which is no more nor less than hate speech in the guise of comedy, is also booked for the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/come-heckle-christ/

Bill, quite rightly, asks why these people are targeting Christ, not Mohammed or Buddha. “They are gutless cowards once again picking on a soft target. They would never dare to do something like this to Muslims or other easily offended groups. They are just a despicable bunch of Christophobes who think they are being oh so clever.”

This is a game for these people. Let’s see just how much we can get away with. Let’s see how many Christians we can upset.

Bill urges Christians to contact the festival sponsors, chief of whom is BankSA, also the festival organisers and the politicians who allow public money to be spent on such rubbish. See these details on http://www.billmuehlenberg.com . Click on the article ‘More Ugly Anti-Christian Bigotry’ and scroll down.

The National Civic Council has set up a petition, which I believe every decent Australian should sign. You don't have to be a Christian to recognise that this sort of stuff is unacceptable. http://againstthetide.org.au/the-petition-against-the-blasphemous-fringe-show-come-heckle-christ

Personally, I think the promo for this show already crosses enough lines to warrant legal action in that it specifically and blatantly incites hate speech.

GIVING OXYGEN TO RACISM

The best way to kill a fire is to deprive it of oxygen, right?. Without air, a fire will fade away and die. So why do the most vocal opponents of racism in Australia keep giving oxygen to the fires of racist issues?

Today is the official Australia Day holiday and our new Australian of the Year, aboriginal footballer Adam Goodes, will highlight racism everywhere he goes. Instead of just getting on with living together as Australians, we’ll be talking about racism more and more.

Some aboriginal groups have provoked racism by publicly referring to 26th January as “Invasion Day”. Or “Survival Day”. Do they not understand that such rhetoric keeps the issue alive? Do they not see that they are stoking the fire?

Some incredibly ignorant vandals scrawled the words “26th Jan Australia’s shame” on the walls of Captain Cook’s cottage in Melbourne. Newsflash: the only thing that does is to add more oxygen to the fire!

Yes, there have been terrible instances of racist violence in our national history. A new book by Carl Weiland, of Creation Ministries International, documents the horrific results of Social Darwinism in the aftermath of Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution. Australian aboriginals were seen as unevolved throwbacks to primitive ape-like ancestors. Therefore, it was believed, they were scarcely human and could be killed with impunity.

When Adam Goodes pointed out a young girl in a football crowd and called her “ape” remark a racist slur, he was actually giving oxygen to this misguided theory that should have been snuffed out long ago.

The best antidote to racism is not stomping on the fire again, but acknowledging what the Bible has taught from the beginning: God created humans as humans.  We never were apes or ape-like creatures.  We are, as per the title of Carl Weiland’s book, “One Human Family”.  In God’s eyes, we are all the same.

The irony is that no-one is really black or white.  I know supposedly white people who are far darker in skin colour than, say, Adam Goodes.  The so-called differences are not all that great.  In fact, genetically, it’s been proven that there are more differences within so-called races than there are on average from one so-called race to another.

Nothing we do now can change the past.  We cannot atone for the ignorance of people who lived more than 200 years ago.  Our energies need to be directed towards love and understanding in the present, living together under the grace of God, and moving forward to a more harmonious future.

Let’s stop giving oxygen to the fires of racism!

CONGRATULATIONS MR PUTIN

The Winter Olympics will be held from 7th to 23rd February, mostly in Sochi, a resort city on the Black Sea in Russia’s deep south. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has been widely criticised for his comments in defence of Russia’s anti homosexual propaganda laws.  Some gay activists have tried to link the Russian law with a claimed increase in anti-homosexual violence.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Dmitry Isakov, the first person to be charged under the new law, as saying: “The problem with that law is that it sends a signal that says gays are people you can fine, who you can insult, who you can maybe even beat up,"
Isakov is also quoted as saying: "Effectively, we don't even have the right to fight discrimination."

Mr Putin, who is passionate about ensuring the success of the Winter Olympics, has openly denied that he is prejudiced against gays. But he has asked people from Western nations to respect the traditional Russian culture on these matters.

But no, respect is not something that many gay-activists understand. Mr Putin said that Olympic visitors could  “feel quite secure, at ease, but leave kids alone, please." This, of course, sparked an outcry. How dare he suggest that homosexuals are paedophiles?

Homosexuality is heavily promoted in Australia, even to children, on the theory that people are either born gay or not. Therefore, children who are not gay cannot be affected by the propaganda. This assertion is based on ideology, not facts. It has certainly never been proved. To the contrary, evidence is beginning to show that the “you may be gay” message is leading to unhealthy sexual experimentation and severe gender confusion.

I congratulate Mr Putin for standing firm in the face of international misunderstanding and condemnation. Protecting children is more important than bowing to the insatiable demands of the homosexual lobby.

THE VITRIOL CONTINUES

Last week, in this blog, I wrote about the attack on Senator Cory Bernardi over his book “The Conservative Revolution”. Well it seems the attack has only intensified since then.

Herald Sun columnist, Susie O’Brien, never short of literary audacity, weighed in with comments like: “It’s not just women who want abortions that he’s attacking, but people who have IVF, step-families and single mothers as well. What a disgrace.”

No Susie, Senator Bernardi wasn’t attacking these people. He actually wasn’t attacking anyone. This kind of vitriol is equivalent to attacking a Police Commissioner for reporting data on road fatalities. Drawing attention to the data, and suggesting options for dealing with social problems, is hardly a personal attack on anyone.

But attacks on him have grown more and more personal.

Paul Sheehan, of the Sydney Morning Herald, was rightly appalled at what he called “the avalanche of hate”. He quoted one question that was directed at Cory’s staff. “Can you ask Cory how I should insert my tampon, as he wants to tell all women what to do?” Other women accused his female staff members of having “betrayed the sisters by working for him.”

Worse comments than these are easy to find but hardly worth repeating. The audacity of such comments is rivalled only by their ignorance.

I was a little surprised, however, to read Melinda Tankard Reist’s comments. While she would evidently agree with Senator Bernardi on most things, she objects to the way he addresses issues.

“Regarding Bernardi's views on abortion, I, too, am pro-life. But polemical divides do nothing to address the needs of women.”

She goes on to complain that he has not adequately considered the reasons why, for example, children from single parent families do not do as well. It’s true, of course, that more effort needs to be put into understanding the different situations that different people face in life, and the factors that got them there.

But, Melinda, I would have thought that shoving aside the politically correct spin and highlighting the problems would be a step in the right direction.

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT UNDER ATTACK

No shortage of good fodder for this blog today. Federal politician, Anthony Albanese, has attacked conservative senator Cory Bernardi over some comments in his recent book, “The Conservative Revolution”.

Mr Albanese, who almost became the Leader of the Opposition in the wake of last year’s election, must be an early favourite for the most bizarre and audacious comments in 2014. He has called on the Liberal Party, from Prime Minister, Tony Abbott all the way down, to distance themselves from Senator Bernardi’s beliefs.

But I’ve read the Senator’s book in the past few weeks and guess what! It’s brilliant!

There are two main sides to politics in Australia, conservative and leftist. Senator Bernardi has done an exceptional job of explaining the conservative position. Far from representing an extreme position, it is actually a call for understanding, for better citizenship and for smaller, less dictatorial government. He is certainly not trying to force his views on the Australian public but he does demonstrate the importance of faith and family if Australia is to be the nation that it should be.

Some of Mr Albanese’s comments were gross distortions of what Senator Bernardi has actually written. His overall portrayal of Senator Bernardi as a dangerous extremist is nothing short of offensive.

But demanding that the leader of a conservative government distance himself from well-reasoned arguments in favour of conservative politics is not only an attack on free speech, it is, in fact, a call for the “thought police” to be given unlimited powers to ostracise and punish anyone who disagrees with the new radical agenda.

Is Senator Bernardi’s book controversial? Absolutely! But guess what: if anything is controversial, by definition it means that different people have conflicting views. How audacious, then, to demand that only one side of controversial issues has any right to be spoken or written about!