Choose Life Australia

 
Filed on 06 May 2016 in Food For Thought category. Print This Page

2016 – Choices that will shape Australia for generations to come.

Breakfast Talk 6 May 2016.

I have three texts – no this is not a sermon (oh, maybe) but they form the basis of what I want to say

Mk 12:31 (Jesus said) You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.  The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.

Mk 9:42 (Jesus said) But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
Matt 18:6 (Jesus said) But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Luke 17:2 (Jesus said) It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin

John 5:24 (Jesus said) I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

With respect to this latter verse, if you are confused or upset today at all I have to say, then let me say right now that the most important mental shift that you can make today is acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Allow me to shift the focus from “they” to “you”: Jesus is saying, I tell you the truth, if you listen to my message and believe in God who sent me, you have eternal life. You will never be condemned for your sin, but have already passed from death into life.

If you make this choice today please come and see me or the chairman or someone else after.

How do I summarise in 25’ everything I have specifically worked towards for the last 14 years – indeed 27 years since I was President of Baptist Churches in WA? I am about to try. I believe 2016 is the most critical year that we have faced in this period of time and indeed the West has faced since Nazi Germany and will shape our future for generations to come.

So what are these issues of great concern?

For medicine it is to lose our soul, to lose the battle for the intrinsic value of all human life in all states of dependency and disability from fertilisation to life’s natural end, to have conscience in medicine taken from us, and become mere providers of medical services at behest of government or consumer groups with no choice as to whether we have to perform abortions or euthanasia. We have already lost this in Victoria where the S8 part of the Abortion Act 2008 compels referral for abortions when requested. We will also have lost the ability to tell truth in matters of informed consent. You can read more about these things on the three medical websites – MWM, Conscience in Medicine, Docs4Family.

But these issues that really got me going in 2002 and running for Senate in 2004 are not the big issues that now concentrate my time and should concern all of us.

For the family it is to lose our identity as husbands and wives, as mothers and fathers, and far more significantly to lose our right to bring up our own children with values we respect and honour, particularly God-given values – with the risk that if we try we will have our children taken away from us and we will be subject to re-education classes before we can have our children back. Children in schools will be asked what they believe.

For our children it is to be subject to premature sexualisation through our schools and kindergartens, to be encouraged in alternative sexual practices and change of gender as you feel like it, to in fact be groomed for early sex and that there are at least two virginities. How do you find out? You experiment.

For the Church it is to lose our voice to preach God’s word, to uphold the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation – and indeed the West – is based; to lose our right to teach Christian values in our Church schools and if our pastors are to maintain their marriage licences then they will have to conform to state obligations to marry – we too will have lost liberty of conscience and belief.

For the Nation we will have lost our voice to declare anything that might go against – or particularly to cause hurt – the current minority beef on “unfairness”. To declare what we believe will be to discriminate against somebody or something as judged by the “thought police” of the “nanny state”. Ultimately – as with the court hearings* against the Catholic Church at the present time for including in the schools pamphlet that marriage is between male and female – we will have lost a voice in elections and therefore democratic rule. Re-education classes (“diversity training”) will be commonplace. Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act ensures these possibilities.

*Stop-Press: as of May 5 Martine Delaney has withdrawn her complaint against Julian Porteous and the Catholic Church. What could have become a precedent-setting test case is no longer.

We will note two common themes underlie these threats – the inability to speak and believe truth, and permission to do evil has become compulsion to do evil.

On what do we base our belief? Of course it is the Bible and primarily enshrined in Creation.

• Man created in the Image of God “let us make man in our image”
• The creation of Masculinity and Femininity (“bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh”)
• Marriage as a specific subset of sexuality and a Creation Mandate; “one flesh”; “for this reason shall a man cleave to his wife”
• Stewards of Creation
• Truth – at root is Satan’s attack on God’s Truth – did God really say?

I have spelt this out in more detail at http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/gods-creation-order-what-is-our-basis-for-this-battle-we-are-waging/

Much has already been written about the decline of the West. It is certainly a possibility that as we decline internally so the external threats will become more significant as a judgment from God and we will echo Habbakuk’s complaint. Habbakuk is worth reading again.

Can we hold things back in Australia? If we do things right this year then I believe we can. Yes, I believe we have a chance of upholding Australia as a voice of righteousness in the Western world – if you like, even the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.

So where does the attack come from?

Primarily from the extreme homosexual lobby and the Leftists and social engineers in our society have gone along with the agenda they have promoted. Militant atheists have joined in with the destruction of anything that might honour God – even something as logical as Intelligent Design. Pro-autonomy groups like Emily’s List (note, not Emily’s Voice) have joined in – I think without realising what they are doing.

Were we warned? Yes, as far back as 1984 in Blatant and Proud by our own Andrew Lansdown, and more recently but very clearly by Redeeming the Rainbow by Dr Scott Lively in 2009 released on internet at no cost so that it would be widely available and read. Google just the title and you won’t find it – you need the author as well, or go to Mass Resistance, a site well worth your attention http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09b/Redeeming_rainbow/

So, seven years ago, he warned:
Indeed, few Christians are even aware that the implicit goal of the “gay” movement is the replacement of our society’s Judeo-Christian sexual ethic (i.e. marriage and the natural family) with an anything-goes sexual morality.
As simplistic as it may sound, the culture war in America is, at its core, a battle between Christians and homosexuals. It is a winner-take-all fight to determine whose presuppositions about sexual morality will form the foundation of all of our laws and policies. Frankly, the homosexuals have been winning this fight for many decades because the church has been asleep.

We have failed in the USA and we are now failing in Australia and 2016 is the year that could set our children’s future for decades to come if we get it wrong.

The specific battle grounds here now are the push for homosexual marriage – so called Marriage Equality or same-sex marriage (SSM) – and the Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA).

I hope you have some background knowledge in both of these issues.

So what is so bad about something that sounds as innocuous as a Safe Schools Program?

Firstly, there are existing school programs that deal with bullying without selecting one particular area of concern and we are informed that these programs are effective if followed through.

Secondly, the program encourages premature sexualisation of children. We can be thankful that it will now only be implemented in high schools and no longer in primary schools. (But already such “education” is to be separately introduced to pre-schoolers. The Start Early Initiative for kindergartens introducing gender, sexuality, cross-dressing and tours of the opposite sex toilets promoted by Early Childhood Australia was introduced last month and is set to be rolled out across the country. It is said that it is to prevent domestic violence by countering “rigid views on gender” http://www.endeavourforum.org.au/newsletter/162/start-early.html https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/06/when-the-wicked-target-our-children/ )

Thirdly, the program introduces – and encourages experimentation in – matters of sexuality and sexual experience that would horrify most people: two virginities; breast binding; penis tucking; and links to sites that promote group sex, sex toys and sadomasochism. Also http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/a-%E2%80%9Cneeds-to-know%E2%80%9D-safe-schools/. At a time when we are looking at ways of combatting the scourge of pornography some of these sites are overtly pornographic.

Indeed, normally accepted sexual intercourse as between a male and a female is derided as “heteronormativity” and is not to be tolerated.

Lesson two of the program involves sex role playing: students imagine they are 16 and going out with somebody, one half of the class with someone of the same sex and the other half with the opposite sex. Class discussions are recommended to combat the malaise of “heteronormativity”. Students are urged to avoid reinforcing this mindset with questions such as whether a new baby is a boy or a girl. Did you get that? The ideology is that “reducing heteronormativity in schools can have good outcomes for everyone”.

This sexualisation and overt “grooming” for early sex has been considered by some as child abuse.

Indeed, in their paper of Mar 29, 2016 Gender ideology harms children, published by the American College of Paediatricians, Michelle A. Cretella, Quentin Van Meter and Paul McHugh write that “conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.” http://www.mercatornet.com/conjugality/view/gender-ideology-harms-children/17818 http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children

Is the program “just”? Is it good or evil? And what does that imply for the politicians and educators that promote these things?

Is it “just” to encourage experimentation in losing virginity and that there are ways of losing it other than penis-in-vagina sexual intercourse – and to know your own sexual identity you should find out? Is it “just” to suggest that sadomasochistic sexual expression is OK and that it is OK to hurt or be hurt?

And so, in the face of all the evidence, and even when it has been signalled by government that the program will be modified and links to some websites taken off, how do the Labor Party Leaders of Australia react? You would think that they would at least agree that some parts of the program should be taken out but no, they have reacted with hostility – “you’re homophobic” – and determination to go ahead with the program as it is. In the face of a rational and righteous voice, Labor has hardened its stand – the polarisation worsens. Unbelievable, but we read in Scripture that it is predictable Rev 22:11 let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; Daniel 12:10 the wicked will continue to be wicked.

This is so much more than social engineering – it is evil.

We must be so clear on these matters and in this we need to heed the warning of that great moral teacher, the greatest of them all, Jesus Christ himself, no less than the Son of God, when He issued the strongest condemnation of all His condemnations, that anyone who leads children into sin would be better off to be cast into the sea with a millstone around the neck.

Could it be worse? Fortunately the real intent the program is being exposed.

A prominent homosexual columnist has blown away the smokescreen obscuring the real intent behind anti-bullying and “anti-homophobic” programs in schools. Daniel Villarreal in Queerty writes: “Let’s face it, we want to indoctrinate children.”  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gay-journalist-lets-face-it-we-want-to-indoctrinate-children

“Recruiting children? You bet we are,” Villarreal wrote. “Why would we push anti-bullying programs or social studies classes that teach kids about the historical contributions of famous queers unless we wanted to deliberately educate children to accept queer sexuality as normal?”

“I and a lot of other people want to indoctrinate, recruit, teach and expose children to queer sexuality and there is nothing wrong with that,” he wrote.

(excerpted from Sexual diversity: coming to a school near you by Babette Francis News Weekly, June 11, 2011 www.newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=4759)

And, the SSCA founder, Roz Ward, has bluntly admitted that the Safe Schools Coalition program is “not about stopping bullying” but is “about sexual diversity and gender diversity”. http://www.crossmap.com/news/watch-aussie-safe-schools-leader-admits-program-is-about-gay-activism-not-bullying-26252

So we have this polarisation of good and evil in society and in our political parties.

So, back to our Scriptures – what is our rationale for any action we might take, our faith in action?

Love your neighbour.

Loving our neighbour, among many other duties, also means crossing the road to help our neighbour in trouble as did the good Samaritan and warning and protecting our neighbour and our neighbour’s children in danger if there is a flood coming – and if we can see ahead to protect the next generation as well.

Loving our neighbour means we fight for their protection. If we can see the danger and fail to warn – and fail to act if there is the remotest possibility of averting that danger with action then we are guilty – the blood is upon our own head.

Thomas Aquinas: To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

Dr Robert McDonald, a retired psychotherapist and medical doctor: Any action which sexualises a child before he or she is ready is sexual abuse.

A columnist by the name of Matt Walsh: With the transgender movement, liberalism has finally descended into total madness. It’s not debatable. It’s not a matter that can be discussed among intelligent grownups. There exists not a single morally or intellectually sound justification for this madness. I am often accused of being too harsh and too absolutist in my pronouncements on issues. Whether my gorilla in a China shop approach is always appropriate is another matter, but in this case, with this sort of thing, when dealing with the mind-numbing lunacies of “transgender” propaganda, I think every opponent should be adopting a hard-line stance. This is wrong. It’s demented. It’s evil. It’s dangerous. It’s abusive. Every argument in favor should be dismissed as the blathering nonsense it so clearly is.
Moreover, “transgenders” are men who struggle with mental illness and sexual perversion. Of all the men to permit in a girl’s locker room, one might argue that “transgenders” ought to be last on the list.

Martin Luther: If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

The issues we face and the choices we must make this year relating to the government of our country are God issues – a deliberate shaking our fist at God.

When legislation exposes our children to sin and grooms them into it and for them to be sinned against that is evil.

To take away parental authority in being able to teach God-given values to our children and send parents to re-education training is also evil.

These matters transcend government “failure” in our responsibilities to the poor and hungry and the third world. To deliberately legislate to permit evil and then compel citizens – including doctors and nurses to facilitate that evil and teachers to teach it – is at another level.

Joe Bullock knew that and resigned from the Labor Party because he could see there was no possibility of change. Is the Labor Party beyond redemption? I think it probably is. Yes, it had its origins in social justice with the Tolpuddle Martyrs etc but it has become subject to those pushing an anti-God agenda to the extent of compelling its own members to support these evil programs, which is why Joe Bullock resigned.

What can we do?

We fight. We educate re the plebiscite re SSM.  Get a parent group to go see your school principal; write your local MP state and federal; login to Family Voice and Australian Christian Lobby and sign the petition at http://kidsrights.org.au/ launched by Australian Family Association

Well, yes, but prayer is the most important thing – yes and we must make sure we and all our people do it. Yes, but YOU and I still have a decision to make on election day – and to influence others. Whatever else we are involved in we still must make a choice between good and evil when we cast that vote – our decision – into the ballot box.

And well, yes, May is missions month in Baptist circles and my/our responsibility is mission – that is what God has given me to do (or youth work or street chaplaincy) – yes, but youth workers and street chaplains and missionaries still have decisions to make on election day. Whatever else we are involved in we still have to choose.

And when it comes to voting remember there is a third choice – a Christian party that can be salt and light in the upper house and influence policy decisions in the lower house simply by preferencing.

And remember, by putting your Christian party as [1] and your major party of choice as [2] the vote goes on at full value unless, of course, we win.

We are at war. We have been in Pearl Harbour and we have been asleep, Darwin has been bombed, and now we are in the Battle of the Coral Sea. This battle will shape – as it did – the future of Australia. Australia is at risk in a way it has never been before. These issues we have talked about transcend all other issues. Today we have choices – choices at the ballot box and a choice with the marriage plebiscite – and they are choices that each of us must make before God. I trust and pray that as we inevitably face increasing persecution for our children and their children that you will not look back with regret on 2016 with a sense of failure that you were not awake, that you did not do enough and that you made wrong choices.

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Further reading:

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/gods-creation-order-what-is-our-basis-for-this-battle-we-are-waging/
What is our basis for this battle we are waging? Yes, it comes back to God’s Creation. Understanding this and understanding the attack is essential to our response. Maybe it has been more obvious to others than it has been to me, but I have realised the Creation account underpins everything I am involved in ethically and morally. It is foundational to all I do and believe.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/can-we-win-the-marriage-plebiscite-yes-we-can/
Can we win the Marriage Plebiscite? Yes we can. Slowly we are turning the tide in Australia against the automatic “oh, just let them do it – it won’t affect us”.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/yes-we-can-but-we-need-to-cover-the-battle-with-ongoing-prayer/
The attack intensifies. Once again there is an unseemly push by many MPs to not have a plebiscite. This seems to have gained even more momentum since the Prime Minister (for the first time as PM) and the Leader of the Opposition have attended the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. It would seem that, by default, they both approve of the LGBTI agenda.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/revelation-%E2%80%93-a-big-picture-message-for-our-time/
The attacks are unprecedented. From inside, the prosecution of the church by the Tasmanian Anti-discrimination Commission, and from outside, the coordinated terrorist attacks in France.
The critical issues for the church are freedom to speak truth, to teach truth and Christian values to our children and ultimately our freedom to even believe what we regard as being universal truth, God’s truth.
The messages to the angels of the seven churches are from Jesus to the church, messages to wake up, to confess the sins of lukewarmness and compromise and tolerance (!) and to be faithful and victorious to the end.
They are messages to us today. They are to prepare us for the future. Blessed are those who hear.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/confession-i-am-intolerant/
And I am intolerant of those who gush “love wins” in approval of “marriage” that involves anal intercourse (do I need to describe it?) and who cannot see that this is not marriage, that it is not sex as God actually and deliberately and wonderfully created it to be. Who ignore and trivialise Romans chapter one.
And who cannot see the sheer evil of the “Safe Schools” Trojan horse “anti-bullying” program introducing alternative and experimental sex to our children so “you can know what gender you really are”.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/a-%E2%80%9Cneeds-to-know%E2%80%9D-safe-schools/
The program also includes fluidity of uniforms and the use of change rooms and toilets based on “gender identity”.
The LGBTI influence on schools coupled with the push for same-sex marriage is a sinister attack on children and marriage and family.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/permission-becomes-compulsion-as-at-july-2015/
What began as “accept me” quickly became “affirm me” and then “celebrate me… or else”.
Dr Peter Saunders (UK).

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/fsg-and-the-ssca-safe-schools-coalition-australia-%E2%80%93-what-do-they-have-in-common/
They both destroy the magic of sex. In the guise of freedom they destroy innocence.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/a-safe-place-for-our-children-2013/
Tell The Story; learn and recite scripture; sing…
Ultimately our safe place is to be found in the strength of our relationship with our Lord and the resilience of character that we develop in this relationship. This is our defence. This is the heritage we must give our children.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/why-the-battle-for-marriage-is-so-significant/ 2012
But all this pales compared with the bitter, abusive attacks from the homosexual lobby and threats of discrimination against anyone with the temerity to defend the age-hallowed tradition of marriage as exclusively between man and woman and children should have mothers and fathers.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/same-sex-marriage-consequences-for-our-future/
In line with other ethical and moral legal permissions that become compulsions there are consequences to losing this battle in that we are then compelled to go along with the lies that have become enshrined in law. Our freedom to speak truth to society and to our children is at risk and will be interpreted as vilification and intolerance.

http://www.canberradeclaration.org.au/index.php/the-canberra-declaration/read-the-declaration
We wish to emphasise three areas that demand particular attention in our contemporary Australian society, namely religious freedom, marriage and the family, and the sanctity of human life. Were we to undermine any one of these values, the social fabric of our nation would be seriously weakened, to our personal and collective detriment.