homosexuality

No Religious Liberty in Australia

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

There is no religious liberty in Australia.

From Canberra Declaration:

Citipointe silenced

The Citipointe Controversy – Christians Are Second-Class Citizens

James Macpherson

7 FEBRUARY 2022

2.8 MINS

The Citipointe debacle is a sobering revelation of where conservative Australian Christians stand in terms of our ability to forthrightly express our basic beliefs within our own institutions.

Religious freedom is now a second-tier right in Australia. This is the obvious conclusion from the controversy surrounding Brisbane’s Citipointe Christian College.

If religious people cannot join together and publicly form schools to educate their children without first paying homage to LGBTQIA+ sensitivities, then religious freedom is no longer a fundamental principle.

Religious liberty — a once cherished freedom — is now a disfavoured right, seen by many as a licence for bigotry and hatred. And so religious freedom cannot be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anyone has been harmed.

A Christian Education

Citipointe Christian College began February by advertising their Christian principles to prospective students and their families.

They believed homosexuality was a sin and they required students to enrol according to their biological sex.

None of this was remarkable. The clue was in the name – Citipointe Christian College.

For 2,000 years Christians have believed sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed within the bounds of marriage. And the Bible defines marriage as a lifelong, exclusive union between a man and a woman. Any sex outside of that — whether premarital, extramarital, or homosexual — is a sin. Oh, and sex is binary. God created us male and female.

So you have to be okay with a Christian worldview to enrol at Citipointe Christian College. Again, the clue to all of this is in the name.

Control

If you just can’t survive without waving a rainbow flag, or if you just can’t resist the urge to change pronouns and start using bathrooms for which you are anatomically unsuited, then Citipointe is not the school for you. And, sadly, your choice of schools is reduced by one to literally hundreds.

But activists didn’t want to send their children to an ‘enlightened’ school where their views on sexuality would be celebrated. They demanded the Christian school change its ethos to accommodate them.

Bizarrely, they even argued that the Christian thing for the Christian college to do would be to change their Christian ethic to something other than Christian and, in so doing, show themselves to be true Christians.

Such an absurd proposition could only be reasonable to people whose ‘Pride’ has now ripened into full-blown narcissism, wherein they now believe the entire world — including Jesus Himself — should orbit around them.

The school’s enrolment contract drew widespread outrage, with a petition calling for its recall gaining more than 155,800 signatures in a matter of days. This was highly significant in the eyes of journalists who seemed to think biblical truth, like politics, was almost entirely a matter of polling.

Read the rest of the article here

Stephen McAlpine: Faith-Based Schools To Fall Off The Precipice

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Steven McAlpine warns us of the fruits of Same Sex “Marriage.” The political Left are out to destroy all opposition to its agenda of suppressing freedom of thought and conscience

Faith-Based Schools To Fall Off the Precipice

MAY 8, 2019STEPHENMCALPINE
Screen Shot 2019-05-08 at 11.09.51 pm.png

I made a comment to a non-Christian friend who sends their child to a faith-based school that employs practicing Christian teachers, that their decision to vote YES in the same sex plebiscite might mean they would soon be looking somewhere else to school their child.

They seemed surprised. I didn’t say it with any particular emotion.  I just made the point that, as I said at the time of the SSM legislation, the decision was not a slippery slope, but a precipice point.

It will change a lot more than marriage, and it will do so quickly.  The YES vote would prove to be an anchor with a whole raft of other issues tied to it that will get pulled over the edge with the weight it carries.  That was not how it was presented of course.  It was presented as a discrete issue that was all about how we live our private lives.

But here’s the fact: Many a parent voted YES for same sex marriage, never realising they were voting NO for the education model they so value for their children.

Same sex marriage in Australia, despite all the assurances from many of  those advocating it, was always going to be a tipping point moment for a whole bunch of other stuff, including the move to force faith-based schools to sign up to anti-discrimination legislation on the pain of funding losses.

And, more pointedly, a precipitous issue for those many non-Christian parents who have scraped together the money to send their children to a faith-based school in suburbs that are a wasteland of decent high schools.  In other words be careful what you vote for.  Or at least know what it will lead to.

My friend’s surprise dissipated and we didn’t talk of it again.  Life, as it does, took over.  The vote happened.  Love won.  What’s not to like?

Meanwhile school board members such as me, and executive teams of schools and lobby groups for faith-based organisations began paddling like mad, working overtime in Canberra and beyond, to try and plug the sinking boat of viable alternate ethical communities such as schools.

And, as was reported back to me, the hostility from many a parliamentarian towards faith-based education was palpable.  Eye-rolls, snorts, and watching iPhones during the hearings whenever a Christian schools representative got up to speak.  And these people are the leaders of our nation?

 

Read the full story here

Eight things you need to know about the Israel Folau saga | Bernard Gaynor

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Eight things you need to know about the Israel Folau saga | Bernard Gaynor

This is Raelene Castle.

And even though she looks like she’s auditioning for the lead role in a Hollywood blockbuster in which a transgender woman and a radical lesbian feminist find common ground through gentle and tender comedy while raising awareness about the threat of climate change as they travel across America on a stolen electric scooter with an incel hitchhiker named Jason, she’s actually not.

Instead, she’s a great leader. See:

Like all great leaders, Raelene Castle has principles and she sticks to them. She says what she means. For instance, just a couple of days ago she said this:

Rugby is a sport that continuously works to unite people, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexuality. All people are welcome to be part of the rugby family.

This great leader uttered these words at the end of a press conference in which she announced that Israel Folau would be sacked for his Christian views on sexuality. Also see:

Obviously, when the Great Leader Raelene Castle said that rugby welcomed all people, she did not mean Christians. Indeed, she probably doesn’t even think that Christians are human. So why would they be welcome in Raelene’s castle?

If you are a grown up and all of this is doing your head in, don’t worry, I’m here to help.

There are eight things you need to know about this Israel Folau kerfuffle.

Let me list all the other ways that Raelene Castle is a great leader and Rugby Australia is not imploding and taking down the last edifice of freedom in this nation with it.

1. Raelene Castle is destroying Australian rugby

Rugby Australia decided to axe the Western Force in 2017 to save $6 million a year. And this decision was made even after Andrew Forrest offered to stump up $50 million from his personal piggy bank to keep the team alive.

And now it seems highly likely that Rugby Australia will be forced to pay out Israel Folau’s $4 million contract (the ink on it is still wet), foot the bill for Raelene Castle’s extraordinary leadership at $815,255 per year and stump up for the legal costs of this saga as well. That’s likely to add up to a tad more than $6 million.

Guess what? It would have been cheaper for Rugby Australia to let Israel Folau have his say and keep the Western Force alive.

But that hasn’t happened.

So now guess what? On the eve of the Rugby World Cup, Rugby Australia has gone to war with its star player and sent a message to all the other Israel Folaus chasing the ball around that they are not wanted either.

Given only half the Australian side are Pacific Islanders and the kids of this community are basically keeping junior rugby alive, it’s a good thing that Raelene Castle is such a brilliant boss that she understands Pacific Islanders have a strongly held belief in the separation of church and the footy field.

2. Rugby union in general has gone nuts

Bear with me because this is so weird that you couldn’t make it up, even if you were partying with Karmichael Hunt (we’ll get to that later).

There’s a rugby team in New Zealand called the Canterbury Crusaders. And even though they had nothing to do with the Christchurch terrorist attack they’re considering a name change anyway because to keep it would be Islamophobic.

And on the other side of the world, there’s another rugby team based in London named the Saracens.

The saracens spread Islam at the point of a sword throughout the Middle East, across North Africa and into Europe, including the Sharia law bit justifying the execution of homosexuals. The crusaders attempted to free the Holy Land from saracen control and jihadis are still miffed about this, hence the umpteen thousand Islamic terrorist attacks across the globe.

But the Saracens rugby club are not changing their name again, presumably, because it would be Islamophobic to do so.

There’s a bloke who plays for the Saracens by the name of Billy Vuniploa. And he has earnt himself a formal warning for daring to agree with Israel Folau. He didn’t mention hell but he did state that men were meant for women.

So, in general terms, it’s ok for a rugby team to be named after the saracens who used force to spread the belief that homosexuals should be executed but it’s not ok for a person to play in this team if they believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And it’s definitely not ok for a rugby team to be named after the crusaders, who fought the saracens.

And somewhere in all of this is Sonny Bill Williams, the high profile Kiwi player who converted to Islam, quotes from the Koran on his Twitter page and who converses on social media with a mufti who once said:

“gays are worse than animals”

Like the Exalted One Raelene Castle said, rugby welcomes all people – even the ones who think the other ones are not human.

Perhaps if Israel Folau was Muslim, Raelene Castle would have gone with him to visit a mosque after he expressed his views. But he isn’t, so that didn’t happen.

Read the rest of the article here

Privileged Group Revealed

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

They say that you can tell who the most powerful group is in a society by noticing who cannot be criticised.

This Instagram post by Israel Folau has been widely condemned as “homophobic”. Nobody from the “Drunk Community”, Adultering Community, the Liars Community, the Thieves Community or the Atheist and Idolatry Communities have made any complaints that we have heard about.

Just one noisy group whose directive has led to yet another public smack down.

So which so-called “victim group” wields more power than any other identity group in Australia?

You Will Comply Or Else

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

The “tolerance” war goes on

From lifesitenews.com:

Featured Image
Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack PhillipsYouTube
Calvin FreiburgerCalvin FreiburgerFollow Calvin
  • Comment on this Article
  • Print this Page

NEWSFREEDOM,GENDER,HOMOSEXUALITY,POLITICS – U.S.Wed Dec 19, 2018 – 11:40 am EST

Christian baker sues Colorado officials for pressuring him to make LGBT cakes

DENVER, December 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Christian baker in Colorado who won a high-profile religious liberty case earlier this year is back in court, this time going on offense against the state officials he says are continuing to persecute him for refusing to create pro-LGBT products.

This summer, the U.S. Supreme Courtruled7-2 that Colorado officials had discriminated against the Masterpiece Cakeshop owner’s religious beliefs while trying to force him to bake a cake for a same-sex “wedding.” But on June 26, Autumn Scardinafileda complaint against Phillips for declining to bake a cake that would be pink on the inside and blue on the outside, to celebrate his “transition” from male to female.

Two days later, Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD) director Aubrey Elenis wrote a letter concluding there was probable cause to conclude Phillips had unlawfully denied Scardina “equal enjoyment of a place of public accommodation.” It ordered the two to enter compulsory mediation to reach an amicable resolution.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the religious liberty nonprofit that represented Phillips in his original case, responded by filing a federal lawsuit against outgoing Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper and the state civil rights commission, accusing them of ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling and continuing to discriminate against Phillips’ faith.

“Jack had no choice but to file a federal lawsuit to defend himself from this targeting,” ADF’s Maureen Collinswrote. “He should not have to fear government punishment for his faith when he opens his cake shop for business every day. But it appears that Colorado will not stop harassing him until he closes down or agrees to violate his faith.”

The case went before the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on Tuesday, Colorado Public Radioreports.

Jim Campbell, an ADF attorney representing Phillips, argued that the commissioners, all of whom were appointed by Hickenlooper, are acting as both accusers and judges in the case, which is particularly concerning in light of bias they’ve expressed against Phillips online.

“One current commissioner has publicly referred to Jack as a ‘hater’ on Twitter, one of several indications of the commission’s ongoing bias against Jack and his beliefs,” Campbellsaidprior to the hearing. “We’re asking the federal court to immediately stop Colorado’s efforts to punish Jack in order to shield him from a biased agency and ensure that he is not forced to express messages that violate his faith.”

Attorneys representing the state responded that the commission is merely enforcing duly-enacted state laws against “discrimination,” and that Phillips should be equally willing to make a pink-and-blue cake for a “gender transition celebration” as he would if the same design were requested for any other purpose.

Judge Wiley Daniel rejected ADF’s request for a preliminary injunction as overly broad, but gave them additional time to craft a narrower request with more specificity about the actions they wanted to stop. “Whatever I do here will be appealed,” he added.

“At this point, they’re just targeting Christians. This is outright Christian persecution,” Colorado Christian University policy analyst Jeff Hunt, a friend of Phillips,toldCBN News. “Jack Phillips is very much a canary in the coal mine with regard to the very important legal issues we’re going to be facing.”

Though many conservatives celebrated the earlier Supreme Court ruling as a win for religious liberty,others warnedthat the narrow ruling ultimately failed to solve the problem because it was about the hostility the commission showed Phillips rather than his right not to bake certain cakes.

Read the full story here

Israel Folau: Faith Is Greater Than Sport

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Increasingly, Christians are having to make hard decisions about standing firm in their faith or kowtowing to the secular religion. Israel Folau is stating that his faith is more important than his sport. Notice how the ABC verbals him in the article while showing his actual tweets way down the article.

From the ABC:

Israel Folau is prepared to ‘walk away’ from rugby union over beliefs

Updated 

Wallabies' Israel Folau tackled by All Blacks' Rieko Ioane and Beauden Barrett

Wallabies star Israel Folau has said he is prepared to walk away from rugby if his situation becomes untenable due to his Christian beliefs.

Folau was heavily criticised for a post on Instagram two weeks ago in which he said God’s plan for gay people was “HELL”.

The 29-year-old said he was disappointed in the way Monday’s meeting with ARU chief executive Raelene Castle and NSW Rugby chief Andrew Hore to discuss his social media use was portrayed to the media by Castle.

“After the meeting I went home, turned on the TV and was really disappointed with some of the things that were said in the press conference,” Folau wrote in a column on PlayersVoice.

“I felt Raelene misrepresented my position and my comments, and did so to appease other people, which is an issue I need to discuss with her and others at Rugby Australia.”

Folau said he has “no phobia towards anyone” but refused to back down on his beliefs, revealing he told Castle he would quit rugby if those beliefs were harming the game.

“I didn’t agree with Bill Pulver taking a stance on the same-sex marriage vote on behalf of the whole organisation, but I understand the reasons behind why he did,” he wrote.

“After we’d all talked, I told Raelene if she felt the situation had become untenable — that I was hurting Rugby Australia, its sponsors and the Australian rugby community to such a degree that things couldn’t be worked through — I would walk away from my contract, immediately.”

Castle called Folau a “strong role model” after Monday’s meeting.

“We are in a negotiation with Israel to extend [his contract] and we would really like him to stay in rugby, that’s hugely important to us, he is a great player, he has delivered some great outcomes for us and has been a really strong role model in the Pacific Islander community and we would like to see he stays in rugby,” she said.

When asked if Folau understood the pain his comments could cause, Castle replied: “Yes, and I think Israel has acknowledged that maybe he could have put a positive spin on that same message and done it in a more respectful way.”

‘My faith is more important than my career’

Folau said he “could never shy away from who I am or what I believe”, and speculation he was looking for a way out of his ARU contract to take up big offers elsewhere was false.

“There have been things written about me angling to get a release from my Rugby Australia deal to pursue an NRL contract. That simply isn’t true,” he said.

An Instagram comment that reads "HELL. Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God." and a man looking at the camera.PHOTO: Israel Folau’s Instagram comment has landed him in hot water. (AAP: Paul Miller)

“There have been rugby offers from the UK, Europe and Japan that are way above anything I could earn in Australia.

“This is not about money or bargaining power or contracts. It’s about what I believe in and never compromising that, because my faith is far more important to me than my career and always will be.”

The rugby league and AFL convert said his Instagram comment was to give someone “guidance”, not to cause offence.

“Since my social media posts were publicised, it has been suggested that I am homophobic and bigoted and that I have a problem with gay people,” he wrote.

“This could not be further from the truth.

“I fronted the cover of the Star Observer magazine to show my support for the Bingham Cup, which is an international gay rugby competition for both men and women.

“I believe in inclusion. In my heart, I know I do not have any phobia towards anyone.”

Folau has previously spoken out against same-sex marriage, after the Wallabies expressed support for the Yes campaign last year.

In a tweet posted on September 13 last year, Folau said: “I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions but personally, I will not support gay marriage.”

Avalanche Delayed

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

one-man-one-woman

Today is The Day that the whole world has been awaiting for literally millennia.

The first day that same sex, no sex or any other two people can marry in Australia (apart from the ones that already did- see note below) was expected by the ABC and the other leftist media to launch a flood of excitement.

AM covered the Great Day with its usual class and lack of irony awareness. They interviewed two same sex couples, one of whom was “married” in a ceremony in Perth a couple of minutes after midnight. So nobody in Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra could be bothered making a point apparently.

The major part of the broadcast was given over to a male couple who think it’s all a jolly good thing and they are getting “married” in February- a whole month after the flood gates have been opened. And apparently Partner 1 was much keener than Partner 2 and had to get him drunk to get him to agree, which could potentially be a breach of the Marriage Act.

So the big news item on the first day of gay marriage is, well, not much is happening. So not the groundswell of demand that the activists predicted. No doubt by the time we get to the evening TV news the ABC will have found a few more and there will be the items on Saturday night as the first weekend of the brave new world unfolds. By then maybe one fifth of a thifteenth of a percent of all the people screaming for this thing will have got “married.”

Can’t wait for January 9th 2019 when the divorces start to filter through.

BTW we already had a gay “wedding” before Christmas when a couple who had already planned a celebration and had people coming from overseas gained permission to shorten the usual one-month notice period. And we have already had our first gay “divorce” when a pair “married” under British law and living in Australia were able to get “divorced” immediately after Australian law recognised their “marriage” and hence could legally “divorce” them.

Wonderful.

 

 

The Same Sex Marriage Vote

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

voting

We had our say, and the nation overwhelmingly voted “Yes” to same sex marriage. I am disappointed but not surprised.

What should Christians make of this?

Firstly, it should be a wake up call for anyone who maintains that Australia is a “Christian country.” It is not, and 60% of the population showed that they are not in favour of a strictly Christian society. Interestingly, the electorates where there was a majority “No” vote were those with a larger than average immigrant population- both Middle East and Asian.

Secondly, it should be a sign to the church that we need to be more intentional in missions. That is, we must take the message of Christ to the streets, to the workplace, to our neighbourhoods. There will be a temptation to withdraw from the public square, to sit in our comfortably padded pews and hope that nobody notices. Instead we need to get out and win hearts, minds and souls to the kingdom.

Thirdly we need to prepare for persecution for our beliefs. By that I don’t mean that Christians will be thrown into prison for being Christians. No it will be much more subtle than that. Human Rights Tribunals and other quasi-judicial bodies will prosecute individuals and groups who oppose the dominant narrative. If you dare to state that marriage should be between a man and a woman in any context other than a place of worship you may soon be liable to a complaint. If you think that is unlikely, consider the Bishop of Tasmania who was forced to appear before that state’s tribunal for publishing a booklet explaining the church’s position on marriage and supporting the current legal definition of marriage.

Finally we need to pray as never before. We must pray for our friends and neighbours to receive the gospel. People have been rejecting God for a couple of generations now and that trend is not showing any signs of being reversed. We live in a society that is increasingly narcissistic, because it is made up of people who think they are gods. We must repent of our own self-centredness and give ourselves anew to serving God and God alone.

 

Gay Marriage Nothing To Do With Freedom of Speech

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

one-man-one-woman

Bill Muehlenberg: Affirm Traditional Marriage and You Can Lose Your Job for “Hate Speech”

Sep 19, 2017

Let me cut to the quick: if you dare to question the radical homosexual agenda, or if you dare to publicly defend what the institution of marriage has always been about, chances are very good that you can lose your job, be fined, or face other heavy-handed penalties for your views.

All over the West today free speech, religious freedom, and the democratic process itself are under direct attack. And overwhelmingly those stomping on our freedoms are the activists from the homosexual lobby and their many and various supporters.

The way things are going, I really need to write a book featuring all those who lost their jobs for daring to stand up for heterosexual marriage. Oh wait – I already did this. The first chapter of my 2014 book Dangerous Relations features not one, not two, but 165 cases of pink persecution.

They come from a 34-month period (January 2011 to October 2013) and feature just some of the cases of people losing their freedoms, being kicked out of a job, fined, or even jailed – all for the “crime” of insisting on the usual understanding of marriage, and refusing to bow down to the homosexual juggernaut.

And these were certainly not all of the cases that took place during this period. And of course not every case of this kind gets a wide public hearing, as the ones I reported on did. Thus I think it is safe to say that we now have many hundreds – if not thousands – of occurrences of this happening.

Not a day goes by when some poor soul who thought living in a free democratic society meant he could speak out on things that matter – including the historic understanding of marriage – has found himself on the receiving end of rainbow repression.

And in some places things are now this bad, but homosexual marriage has not even been legalised yet. Just imagine how much worse things will get if and when it is! Australia is one such nation, where the rainbow activists have been on a search and destroy mission, targeting anyone who dares to disagree with their radical agenda.

I have heaps of examples of this already documented on my site. Well, it is a new day, so we of course have plenty of new examples to include in this ever-expanding list of victims of the pink mafia. Let me offer just three more of them.

The first involves a small business owner in Canberra who has just fired one of her staff members. Was he caught stealing company goods? Did he seek to molest a customer? Did he trash the joint in a drunken rage? Nope, he did something far, far worse: he actually said he affirms heterosexual marriage.

Yes that is now such an horrific offence that you can lose your job over it. Try telling this guy nothing changes when we seek to redefine marriage. It has not even been legally changed here yet and we already have people losing their jobs! Wakey wakey folks!

The shop owner, Madlin Sims, wrote this on her FB page (I slightly edited one word):

Today I fired a staff member who made it public knowledge that they feel “it’s okay to vote no”.
Advertising your desire to vote no for SSM is, in my eyes, hate speech.
Voting no is homophobic. Advertising your homophobia is hate speech. As a business owner I can’t have somebody who publicly represents my business posting hate speech online.
1. Its bad for business
2. I don’t like sh*t morals
3. I don’t want homophobes working for me, especially in an environment with children.
It’s not okay to vote no. It’s not okay to be homophobic. This isn’t a matter of opinion or even religion. It’s a matter of the love & livelihood of real human beings. Freedom of speech is there for a reason and so are consequences.

Wow, did you get that? To support traditional marriage is “hate speech”! Affirming male-female marriage is “sh*t” morals! If you say marriage is about one man and one woman you are being “homophobic”! And the real howler is this: “It’s a matter of the love & livelihood of real human beings.”

Um yeah, try telling this real human being who just got fired what this love is all about, and how it impacts one’s livelihood! Usually the leftists are the first to scream about unfair dismissals and authoritarian bosses running roughshod over workers’ rights. Um, just where are all these lefties now? As Martyn Iles pointed out:

This woman has sacked a contractor for using an “it’s ok to vote no” frame on Facebook. She has a problem, though…
1) Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT) s13 — “It is unlawful for a principal to discriminate against a contract worker… (b) by not allowing the contract worker to work or continue to work”
2) Discrimination Act 1991 (ACT) s7(1)(o) — “political conviction” is a protected attribute.
It appears that what she has done is plain illegal.

My second case is not much better. One person actually rented a plane to sky write the words “Vote No”. For daring to do that all hell has broken out. They are now after his head, and he is now likely hiding in fear of his life! One news item puts it this way:

The electoral watchdog has received complaints about the “Vote No” skywriting over Sydney on the weekend not being properly authorised. A grassroots campaigner against same-sex marriage commissioned a pilot to write “Vote No””Vote No” in the sky four times on Sunday, a day after the anti same-sex marriage campaign launched nationally.
The skywriting, which was not organised by the key “no” case group Coalition for Marriage, attracted much discussion on social media, and the website from which it was crowdfunded was inundated with comments. The Australian Electoral Commission has received a number of complaints regarding the skywriting.

But get a load of all the love and tolerance he is now getting:

Social media users quickly began circulating the company’s contact information, abusing them for taking on the job. One message said the business owner is an “a***hole”. Another post said it was “probably the end of your business”.
One text message to the business owner read “you really are a sh** human. You’re definitely the biggest piece of sh** in Australia today. Probably tomorrow too. Hope you’re proud of yourself. Don’t be surprised by the hate coming for you. Titt for tatt, it’s only fair, right? You stupid, ignorant, remorseless, pathetic, old, LOSER”.

My final case involves a church that had the audacity to actually affirm two-thousand years of Christian social teaching on this issue:

A billboard outside a Brisbane church has sparked outrage ahead of the same-sex marriage vote. The Bellbowrie Community Church posted the sign: “God designed marriage between a man & a woman”. It was condemned on social media, and critics took to the church’s Facebook page to object.
“Hopefully there are churches in the area that cater to ALL Christians and not just the ones who fit in the narrow minded view of this “Church of God”. I’m sure Christ would be very disappointed in your view of Christianity,” one post said. Others started taking to the church’s review section and posting one-star reviews.
“A closed-minded group which overtly discriminates against members of our valued community and their (very reasonable) quest for marriage equality,” one woman wrote. Cartoons of same sex couples and sailors waving rainbow flags were posted in the comments under unrelated posts by the church.

So let me get this straight: now churches cannot even state publicly what the Christian view of marriage is without the haters and frenzied mobs coming out in force? I repeat: if things are this bad now, can you imagine how much worse things will get if faux marriage is legalised here?

And yet the other side keeps pushing the same old mantra that nothing changes when we change marriage. There will be no negative repercussions, they keep insisting. They are lying through their teeth and they know it. As just one of a kazillion examples, just yesterday lesbian activist and sister of Tony Abbott Christine Forster said the same thing.

She claimed on Sky News that homosexual marriage would have zero impact on free speech. She claimed that “there is nothing about changing same-sex marriage laws to allow same-sex couples to marry that will have any impact whatsoever on people’s ability to speak freely about their religion and their beliefs.”

Sure Christine, sure. Try telling that to the guy who just lost his job, or the skywriter facing the wrath of the militants, of the Queensland church subjected to so much hate and abuse. Try telling them their ability to express their beliefs – whether religious or not – will not be put at risk.

www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/its-not-okay-to-be-homophobic-canberra-contractor-sacked-for-vote-no-facebook-post/news-story/4ed027f47b5810e87036450054a8b6dd
au.news.yahoo.com/a/37132053/same-sex-marriage-no-case-skywriting-triggers-complaints/
www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/southwest/same-sex-marriage-supporters-critical-of-brisbane-church-billboard/news-story/240c1a37342c85ee0d50ecea0e6f2513?nk=6b87ac2934e63127b3027c05d2a15a8e-1505782321

Redefining Marriage Undermines All Freedom

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

one-man-one-woman

Marriage in the UK was redefined to allow marriage between any two people just 4 years ago. Conservative magazine The Spectator describes some of the repercussions of this decision in just a very short time period.

Four years ago, amid much uncertainty, 400 British members of parliament voted to redefine marriage in the United Kingdom.

Then prime minister David Cameron announced that, despite having made no mention of the issue in his party’s pre-election manifesto, it would be MP’s who decided the fate of marriage.

Now, it’s Australia’s turn to choose. There’s one key difference. Unlike in Britain, it will be the people who decide.

Everyone agrees, whether they admit it or not. This is a decision of enormous significance.

Therefore, it seems sensible to analyse the consequences of the potential change, within nations in which redefinition has previously been carried out.

In the United Kingdom, it has become abundantly clear that redefinition has affected many people, across many spheres. At first glance, these spheres appeared distinct from marriage redefinition. However, subsequent changes, have proved that they are entirely intertwined.

Gender: Current Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May, has revealed proposals to abolish the need for any medical consultation before gender reassignment. Simply filling out an official form will be sufficient. A ‘Ministry of Equalities’ press release, explicitly announced, that the proposals were designed to: ‘build on the progress’ of same-sex marriage. Guardian journalist Roz Kaveney boasted that changing your gender is now: ‘Almost as simple as changing your name by statutory declaration’.

Manifestations of the ‘British gender revolution’ are not difficult to find. Transport for London, have prohibited the use of the ‘heteronormative’ words, such as ladies and gentlemen. Meanwhile, universities across the nation are threatening to ‘mark down’ students, who continue to use the words ‘he’ and ‘she’. Instead, ‘gender neutral pronouns’ such as ‘ze’, must be uniformly applied.

Such gender-theory radicalism has delighted Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGBT lobby. Their Orwellian tagline: ‘Acceptance without exception’, can be seen plastered on posters and adverts. Politicians, attempt to ‘out-radical’ one another, in the race to be an original champion, in the next emancipatory front of ‘Trans-rights’.

Freedom of religion: Much was made in the UK, about supposed exemptions, designed to ensure that believers would always be allowed to stay true to their convictions.

Four years later, the very same people who made ‘heartfelt promises’, now work tirelessly to undermine them.

Equalities minister Justine Greening, has insisted that churches must be made to: ‘Keep up with modern attitudes’. Likewise, the Speaker of the House of Commons, a position supposedly defined by its political neutrality, had this to say: I feel we’ll only have proper equal marriage when you can bloody well get married in a church if you want to do so, without having to fight the church for the equality that should be your right’.

It became clear, during this year’s general election, just how militant the LGBT lobby have become, following marriage redefinition. The primary target was Tim Farron, leader of England’s third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats. High-profile journalists had heard that Farron was a practising Christian. In every single interview thereafter, they demanded to know. Did he personally believe homosexual sex to be a sin? He practically begged the commentariat, to allow him to keep his personal faith and legislative convictions separate. For decades, he pointed out, he had out vocally and legislatively supported the LGBT Lobby. Likewise, he had long backed same-sex marriage, voting for it enthusiastically. This simply was no longer enough.

Shortly after the election campaign, Farron resigned. He stated that it was now impossible, for a believing Christian to hold a prominent position in British politics.

In a heartbreaking development and in spite of Britain’s ‘foster crisis’, aspiring foster parents who identify as religious, face interrogation. Those who are deemed unlikely to ‘celebrate’ homosexuality, have had their dreams of parenthood scuppered. This month, Britain’s High Court, ruled that a Pentecostal couple were ineligible parents. While the court recognised their successful and loving record of adoption, they decreed that above all else: ‘The equality provisions concerning sexual orientation should take precedence’. How has Great Britain become so twisted? Practicing Jews, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, who want to stay true to their religious teachings, can no longer adopt children.

Read the rest of the article here– you may have to sign up for a free account, but it’s worth the hassle.

As an aside I note that WordPress have inserted a rainbow banner on their sites, at least for Australian users. All hail our Gay Overlords.