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!