Angie O'Hara is our
Discussion Forum administrator. On this page she makes brief comments on events and stories relating to the Religious Right
that have come to our attention.
Of course these aren't her real knickers. We had to tone them down a bit. Religious conservatives sometimes read these pages, and we know they're over-sensitive to anything remotely connected to human sexuality.
1-Mar-07 Vibrators and the Religious Right
Every now and then - well, actually, about six times a day - I see something that makes me think the Christian fundamentalists should just pack it in. This comes from a piece called 'Unholy Alliance' by Roulla Yiacoumi and it appeared in the Melbourne Age Green Guide of 8 Feb. 2007:
Richard Cohen is chief executive of Hotmovies.com, a website that allows you to watch selected scenes from porn movies streamed to your PC. Each night, between 38,000 and 60,000 video clips are viewed.And according to Al Bloom of California Exotic Novelties:
'I couldn't believe those figures when I first heard them', Mr Cohen says. 'I got our people to check them several times. But they were correct ...'
[The adult industry] is a women-driven business now. A high percentage of women now own a vibrator and the fastest-growing market is the 18-23-year-old age bracket. We find they bring men into the market.Apparently a very large, though self-selected, Cosmopolitan survey found that 46% of female American respondents and 34% of young, single female Australian respondents own vibrators. And a new type of vibrator connects to an iPod or any MP3 player and vibrates in time to the music. It's called OhMiBod! And:
Believe it or not, the arrival of a vibrator that sits on a dock to recharge ... will be hitting the market in droves this year.What a saving on batteries! And Fred Nile and Peter Stokes: why do you bother?
1-Mar-07 Christian dominion
Beware of anyone telling you that you need to adopt a 'biblical world view'. Such a person is likely to be some sort of 'dominionist', an ugly word for the uglier idea that countries should be run according to strict Christian standards. If you're not quite sure what these standards are, don't worry - just ask your friendly dominionist and then do as you're told!
There are a couple of dominionist gabfests held in Australia every year, one of which was recently conducted in Canberra by the American-based Summit Ministries. About 150 people attended and a good time was had by all.
A major concern for dominionists is that:
... large numbers [of young people] raised in evangelical Christian homes lose their faith when they enter university. The various world views promoted there have a corrosive effect on those who are not prepared to take them on. Be it postmodernism, secular humanism, neo-Darwinism or radical feminism, the intellectual challenges to the faith are many.But help is at hand:
The week-long world view conference trains people to think biblically in every area of life [philosophy, biology, politics etc.] ... After the six days, students will be equipped to stand against the many world views competing against the Christian faith. They will be well-grounded in biblical foundation so that they can take on the likes of a Richard Dawkins or a Peter Singer.And who will rescue our youth from the clutches of Satan, Dawkins and Singer? Well, apart from a few dyed-in-the-wool American dominionists like David Noebel, the list of speakers at the Canberra conference gives us a fair idea of who is leading this movement in Australia. Think of about six names and see how close you get:
Australian speakers [included] Peter and Jenny Stokes of Salt Shakers, Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby, Melinda Tankard Reist of Women's Forum Australia, Andrew Snelling of Creation Ministries International, ... Graham McLennan of the National Alliance of Christian Leaders, [and] ... Bill Muehlenberg of CultureWatch.With the possible exception of Tankard Reist, that looks like a pretty good sample to me. Summit hopes to hold two conferences next year, possibly in Melbourne and the Gold Coast. See you there?
(Bill Muehlenberg, 'Biblical World View Conference', New Life, 15 Feb. 2007)
21-Feb-07 Australian Christian Lobby - deadset wowsers
Jim Wallace's Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) likes to portray itself as moderate, reasonable, and generally a cut above the other groups comprising Australia's Religious Right. But slice through the holier-than-thou attitude and all you really have left is a bunch of 1950s-style wowsers.
Let's have a look at ACL's recent media release entitled 'Access to Sex Videos in Prison Highlights Wider Social Problems'. Wallace is at his most po-faced:
People [What people? How many people?] are rightly concerned that sex offenders in Ararat [Vic.] Prison have been repeatedly watching films that could feed into their problems and encourage deviant behaviour.No clear link has ever been established between pornography consumption and crime, although people like Wallace pretend that a demonstrated connection exists. But if you read his words carefully, you'll notice that he's slipped in a qualifier - 'could feed into their problems'. Viewing such films 'could' also have a cathartic effect, but the ACL's not interested in that.
Back to Jim:
But what about all the potential and undiscovered sex offenders in the community who are also readily able to view this material and far worse? I'm not as worried about people who are already locked up seeing these types of videos as I am about the people who aren't locked up who might be titillated by this material.Notice again that Wallace doesn't seem quite sure of his ground. All these 'potential and undiscovered sex offenders' might be titillated into action by this material. Only 'might' be? Come on, Jim, have the courage of your convictions and say they will be titillated, and then just lay your evidence on the table. Fair enough? (Don't worry, folks, all he'll be able to come up with is some discredited and decades-old ultra-conservative nuttery, mainly from the US.)
But what sort of 'material' are we talking about anyway?
The videos under question which were seen in Ararat prison weren't even 'R' or 'X' rated - they were M or MA15+ - but were obviously inappropriate.Thanks, Jim. So, in other words, they weren't even what the vast majority of Australians would regard as 'pornography' at all, but have been judged suitable for viewing by accompanied (MA15+) or unaccompanied (M) 15-year-olds! Is that right?
This shows once again how lax the enforcement of our film classification standards has become.Ah, so now we change tack and start attacking the censorship (sorry, 'classification') authorities, who spend all day looking at films but don't know pornography when they see it.
News today that more than 100 Australians are suspected of being involved in a worldwide child pornography internet ring demonstrates that these are very real issues which need to be taken seriously.Jim, how did we get from M-rated films to 'suspected involvement' with child pornography in one easy step?
Unless, of course, it's all the same thing to you. 'It's all filth' - is that it? Just like it was for the wowsers in the '50s.
21-Feb-07 Salt Shakers and same-sex registrations
Melbourne City Council is considering the introduction of a same-sex 'Relationships Declaration Register', a move that has shocked and appalled the egregious Salt Shakers 'Christian ethics' group. Leaders Peter and Jenny Stokes turned up at a recent council meeting at which this idea was discussed. No other Salt Shaker bothered to do so, thus setting the scene for one of Peter's legendary dummy-spits:
Who cares that I can't sleep?Peter warmed quickly to his theme:
Who cares that Jenny and I were OUTNUMBERED 12, maybe 15 to 1 tonight at the Melbourne City Council meeting? And it was not pleasant!!!
Who really cares that we were the ONLY VOICE opposed to allowing the legal recognition of same-sex relationships into Victoria BY STEALTH at this meeting?
Who cares about the SIX MONTH OLD BABY BOY being used as a political tool by his TWO DADS?Just in case you were still wondering what the actual problem was, Peter proceeded to draw his readers a map:
Who cares about the YOUNG GIRL (6 years old?) being used as a political football by HER TWO MUMS? ...
Who really cares that, if this political game succeeds, homosexuality is even more likely to be TAUGHT AS NORMAL in our schools because it is legal to register same-sex relationships?
WHO CARES that young boys are led into unnatural and dangerous sexual practices because society has 'normalised' what God knows could KILL them?Peter concluded with a stirring call to action:
Who cares that young girls will be led into lesbianism - with all the psychological and physical health problems that can accompany it?
WHO REALLY CARES? I'm sorry this is so long, but hey, WHO REALLY CARES? ... WE HAVE JUST TWO WEEKS TO CARE, yes, you can fast and pray too if you like, BUT WILL YOU CARE ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY CONFRONT THIS EVIL?Salt Shakers hasn't had much luck with its campaigns over the last two or three years. You wonder if Stokes' ingrained habits of crying wolf and browbeating his followers just might have something to do with it.
(Salt Shakers email to supporters, 15 Feb. 2007)
6-Feb-07 Simple Christian faith
Sorry, but I just don't have enough faith to be an atheist. They have to come up with such weird and exotic theorising, which any Joe Six-pack can see is patent nonsense.
- Bill Muehlenberg, What About Those Who Have Not Heard? (Discussion, 28 Jan. 2007, 5pm)
Bill is an evangelical Protestant of the Baptist persuasion. This means that he has enough faith to believe the following sensible and self-evident propositions:
In the time of the ancestors, a man was born to a virgin mother with no biological father being involved.However, as a non-Catholic, Muehlenberg would join with atheists in rejecting the following absurd and ridiculous contentions:
The same fatherless man called out to a friend called Lazarus, who had been dead long enough to stink, and Lazarus promptly came back to life.
The fatherless man himself came alive after being dead and buried three days ...
If you murmur thoughts privately in your head, the fatherless man and his 'father' (who is also himself) will hear your thoughts and may act upon them. He is simultaneously able to hear the thoughts of everybody else in the world.
If you do something bad, or something good, the same fatherless man sees all, even if nobody else does. You may be rewarded or punished accordingly, including after your death.
- Richard Dawkins [2006] The God Delusion, 178-9
The fatherless man's [perpetually] virgin mother never died but 'ascended' bodily into heaven.What does Joe Six-pack think about all this? Sorry, you'd have to ask Bill.
Bread and wine, if blessed by a priest (who must have testicles), 'become' the body and blood of the fatherless man.
- ibid., 179
6-Feb-07 Downright abysmal and gradually deteriorating
Meanwhile, Muehlenberg is becoming more and more disenchanted with the state of the 'Christian West':
... [M]ost Westerners have for too long now been strung out on the narcotic of social welfarism and cradle-to-grave statism that they have nothing left to live for or die for ... All we seem to want is our internet porn and 30-hour work week ...[We are] bloated, blind and balding ...Apparently the only hope is a shiny new Pax Americana, personified by the great statesman George W. Bush:
Muslims really do not need to terrorise their way into hegemony, they are already achieving it by enjoying sex. We on the other hand are aborting ourselves into extinction.
Not only is the US holding its own [in] the population stakes, but it still believes in the work ethic, self-reliance, national defence and biblical absolutes.The only thing that could get in the way is those blasted democratic elections:
However, if Hillary or Obama get their say [sic], that could all change. And if the US capitulates, then the West is doomed, pure and simple.Steady on, Bill, what about your adopted country Australia, not to mention Tony Blair's Britain and ... (and???) ...
The rest of the West is certainly not going to take up the fight. It has given up long ago. It couldn't stand up to the menace of totalitarian communism ... [N]ations emasculated by statism, secularism and socialism are not able to resist external threats.Bill, you don't think you might be exaggerating just a ...
Indeed, the only reason that Europe could enjoy being a welfare Eutopia was because the US paid all the bills for its defence, so it could bathe in 24-7 child care and 4-day work weeks.
The West simply doesn't seem to care any more. In its anaemic, exhausted and secularised state, it is in no condition to offer any resistance.Bill Muehlenberg, barrel of laughs and the life of the party!
- A Review of America Alone, by Mark Steyn, Bill Muehlenberg, 2-Feb-07.
17-Jan-07 Creationist authors - they have to be kidding
Some time ago my colleague Brian Baxter wrote an article about creationist authors straying beyond their fields of expertise. Having now seen copies of Creation Ministries International's (CMI) two latest periodicals - Creation and Journal of Creation magazines of Dec. 2006, I think Brian probably understated his case.
In Creation mag, CMI Head of Ministry Gary Bates writes an article about fossils. Gary was previously a 'business proprietor', a well-known anthropological qualification. David Catchpoole, a plant physiologist, tells us that fish are in no sense related to humans. Jonathan Sarfati, a physical chemist, presents a strange piece about bird-flight. Sean Wieland, 'an estimator and company IT manager', writes an anti-evolutionary piece about two-headed snakes. Even Maxwell Brown, the author of an anti-Mormon item turns out to be, not a theologian, but a concert pianist by profession.
Turning to the 'more technical' Journal of Creation we find Kenneth Karle, an architect, informing us about 'paleobiology databases'. Mark Matthews has a BSc in nuclear engineering, but his article deals with ring-growth in bristlecone pines. (Perhaps he should have handed this one over to plant physiologist Catchpoole.)
Lael Weinberger's piece is called 'Adam's brothers? Race, science and Genesis before Darwin'. Lael also contributed two book reviews to this issue of Journal of Creation. All very laudable, but what are Lael's qualifications? Well, you see, Lael 'is an avid student of the creation-evolution controversy. He has been homeschooled by his parents in Illinois, USA, and is now in law school.' Well done, Lael!
Creation and Journal of Creation are completely worthless and CMI should know better than to waste so much paper. Or at least print them on matt rather than glossy so we'll have something for the birdcage.
17-Jan-07 Salt Shakers hit rough water
We're supposed to be praying for the financial situation facing Salt Shakers, the religious right group run by Peter and Jenny Stokes, Melbourne's answer to Fred and Elaine Nile. According to an email of 5 Jan. 2007:
We ended December approximately 25% down on the finance required for the month. That means we ended the year short by $4,908.Prepare for the 'miracle' which will now take place. Some benighted happyclaps will pass the hat around and when they count the money it will come to $4,908 which they'll donate to Salt Shakers. God will have balanced the books, SS can keep getting stuck into gays, lesbians, feminists and other miscreants, and all will be right with the world.
17-Jan-07 National Solemn Assembly
Things are crook in Tallarook and quite a few other places around the country so the Pentecostal-dominated Australian Prayer Network is going to hold a 'National Solemn Assembly' in Canberra next March.
Now, when contemplating a National Solemn Assembly (NSA), it's essential that you don't laugh or even smile, so kindly keep a straight face until you've finished reading, as this will be a sign of maturity. (Come on, 'fess up, you've failed already, haven't you?)
A Solemn Assembly is called specifically to confess any known sins, to restore a right relationship between God and his people and in bringing healing and restoration to society and the land. A Solemn Assembly is marked by seriousness, reflection, and a sense of awe before God.And don't think you can just turn up and do as you like.
...[I]t must be guided by God's agenda ... [A]ll hobby-horses should be stabled ... God is calling the Assembly , and people need to stay focused on God and wait until He is through speaking to them.So what can we expect to happen?
There are many unknowns in a solemn assembly. [Yes, I kind of thought there might be.] ... If we are serious about seeking God, we can expect God to answer our prayers for guidance, reveal hidden sins etc., move individuals to speak His truth, and send spiritual refreshment and healing ...Well, so far the National Solemn Assembly looks to me like an extended (3-day!) Pentecostal gabfest-cum-screaming-match. If I was a betting woman I'd say that God will (a) tell Australians to repent and start going to church; (b) insist that plenty of money be given to the pastors of these churches so that they can carry on the Lord's work; and (c) condemn homosexuality and therapeutic cloning.
(Australian Prayer Network Newsletter, 'National Solemn Assembly Update',13 Jan. 2007)
As for stabling the hobby-horses, they're going to need a mighty wide racetrack to cope with the traffic. I wouldn't want to be following that lot with a bucket and spade.
02-Jan-07 Persecution of Christians?
It's an article of faith among conservative Christians that the Church is widely persecuted throughout the Third World. The Australian Prayer Network and similar organisations quickly tell us of any major or minor hindrance to the practice of Christianity in various heathen nations, especially China.
How then to explain this letter to the Melbourne Age of 2 Jan. 2007? The author is Dr John Norman, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, China:
... I have lived in China for several years and can go to church - Catholic or Protestant - any Sunday I wish, and to any number of Bible study or prayer groups during the week. Bibles are readily available ...China's a big place and Christianity no doubt has an easier time of it in some places than others. But I've read lots of accounts like Dr Norman's and can only repeat what I've said before in other contexts: it's foolish to accept conservative Christian claims unless they're backed up by independent evidence. These people were staring at the world through ideological blinkers long before Stalin and Hitler came along.
Specifically with regard to Catholic churches, I have been to churches in China that offer Mass in Chinese, English and Latin - providing the same experience as I have had in Australia and elsewhere.
02-Jan-07 Creationist debaters
John Mackay of the small Creation Research group always claims 'another win' when debating secular supporters of evolution. However, he's much more downbeat after facing religious opponents. Here's John in gloomy mood:
November's Anglican irony as we were pitted in debate against a theological student (PhD), who as the resident theologian defended evolution and claimed Genesis was merely oral tradition borrowed from the pagan Babylonians ... John Mackay defended the Scriptures as God's infallible word.Terrible to see poor old John so depressed. Remember also that Young Earth Creationism as espoused by John Mackay is the Achilles' heel of Australia's Religious Right. When arguing with these people, always try to pin them down on this issue and watch them squirm.
The debate was topped off by the resident Anglican vicar telling everyone at the end it didn't really matter ... [This is] the position promoted by [Anglican] Moore College and St Matthias and most Anglican teaching institutions, which is almost always a very thin disguise for their belief that Genesis is NOT real history. Pray much for us as we combat unbelief inside and outside the church.
(Creation News, Dec. 2006, 4)
02-Jan-07 Stem cell research and diabetes
Christian Right opponents of embryonic stem cell research regularly tell us that it's entirely pointless. It hasn't yet produced any cures, it's immoral and unethical, adult stem cells are the way to go etc. But let's look at a specific condition, namely diabetes:
Having already discovered the method for coaxing mouse embryonic stem cells to become insulin-secreting pancreas cells, Professor Alan Trounson says his team at Monash University will be among the first to apply for a new licence to try the technique in humans.So why the need for embryonic cloning in this instance?
The ultimate aim is to combine a patient's DNA with a donated egg and then grow the specialised cells - known as islets - in the laboratory. Those cells could then be injected into the vein that drains into the liver, where they would carry out their normal function of secreting insulin in response to blood-sugar levels.
'In principle, two-thirds of the problems for the type 1 diabetes solution are already there', said Professor Ian Frazer. 'We know how to put the islet cells in, we know how to protect them, we just don't have them.'It seems to me that even if embryonic cloning 'works' in only one instance, as with diabetes (or breast cancer or multiple sclerosis or heart disease), it's well and truly worth trying. You could even make a conservative Christian theological case for it based on the 'lesser of two evils', which is often applied to the question of whether to save the mother or baby in a difficult birthing situation.
Professor Frazer said human embryonic cloning was the only feasible way to create islet cells that wouldn't be rejected by the body. 'If we go the route of trying to get islets from cadaver donors, which is what we're doing at the moment, we can only hope to transfer 20 patients a year in Australia. We've got 20,000 people who need the transplant.'
(Christian Catalano 'Stem Cells: The New Frontier', Melbourne Age, 11 Nov. 2006)
Groups like the Australian Family Association and Endeavour Forum have made a lot of wild claims in this debate and we need to hold them to account more often.
07-Nov-06 Fred Nile and the Muslims
Trust Rev. Fred Nile and his Family World News (FWN) to keep everything in perspective. The October 2006 issue of Fred's mag contains the following diatribe (p.3):
Can a good Muslim be a good Australian or American?Sheikh Hilali is one thing. Fred Nile is quite another!
... Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia ...
Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam ...
Scripturally - no ...
Geographically - no ...
Socially - no ...
Politically - no ...
Domestically - no ...
Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the Australian Constitution since it is based on New Testament/Biblical principles and he believes the latter to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no ...
Therefore after much study and deliberation ... perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Australians or Americans. Call it what you wish ... it's still the truth ... Pass it on, fellow Australians ...
07-Nov-06 Catholic sex education vs reality
Michael Gilchrist, editor of the National Civic Council's AD2000, has this to say about two Catholic sex education booklets written by Carol Phillips, Western Australian coordinator for Babette Francis's 'Endeavour Forum':
These booklets [one for boys and one for girls] make the task [of sex education] much easier, while keeping the sensitive subject within the bounds of a child's latency period ...'Latency period'? I've been very interested in my sexuality since before I can remember. I was having huge crushes on schoolmates when I was seven and so were half my friends. I thought the very idea of a latency period went out with the ark.
The purpose of [the booklets] is to teach about marriage and procreation within a Catholic context and to preserve the innocence of the child as much as possible ... Just enough is said to give an accurate idea of what is involved, along with a couple of simple sketches, without confronting the young reader with excessive details or potentially disturbing information.For 'innocence', read 'ignorance'. When I was 12, my mother gave me a book like this that had done the rounds at school in grade 3. You should have seen what we were passing around by grade 5! 'Potentially disturbing information', my foot. Every word and picture is necessary.
In the booklets' short space, Mrs Phillips covers a surprising amount of ground, including problems children are likely to encounter in the schoolyard or on TV such as swearing or the crude treatment of sexuality and marriage.'Likely to encounter'!? I'll say! Do people who write books and reviews like these live on the moon?
Areas like divorce and contraception are touched upon delicately, while the virtues of purity and modesty are emphasised. ('Dear Son, Dear Daughter: God's Plan for Catholic Marriage and the Family' (review), Endeavour Forum Inc. Newsletter, Oct. 2006, 14)About the same time I was reading this, I noticed Maureen Matthews weekly column ('About Last Night') in the Sunday Age 'M' magazine (8 Oct. 2006), great bathroom reading for the whole family:
Q. My partner wants to experiment with tying me up and other 'bondage' activities. I am quite excited by the idea but am afraid that it might be dangerous. Am I being silly?By my calculations, about 500 adolescents (or younger) will read this column for every one who gets stuck with Carol Phillips' booklets. For which thank the Zeitgeist and common sense.
A. 'Restraint games' are just that - games ... Like most fantasies, this game can be a 'holiday' from reality ... Only ever play with someone you trust ... As part of the fantasy, you might want to play dress-ups ... etc. etc.
07-Oct-06 Andrew Lansdown and the injustice of homosexuality
Andrew Lansdown, 'Writer and Editor' for Life Ministries WA, has strong views about justice. Justice demands, for example, that animals which happen to kill human beings must be held morally responsible for their actions, and put to death:
God will not tolerate the killing of innocent human beings, whether the killers are humans or animals. He will hold them to account at the cost of their blood ... ('Sympathy for a shark', Salt Shakers Journal, Feb. 2001, 13)Lansdown also advises his readers that engaging in prostitution is sufficiently 'unjust' a practice to attract dire penalties:
... Leviticus 21:9 declares, 'If a priest's daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.' Through prostitution a woman stains herself and shames her relatives. Such evil is repulsive to God and deserves severe punishment. ('A Biblical Perspective on Prostitution', Salt Shakers Newsletter [SSN], Apr. 1998, 3)For Lansdown, prostitution is so 'unjust' that its practitioners have forfeited any right to sympathy and deserve nothing but harsh penalties:
[Prostitutes] may indeed be victims of [sad upbringings, difficult circumstances etc.] [b]ut that is not true for all. And it is not an excuse for any. Neither past misery nor present poverty nor masculine lechery excuses the prostitute for her greed and debauchery. [ibid., 6]As you may already have guessed, Lansdown is not a big fan of homosexual rights. He once accused some church supporters of such rights of having 'tried to stretch a human skin over an unholy skull'. (SSN, Oct. 1996, 16) (He likes these gothic touches e.g. men in brothels 'may be alive physically, but they are spiritual zombies.' [SSN, Apr. 1998, 7])
Lansdown is currently engaged in a drawn-out battle with other Christian right organisations over the issue of same-sex registrations (as distinct from civil unions). Essentially, Life Ministries WA lines up with Salt Shakers and Festival of Light Australia in opposing such registration schemes, which puts these bodies at odds with the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and the Australian Evangelical Alliance, which favour them. Lansdown rejects the ACL's claims that registration laws would lead to more 'justice' for homosexuals because this ignores 'the injustice inherent in homosexual behaviour itself'. Then he lets rip:
Consider the case of a young man from a Christian family who is enticed into a homosexual relationship. How is this just to the parents whose teaching and tears he spurns? How is it just to his brothers and sisters who for love of him make excuses for him and compromise or abandon the Christian view of homosexuality as both wilful and sinful?I just wish that Andrew Lansdown might some day learn to display what someone has termed 'the Christlike virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.'
How is it just to other young men who might be tempted to follow his example? How is it just even to the young man himself, to be closed off to life-giving intimacy with a woman by the indulgence of a dead-end perversion with a man? ( lifeministries.org.au/index.php?content_id=82, Sept. 2006)
Who wrote that? Actually, Andrew Lansdown wrote that, straight after his attack on homosexual rights.
07-Oct-06 Family Life International - 'Why Wait for Marriage?'
Family Life International(Australia) (FLI) recently distributed a leaflet called 'The World's Greatest Con Job ... The Real Truth About Condoms'. I received one of these (a leaflet, not a condom) from the National Civic Council's 'Australian Family Association' and found little 'real truth' but a long list of reasons why readers should postpone sex until marriage:
It is the only 100% foolproof way of avoiding unplanned pregnancies.So all pregnancies within marriage are planned? Don't think so.
It is the only 100% foolproof way of ensuring that you don't catch a sexual disease.Provided that you continue to have sex only with your marriage partner and (big 'and'!) your (pre-maritally chaste) partner continues to have sex only with you. As you can never be fully certain of the latter, how is this a '100% foolproof' method?
To avoid the deadly virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.A special case of the preceding 'advantage' and subject to the same provisos.
It saves you unnecessary heartache, emotional turmoil, regret and unfulfilled expectations.Looks good, but in fact this is totally dependent on the nature of the individual relationship. An unfortunate marriage may itself bring about the same, or even worse consequences. You can't insure against life!
There is no chance of being used just for sex.'Less chance', not 'no chance'. And you may have robbed yourself of an ultimately rewarding (perhaps even blissful) relationship through focusing so hard on one aspect.
... Virginity is a precious gift that you can only give to one person and once it is given you can't get it back again.This seems to overvalue the status of virginity. Surely bringing some sexual experience to marriage can also be seen as a 'gift'.
There are some more reasons on the list, but I really think FLI needs to come up with a more convincing pamphlet.
26-Sep-06 Who's afraid of the Exclusive Brethren?
Christian Right groups throughout Australia are usually very vocal about anything concerning the overlap between religion and politics. Abortion, therapeutic cloning, IVF, homosexual rights, censorship, euthanasia - you name it, they're all over it.
So why are they all so quiet about recent revelations - Separate Lives, ABC Four Corners, 25 Sep 2006 - involving the Exclusive Brethren (EB)? I mean, here you have this nice, quiet Christian church, very 'pro-family values', anti-abortion (even anti-contraception!), outspokenly opposed to queer rights, perhaps just a little weak on the grog question, but running a beaut patriarchal show and being appallingly persecuted by those awful pagan Greens.
What's not to like?
OK, I'll have a shot at this. Groups like the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), the Australian Family Association and the Festival of Light/Christian Democratic Party nexus can't go in to bat for the EBs because the sect leaders are a mob of deadset family splitters. They have decades of form in this respect and, like Melbourne's 'Fellowship' group, you can't claim to be 'pro-family' and then go around splitting up your own families.
But the Christian Right groups can't publicly attack the EBs either - at least, not seriously. This is mainly because the Exclusives are ideologically on side with the ACL and the other groups in so many significant ways. Anti-abortion, anti-homosexual organisations pouring a bucket on other anti-abortion, anti-homosexual organisations? Not a good look.
Perhaps just as importantly, the EBs are a wealthy sect and are known to fund Christian causes. Expensive causes pursued by Christian Right groups.
Fill in the blanks.
26-Sep-06 Coalition Against Decriminalisation of Abortion (CADOA)
A group of conservative Christian bodies has just formed an umbrella organisation aimed at defeating the proposed decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria. Abortion law reform will probably become a public issue no matter who wins the November 25 state election.
The new body is called CADOA - the Coalition Against Decriminalisation of Abortion - and is comprised of all the usual suspects plus some (mainly Pentecostal) hangers-on. Salt Shakers are giving CADOA a bit of a push, not to mention the Australian Christian Lobby, the Australian Family Association, Babette Francis's Endeavour Forum, the Fatherhood Foundation and the hoary old Right to Life Association.
It's always worth keeping an eye on these ad hoc lobbies but you won't get too depressed if you remember two things. First, most of them sink without trace. And second, one of the biggest 'silent' political movements in this country is the pro-choice lobby - normally almost invisible, but when its interests are seriously threatened, watch out!
26-Sep-06 Salt Shakers and voluntary euthanasia
Dying of some loathsome disease? Want to know a very effective and pain-free way of ending your own life? Well, don't ask me, I'm just a simple, law-abiding weblogger and too scared of being thrown into jail if I tell you.
But what you might do is get hold of the fundamentalist Salt Shakers Journal of July 2004. Now turn to page 7. Look at the article headed 'Suspended sentence for killing mother'. First paragraph, second sentence.
See? I can't tell you. But Salt Shakers can. And Derek Humphry could hardly have done a better job.
17-Sep-06 Anti-choice pregnancy counselling
Over the years, many anti-abortion 'pregnancy counselling centres' have conned women into continuing with unwanted pregnancies. Democrats' Senator Natasha Stott Despoja wants to make it an offence for individuals or corporations to advertise pregnancy counselling without declaring any anti-choice stance or automatic refusal to refer clients for abortion.
This has sent the National Civic Council's News Weekly into a frenzy. Stott Despoja and her allies are conducting an 'obscene modern-day witch-hunt' as part of 'a concerted campaign to overturn social conservative values and influence at all levels in the community':
Senator Stott Despoja's supporters and purveyors of sympathetic propaganda can be found anywhere from Parliament to the YWCA, all the way to the glossy magazine 'Marie Claire', which accuses some pregnancy counselling services of trying to 'shock women into keeping the baby'. ('Pro-life pregnancy counselling in jeopardy', News Weekly, 16 Sept. 2006)Marie Claire seems to have it about right. A recent American study revealed that 20 out of 23 such 'pregnancy resource centres' contacted by investigators provided false or misleading information to young women seeking advice about putative pregnancies:
Some [centres] falsely claimed there is a link between abortion and breast cancer. (Angie's Briefs, 2 July 2006) One centre said that 'all abortion causes an increased risk of breast cancer in later years', whereas another told the caller that an abortion would 'affect the milk developing in her breasts' ...Other centres falsely stated that even early abortions could decrease fertility:
One centre said that damage from abortion could lead to 'many miscarriages' or to 'permanent damage' so 'you wouldn't be able to carry', telling the caller that this is 'common' and happens 'a lot'.Some centres said that abortion is harmful to mental health and that the chances of suicide increase dramatically for women who have had abortions. There is no serious evidence for these contentions. (Consumer Health Digest #06-37, 12 Sept. 2006)
The findings of this American study are fully consistent with Australian women's experience of anti-choice pregnancy counselling centres over a long period of time. Don't be fooled by these right-to-life fronts.
17-Sep-06 US legalises morning-after pill
Even in the United States the powerful Christian right lobby doesn't always get its own way. US government regulators recently authorised over-the-counter sales to adults of the 'morning after' contraceptive pill. Under-18s will still have to get a prescription, but something tells me that a girl who really needs this medication won't have too much trouble getting hold of it. (Melbourne Age, 26 Aug. 2006)
Conservative Catholics and evangelicals in Australia kicked up a hell of a row when the morning after pill became easily available in Australia. Notice how the sun still rises in the mornings? Funny about that.
17-Sep-06 Bill Muehlenberg's creationism
Bill Muehlenberg (ex-Australian Family Association, current Secretary of the minuscule Family Council of Victoria) has a Christian right take on just about everything. I knew he was a creationist and had assumed he subscribed to the virulent version known as Young Earth Creationism (YEC) whereby the Christian god directly created the world about 6,000 years ago.
But writing recently about the global warming controversy Muehlenberg approvingly quoted a writer named William Kininmonth as follows:
For the past 10,000 years, the Earth has been near peak warmth in the climatic roller-coaster that has characterised the past million years. Yet only 20,000 years ago, great ice sheets covered much of North America and Europe ...A true YEC believer might just cope with the '10,000 years', but definitely not the 20,000, and as for the million years - forget it! Pity that so many of Muehlenberg's strong supporters are YECs, such as Tas Walker of Creation Ministries International, for instance. It'll take a snowstorm of emails to sort this one out.
5-Sep-06 'Good Report' and theocracy
Good Report, an evangelical periodical edited by Christian Democratic Party personality Janne Peterson, is the latest magazine to nail its theocratic colours to the mast. For a start, legitimate Members of Parliament must be conservative Christians:
... [T]he Bible makes it clear that Government ministers are supposed to be God's ministers and not Satan's ministers, like Adolf Hitler for example was. Nor atheists or sodomites, as some of the MPs who currently hold seats in Parliament are. Unless a candidate for Parliament is a just, God-fearing man [sic], he is not qualified to rule. His job is to govern according to God's law and His commandments.Green candidates are made to feel particularly unwelcome:
The Greens Party would be the most ungodly party on the ballot paper. They are for legalising sodomite marriage, marijuana and other harmful drugs. They endorse killing babies (abortion) ...All is not lost, however, as a superior form of government is at hand:
Christians need to hold up the 'hands of Moses', the Laws of God, as the fight in the valley continues till Jesus comes. When He comes Christians will reign with Christ the King - an eternal Theocratic Monarchy where our political involvement is inevitable. (Editorial, Sept.-Oct., 2006, 17-19)'Political involvement' in this polity seems to entail unquestioning obedience to orders. Rather like the political involvement demanded by Adolf Hitler. But wasn't he one of Satan's ministers?
5-Sep-06 Salt Shakers on a traitor hunt
Lots of cracks are now appearing in the reputedly monolithic Christian right facade. Already squabbling with the Australian Christian Lobby over gay and lesbian issues, Peter and Jenny Stokes' 'Salt Shakers' group is now having a go at backsliding mega-churches, Baptists and sympathetic National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce.
Pentecostals seem to be the first target:
Sadly, we seem to be moving from denominational 'small cornerism' to mega-church small cornerism, as 'brand name' churches spring up, and all too often isolate themselves from the wider church community. If they are not organising [an event or conference], all too often they won't publicise it.Looks like a case of 'the bigger, the blander', but did Salt Shakers really have to work it out from first principles?
Then there is the attitude that 'if it confronts our seeker-friendly [or possibly 'sucker-friendly'] program we won't take a stand for 'fear' people will be 'offended'! (Editorial, Salt Shakers Journal, Sept. 2006, 2)
The Stokes' are Baptists, but this doesn't spare the Baptist Union of Victoria from their righteous wrath:
The latest Christian organisation to advertise in the homosexual press for foster carers is Abercare Family Services in Victoria, which is part of Baptcare (formerly Baptist Community Care) ... The ad notes that 'Abercare Family Services is committed to the protection of children' ...Maybe the Baps could have a talk about nasty-minded narks as well, but I don't suppose they will.
If you are a Victorian Baptist, please ... write to the Baptist Union of Victoria and ask that this matter, and the fact that the Carey Baptist School had a Muslim speaking at [a recent lecture] be raised at the next Union Assembly for clarification of the Baptist position on same-sex relationships and Islam. (ibid., 7)
Salt Shakers' last shot is at Sen. Barnaby Joyce and gay Big Brother contestant David Graham, an active National Party member who is thinking of standing for pre-selection:
... Barnaby Joyce said he ... knew David Graham and thought David would excel at politics because he was a 'decent and caring person with a strong work ethic ...' (ibid., 8)Queensland Nationals' Director Brad Henderson and Queensland leader Lawrence Springborg also welcomed Graham's interest in the Nationals. 'Clearly no-one wants to risk being labelled as homophobic or "discriminatory"', sulked Salt Shakers.
Doesn't your heart just bleed for them?
24-Aug-06 How many gays and lesbians?
According to a survey just published in Britain, 23.5 per cent of women fantasise about same-sex relationships, while only 5.3 per cent of men do so. ('Nurses and firemen top fantasy poll', Melbourne Age, 24 Aug. 2006)
This is going to cause a lot of problems. You see, religious right groups constantly tell us that only 1-2 per cent of the population is gay or lesbian and therefore that we should staunchly oppose the granting of equal rights to such a tiny, insignificant group. It's completely illogical but this is how these people think.
It's been pointed out elsewhere on this site that one per cent of the Australian population represents about 200,000 people, while the more commonly accepted estimate of around 3-5 per cent 'exclusively homosexual' would give us a figure approaching one million. Add some more for the bisexuals and we seem to be looking at a very large crowd indeed.
But things get completely out of hand if we assume that the British figures regarding fantasies about same-sex relationships broadly apply to Australia as well. Why? Matthew 5:28 is why. Let me refresh your memories with these words of Jesus:
But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.Get it? If you indulge in a sexual fantasy about someone or something, it's just as bad as performing the act itself. Therefore, biblically speaking, well over 5 per cent of British (and, we are assuming, Australian) men are constructively gay, while a massive 23.5 per cent of women are 'scriptural lesbians'! That's roughly two and a half million Australian lesbians!!
Well, it must be true. It's in the Bible, isn't it?
24-Aug-06 Papering over the cracks
The Christian right tries to exaggerate its influence by pretending that the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, and within the denominations themselves, really don't exist any more. Conservative Protestant leaders appear on platforms with conservative Catholics and even conservative Jews, because, hey, we all believe in the same god, don't we, and everything in the garden's rosy.
If you believe this, don't upset yourself by reading any conservative in-house journals. There, people are still fighting the battles of the Reformation.
Did you see it? [A]n article in the ... Herald/Sun newspaper ... in which a Roman Catholic priest is interviewed concerning his work with street kids. He says, 'I don't preach to the kids ... [N]one of them could ever say I try to convert them.'Australian religious right organisations publicly welcome the help given to them by Mormon supporters, but privately it's a different story:
[But] God says: 'He that winneth souls is wise'. (Proverbs 11:30) (New Life, 24 Aug. 2006)
... [D] on't go to the movies to watch 'States of Grace' when it's released, But watch out for the Mormon propaganda it introduces. This film ... tells of two Mormon missionaries and the problems they encounter ... 'Christianity Today' reviewer Ted Olsen writes ...: 'We'd rather see "The Da Vinci Code" than "States of Grace"! (New Life, 10 Aug. 2006)And it's very acceptable when conservative Jewish leaders support Christians on 'moral issues', but what are the Christians whispering behind their hands?
Why oh why was Rick Warren [US megachurch supremo] ... guest speaker at Sinai Temple, a Jewish synagogue? ... Rabbi David Wolpe said of Warren: 'He has built a giant church that attracts people of all ages. Perhaps he can help us learn how to do that.'
The editor of the 'Northern Landmark Missionary Baptist Magazine' ... comments: 'In other words, the purpose of Warren's visit was to help Jewish rabbis learn how to build membership in their religion which rejects Christ as Saviour. Is this an appropriate role for any Christian minister of the Gospel?' (New Life, 24 Aug. 2006)
24-Aug-06 Jehovah's Witnesses and the truth
A Jehovah's Witness named Angela dropped a letter in my postbox the other day, asking me to invite her around so she could give me a 16-week 'home Bible course'. Despite the enormous spiritual benefits that would undoubtedly accrue to me, I shall have to decline this kind offer, partly owing to this assertion:
Many people who have not had the opportunity to read it are surprised at how practical and up-to-date the Bible is. Not only is it historically and scientifically accurate, but its record of fulfilled prophecies gives further reason for examination of its contents.I wonder how Angela would feel if I asked her over and proceeded to show her that the entire Passion and Crucifixion narrative, rather than being the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, was inventively constructed on the basis of them. And that many of these 'prophecies' were wrenched from their contexts and were not really prophecies at all. In other words, that Angela's got it all the wrong way around and that the Passion is a work (actually several works) of fiction.
I tried this once. Only to learn that it's not nice being called a hell-bound blasphemer in your own house. So perhaps I won't do it again.
16-Aug-06 Coalition and the Christian Right
Could it be that moderate Coalition MPs are finally starting to see the Christian Right for what it is? The RU 486 'abortion pill' vote earlier this year stripped conservative Catholic Health Minister Tony Abbott of his power to keep the drug out of Australia. Now Prime Minister John Howard has decided to allow a conscience vote on therapeutic cloning in the teeth of opposition from evangelical Protestants like Tasmanian Senator Guy Barnett.
When dealing with groups such as the National Civic Council's 'Australian Family Association' and Brigadier Jim Wallace's Australian Christian Lobby, MPs should just remember a few important points.
Firstly, these are pressure groups, plain and simple. They exaggerate, they prevaricate, they overestimate their public support, they make threats they can't fulfil and given half a chance they make deals. (Groups that won't compromise get nowhere in Canberra.)
Secondly, parliamentarians should always check these groups' claims against reputable public opinion polls. If anyone walks into your office and says, 'public opinion is swinging heavily against abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and euthanasia' and then pulls out their own 'special figures', show 'em the door.
Thirdly, it follows that on all of these social issues and many more like them such as censorship, politicians who support Christian right positions stand to lose more votes than they gain. Ultimately the public is swayed more by common sense than by ideology and too many pollies forget this.
Religious right groups are no more 'moral', insightful or intrinsically virtuous than other pressure groups. And, Coalition MPs, if some good Christian tells you that because of your unsound views on abortion, all the religious people in your electorate will now start voting Labor, just laugh in his face. You have nothing to worry about.
16-Aug-06 WA Nationals OK gay and lesbian unions
I see that the WA National Party state conference recently voted to support legally recognised unions of same-sex couples. The party will be taking this policy to the next state election.
Young Nationals WA president Darren Moir said that the party was not made up of radicals: 'It was the right thing to do.' Moir noted that one of the party's 84-year-old stalwarts had been all in favour of the motion, saying that 'homosexuality was natural and people were born with it and we should get over it'.
One more sign that Christian right 'uglies' aren't having it all their own way in the Liberal and National parties at the moment.
16-Aug-06 Guess who?
On the other hand, a well-known Federal Liberal politician recently spoke at Fred Nile's Festival of Light (FOL) annual 'lunch meeting' in Sydney. The FOL is sure that this MP 'is fast becoming one of the most profound political leaders in Australia commenting on the crisis of Australian and Western culture'.
The pollie:
... spoke about the decline of the Western world ... as scores[!] of non-Westerners who do not identify with the Christian/European heritage are immigrating to the West.And, yes:
... it is the West itself [that] is to blame. With its radical individualism, which has undermined the sanctity of the family and of life, Westerners are not reproducing themselves anywhere near the level needed to replace [themselves] into the distant future. Westerners are birth-controlling and aborting themselves to extinction. (FOL Bulletin, Aug. 2006, 1-2)And who is this paragon of profundity? Danna Vale, Member for Hughes, come on down.
09-Aug-06 Are 68% of Australians really 'Christians'?
In the lead-up to this month's Australian census, many Christian Right organisations were churning out the mantra that Australia was '68% Christian'. This figure had apparently been set in stone by the 2001 census and wouldn't it be awfully nice if that statistic could be maintained or even increased this year?
Participants in our Discussion Forum have pointed out some major problems with the 68% estimate and it's interesting that virtually no comparable survey yields any figure approaching it. The latest of these comes out of a three-year national study (entitled 'The Spirit of Generation Y') by Monash University, the Australian Catholic University and the Christian Research Association (Sarah Price and Susanna Kass 'Generation Y turning away from religion', Melbourne Age, 6 Aug. 2006 - see also http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/ccls/spir/sppub/sppub.htm
The associated survey found that only 48% of those born between 1976 and 1990 believed in a god (note: 'a god', not necessarily the Christian one, or ones). 20% did not believe in a god with a further 32% unsure. Only 19% 'of those who identify themselves as Christian' were actively involved in a church, 17% had an 'eclectic spirituality' ('New Age', esoteric or eastern beliefs) while fully 31% could be classified as humanists.
Robert Forsyth, Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, grumbled that, 'This is the first generation to have nothing to do with Sunday school'. Careful, Robert, I went to Sunday school and a Christian secondary school, too, and look what happened!
09-Aug-06 Christian crowds
I've never been too keen on the Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. As far as I'm concerned, anything that gets in the way of free speech should be treated with the gravest suspicion but there are some blurry lines when it comes to vilification.
Despite these qualms, I had to laugh about this one. For the last few weeks, Peter and Jenny Stokes and their Salt Shakers group have been pushing supporters to attend a rally against this Act. The great day arrived on 8 August, when Christians and other opponents of the law were supposed to converge in their thousands on the steps of Victoria's Parliament House. They'd swarm in from the suburbs and be bussed in from country centres and Spring Street would be swamped by a Christian multitude. Dumbfounded by this awesome display, the politicians would quickly go to water and repeal the Act.
Now, Salt Shakers continually slaps at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Melbourne Midsumma crowd estimates. Peter Stokes is convinced that while 'a lot of people' watch the Mardi Gras parade, it's never more than 60,000 or so, while Midsumma draws about 10,000 tops. (His head-counting technique seems to assume a static audience, but we'll look at this another time.)
'About 2000' people attended the Salt Shakers/Coalition for Free Speech rally, according to Stokes' own estimate. And many of these were non-Christians. And others who attended assure me that the actual figure was rather less.
See you at Mardi Gras, Peter. Don't get lost in the crowd.
09-Aug-06 Family values
Age film critic Tom Ryan recently wrote an article about why younger teenagers should be allowed to see the 'R'-rated movie 2:37. ('Why my girl should watch this movie', 30 Jul. 2006)
Among other things, he said this:
My wife and I have tried to bring [our daughter] up as an individual, someone who is aware of the world, treats others as she would like to be treated, thinks for herself and isn't afraid to stand up in the face of injustice.These aren't 'Christian family values', but rather predate Christianity and probably all religions by many, many ages. They used to be known as 'good old common sense' and they don't need to have any magical label stuck on them at all.
Thanks, Tom.
02-Aug-06 Melbourne 'Age' boosts Australian Family Association
Do you regard the Australian Family Association (AFA) as an 'authority' on anything? For the uninitiated, the AFA is the 'family policy' arm of the late B. A. Santamaria's National Civic Council (NCC) i.e. it's a conservative Catholic political pressure group and, as far as I'm aware, has never claimed to be anything else. It sometimes employs sympathetic Protestant spokespeople, Bill Muehlenberg being a good example, but in general its public pronouncements on abortion, contraception, sex education and all other 'family' issues are pure Pope-speak. AFA views on any of these questions effectively come straight from the Vatican and to this extent the AFA itself is an 'authority' on, and mouthpiece for conservative Catholic opinion. No more, no less.
Besides this, the AFA is not an especially large group. I've seen claims of up to 5,000 members Australia-wide but this must be a mailing-list figure if it's not just wishful thinking. It seems to be strongest in Victoria and Queensland, and in Victoria it boasts a grand total of five branches - in Bayswater, Bendigo, Geelong, Malvern and Maribyrnong (another one may start up soon in Box Hill). Realistically, the number of truly active AFA members in Victoria is probably no more than a few dozen. The AFA is a small, self-appointed organisation, quite unrepresentative of Australians and their families in many demonstrable respects (opinions regarding divorce, pregnancy termination, IVF etc.)
So did Brad Newsome of the Melbourne Age know this when he wrote his recent piece on teenagers and television ('Fast times at TV High', 29 July 2006)? He asked whether what young people watch is harming them and his very first 'expert witness' was Angela Conway, AFA Victorian vice-president.
Here it comes:
... [T]he teenage TV milieu is 'hyper-focused on sex' and [Conway] fears that it is giving children 'a skewed view of reality. They're seeing a fairly hefty diet of sexual involvement and there's evidence to suggest that it's ageing young people' ... Conway says teenage soap operas need to lose their 'overemphasis on dysfunction' and portray marriage as a viable, stable relationship ...Conway's opinions occupy about one-quarter of the article's length. Nowhere is there a reference to the AFA's total dependence on NCC doctrine and policy in these matters. Indeed, Conway could be Australia's greatest family psychologist and it wouldn't make the slightest difference: if she diverged even slightly from the official NCC/AFA (i.e. conservative Catholic) line she'd be out on her ear.
And the poor old public goes away thinking, 'Oh, so that's what the family experts say'.
There oughta be a law ...
2-Aug-06 Mel Gibson and the League of Rights
When Mel Gibson brought out his Passion of the Christ film in 2004, the Christian Right in Australia were all over him like a rash. The superlatives heaped upon this 'servant of God' by conservative Catholics and evangelicals were positively embarrassing to read. The Christian periodical New Life gave readers the impression that unbelievers would troop into the theatres in their thousands, be instantly converted, and emerge to spread revival throughout the land.
This didn't happen and after a while even some conservative Protestants began to raise a few questions. Was the film faithful to scripture or did it draw too heavily on Catholic tradition? Was Gibson perhaps a little too unkind to the Jews?
Most Australian Religious Right groups are eager to avoid charges of anti-semitism and try in particular to avoid entanglement with the Australian League of Rights. This long-lived organisation and its conspiracy theories have been roundly condemned on several occasions by Rev. Fred Nile and others.
Mel Gibson was arrested in Los Angeles last week and charged with a drink-driving offence. Among other remarks, Gibson allegedly asked a deputy, 'Are you a Jew?' and claimed that, 'The Jews are responsible for all the war in the world'. (Gerard Wright 'Mel culpa: Gibson says sorry after anti-Jewish outburst', Melbourne Age, 31 Jul. 2006)
The following item by Philip Butler (son of League founder, the late Eric D. Butler) appeared in the League of Rights' On Target newsletter of 4 June 2004, around the time that Australia's Christian Right was praising Gibson's name to the skies:
So successful was the last [North-East Victoria Annual League of Rights Dinner] that I attended ..., we not only had a huge group of Canadians present ... but who should attend, and cause the sensation of the evening? Both Mel Gibson and his father [Hutton].New Life and its mates have a way of dealing with this sort of thing. Mel Gibson, former Christian hero - prepare to become an 'unperson'.
21-Jul-06 Salt Shakers slips up
Melbourne's Salt Shakers group, led by Peter and Jenny Stokes, has the reputation of being one of Australia's more puritanical Christian Right organisations. It came as a shock, therefore, when they appended a paper entitled 'Understanding Propaganda' by Dr R. Winfield to their e-newsletter of 6 Jul. 2006.
Winfield's main message was that the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain was nothing but a vehicle for pro-gay and anti-family worldviews - in Winfield's own words, 'one of the most blatant propaganda pieces of recent times'.
What a pity that Peter Stokes, who sent the paper out, didn't read it a little more carefully. Some of Winfield's claims are simply peculiar, such as the idea that:
... the plan is to get women interested in gay [male] porn as an addictive and isolating tool of division.Don't ask me what that means, but apparently the 'biggest thrust in this wave is coming out of Japan and targeting your preteen daughters':
Travelling extensively, I warn you this epidemic is rampant throughout Europe, Russia, Asia and now making heavy inroads into the Americas. Parents have no idea what their young girls have tucked under their mattresses, or hidden in closets and computers.According to Winfield, these misguided young females are 'all buzzing about Brokeback', but:
None are buzzing more than the critics who are falling over themselves in trying to outdo one another in kissing this film's ass.'Kissing this film's ass'? I don't recall reading that phrase in the Book of Common Prayer but perhaps one of the prophets uttered something like it in a moment of weakness. However, no sooner have we laid aside our smelling salts when Peter Stokes recommends that we also read Henry Makow's Pokeback Mount'in: Hymn to Dysfunction.
'Pokeback Mount'in'? How unedifying! Call around, Peter, so we can wash your mouth out with soap.
21-Jul-06 More anti-family worldviews
According to the Christian Right, families are the closest thing we have on earth to the heavenly social order. Every member is devoted to all other members and there's nothing we'd rather do than promote their interests through our own self-sacrifice. So I had to laugh when I read these comments about wills and children in the Melbourne Age 'Money' supplement (Margot Date, 'For their own good', 12 Jul. 2006, 12):
My wife and I after some sorry times with our children now say we will spend the lot and enjoy ourselves. - 71-year-old man.And what do the mums think?
We deprived ourselves, worked hard so we had no debt. Our baby boomer children have been profligate. We're not prepared to go without now so that they can inherit the lot. - 76-year-old man.
We had nothing. Kids should start the same way. - 72-year-old man.
Their lackadaisical attitude just can't last. It's about time my children realised our money is for us to enjoy. - 64-year-old man.
I'm not leaving them anything. They've had enough of my sweat and tears already. - 58-year-old man.
I haven't discussed [my will] with them and don't intend to do so. I have enough trouble keeping the peace as it is. - 72-year-old woman.And just by the way, evangelical Christian couples are supposed to break up more readily than average. So much for happy families.
The difference between me and my children is that they expect assistance. Well, they've got a few surprises coming their way when I die. - 69-year-old woman.
I've left everything equally. I haven't talked to them about it. I'm just hoping maybe the others will help the poor one. But I don't want the arguments. - 67-year-old woman.
21-Jul-06 Tithing controversies
Good evangelical Protestants are supposed to 'tithe' i.e. give (at least) ten per cent of their incomes to 'God'. But what does this mean in practice?
According to recent surveys (Ellison Research, reported in Australian Prayer Network International News, 10 Jul. 2006), a majority of American Protestant pastors say that the tithe should go to 'the local church' (i.e. to the pastors). But only about one-third of their congregations agree with them. Indeed most congregants believe that a Christian's tithe need not even be limited to religious groups or causes.
And only a minority of those churchgoers who believe that they should give their tithes to the local church actually do so.
And then, of course, there's the question of whether the ten per cent tithe should be calculated on pre-tax (gross) or post-tax (net) income. Churchgoers are split about 50-50 on this one, but not unexpectedly the clergy plump heavily for the pre-tax option. One pastor (hopefully?) pointed out that, 'When we calculate our tithes based on net income, we put the government ahead of God'.
Isn't Christian unity a wonderful thing?
10-Jul-06 Big Brother polls
Several media outlets recently ran readers' and viewers' polls regarding the future of Channel 10's Big Brother program. Many Australians up to and including Prime Minister Howard had been scandalised by an incident involving unsolicited sexual horseplay, and renewed calls for the show to be banned.
The poll questions generally required a yes or no answer e.g. the Melbourne Age asked its readers, 'Should Big Brother be axed?', reporting the next day that the relatively large number of 11,990 votes had been received. 69% voted Yes and 31% No. (Age, 4 Jul. 2006) Most similarly-worded polls in other sections of the media produced comparable results.
However, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) gave readers some choice about what action should be taken. The results (26,603 self-selected voters) were as follows:
Final straw. Cancel the show. 47%Based on outcomes like the one in the Age, Religious Right groups have been crowing about their great victory over the forces of evil. But the more nuanced vote in the SMH indicates a marked public aversion to government censorship. I don't think that the cut-and-ban brigade can take much comfort from this episode at all.
Government should enforce a ban. 5%
Incident handled well. Keep it on air. 19%
Don't like the show but pollies should butt out. 29%
(SMH, 5 Jul. 2006)
10-Jul-06 Gay civil unions poll
Self-selected readers' and viewers' polls were all over the place when it came to the ACT gay civil unions law. When Christian Right groups ran concerted campaigns, the polls they targeted indicated strong opposition to the legislation, while other (less tainted?) polls showed majority support.
A scientifically-conducted ACNielsen/Age survey indicated that 45% of those polled supported the ACT laws while only 34% opposed them. This support peaked in the 18-39 age-group with 56% of the sample backing the legislation.
Religious Right groups continue to squabble among themselves about how best to proceed in their ongoing campaign against gay unions. Some want the ACT Government to settle for a form of civil registration while others want the Feds to obliterate all state laws that recognise gay unions in any way whatsoever. But Canberra doesn't seem interested in taking the matter much further. A spokesperson for Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock said recently that the Government now believed 'that the definition of marriage is quite clear and enshrined in the common law ...' (Annabel Stafford 'Poll finds half say "yes" to gay unions', Melbourne Age, 20 Jun. 2006)
10-Jul-06 Fatherhood Foundation and coffee enemas
Christian Right groups always attract their fair share of health cranks. The North Queensland Pain Help Centre, based in Mareeba, recently had this published in the Fatherhood Foundation newsletter (3 Jul. 2006):
... One issue you raised is the addiction to coffee, mine is still high! However, there is an upside to coffee, pardon the pun, we are putting it in the wrong end!!!!!!!!!!Oh boy, so coffee enemas are an effective treatment for cancer. You learn something every day. But you'll learn more if you go here - http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/gastro.html - or here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerson_therapy.
A Dr Gerson at the turn of the century used coffee enemas to treat pain and cancer very effectively. Its ability to detox the body is amazing - http://www.gerson.org/
As for the North Queensland Pain Help Centre, I suggest that it can take its own advice, pretend it's a cup of coffee and ... oops, remember you're a lady, Angie.
2-Jul-06 Abortion and breast cancer
Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja (Dem. SA) thinks that anti-choice pregnancy counselling centres should have to tell women that they never refer for abortions. Jenny Stokes of Salt Shakers thinks this is a silly idea. If the question of abortion arises, counsellors should:
... explain the harm that can result from such a choice - such as medical complications, post-abortion trauma and breast cancer, all of which are medical facts. (Salt Shakers Submission: Inquiry into Transparent Advertising and Notification of Pregnancy Counselling Services Bill 2005, Jun. 2006)Women regularly abort embryos spontaneously, often without realising that they've done so i.e. there is no possibility of establishing a link between such an event and the later development of breast cancer. Unless she is a virgin, how can a woman possibly say that she has 'never had an abortion'? Furthermore there is no established mechanism for a link. In which case, why do Jenny Stokes and other Religious Right chatterers keep insisting that the alleged link between abortion and breast cancer is a 'medical fact'?
Google 'abortion and breast cancer' and you'll be struck by the disparity of opinion on this question. Many organisations say that there is a very clear link while other organisations will tell you that there's no proven link at all, and in some cases that abortion may be associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. Who to believe?
Delve a little deeper and you'll find that most of the 'Yes, there is a link' groups have names like Salt Shakers, Endeavour Forum etc. While most of the 'No, there's no good evidence for a link' groups have titles like the US National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Cancer Council of NSW etc. You've got it - the only opinions to which a sensible person would pay the slightest attention are those of medical authorities. The rest are just the wacky views of Religious Right groups and their conservative allies pushing their creaky old anti-abortion barrow.
I'll let you in on a little secret. Evidence doesn't matter much to groups like Salt Shakers. It's only admissible if it supports their 'Bible-based' views. Once these people think they're on a good thing, they stick to it. And an entirely unproven link between abortion and breast cancer looks like a very good thing to them.
2-Jul-06 Salt Shakers and the death of Harry Potter
Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has dropped a hint that poor old Harry may shortly expire. I don't really see why this should worry anybody as there are lots of dead people floating about in the novels and resurrections of various kinds seem par for the course.
Anyway, Peter Stokes of Salt Shakers has expressed great satisfaction with Harry Potter's imminent demise:
And not too soon for my liking, for the sake of our kids ... There's no doubt [these books have] done wonders for getting children interested in spells ... and these things aren't harmless. We've had many stories of people being adversely affected by reading Harry Potter ... nightmares, severe spiritual attacks. (John Elder 'Why Harry Potter must finally die', Sunday Age, 2 Jul. 2006)By contrast, Angela Conway of the National Civic Council's 'Australian Family Association' (AFA) merely notes that Harry's death could have 'potential as an educational event' for child readers. Salt Shakers now seems eager to adopt significantly more extreme positions than either the AFA or (regarding gay unions) the Australian Christian Lobby.
2-Jul-06 Bible on the way out?
The very last weekly issue of the Australian evangelical publication New Life (29 Jun. 2006) reports that the worldwide distribution of the Bible is trending steeply downwards. I'm sure the expansion of the Internet would have something to do with this, but it contradicts just about every piece of Christian propaganda that I've seen. The Bible is always described as 'the all-time bestseller' with scads of the things being sold, given away or smuggled into the lands of the heathen. No longer!
United Bible Societies said 372.6 million Bibles, New Testaments, Scripture portions and selections were distributed by Bible Societies in 2005, down 4.6% from 2004. Since 2000 the distribution of printed Scriptures has dwindled steadily by 41.2%.New Life dropping back to a fortnightly and Bible distribution in free fall. Do I hear Gabriel practising his horn solos?
24-Jun-06 High farce, Anglican-style
Every week spews forth a new crisis in what is laughingly termed 'the worldwide Anglican communion'. 'Worldwide Anglican shambles' is more like it. This week saw the US Episcopal (Anglican) Church electing a woman as its leader, thus setting off a frenzied conservative outcry. But in an effort to stave off expulsion from the 'world communion', the Episcopalians also issued a fawning promise not to consecrate any more openly gay bishops. (Church tries to head off ejection)
I suspect that most non-religious people are in two minds about all this Anglican infighting. Ultimately it's a very good thing for the world as it reduces both the credibility and the staying-power of a substantial part of the Christian Church. The more that is done to reduce the power and influence of this blight on humanity, the better.
On the other hand, the Anglican chaos also represents a confrontation between forces of relative enlightenment (moderates) and forces of not-so-relative darkness (ranting conservatives). So part of me wants to back the Muriel Porters (American choice poses a challenge to world Anglicanism) against the Archbishop Peter Jensens and Anglican Mainstreamers.
In the end, I think we have to look to the long term and hope that both Anglican contenders continue to tear themselves up for the next fifty years or so until the whole sorry project collapses in ruins. But if I were an Anglican moderate I wouldn't be putting up with the traditionalist garbage being hurled around for a single moment: 'Hey, Jensen, you want to run the Anglican Church of Sydney and join up with a mob of Nigerian malcontents. Go right ahead, baby, who's stopping you? There's the door!'
24-Jun-06 Peter Costello curries more favour with Religious Right
If you want to see Peter Costello making a stirring, keynote speech you should hurry along to the Australian Christian Lobby's (ACL) 'Building a Nation of Character' conference in September. Costello was a big hit at Brian Houston's Hillsong church in 2004 and 2005 and is doing all he can to maintain his image as a Religious Right poster boy.
Fundamentalists and Pentecostals love being courted by Coalition frontbenchers and quickly forget about little lapses, like voting to strip Tony Abbott of his veto power over the RU486 abortion drug. You know, like Costello did. Because his conscience told him to. Nothing to do with most electors supporting the availability of RU 486, and safe, legal abortion in general.
But that's water under the bridge. After all, Costello says he likes the Ten Commandments and the Judaeo-Christian heritage and young happy-clappies and all the right things. It hardly seems to matter that he's a ... POLITICIAN.
24-Jun-06 Tracking Bill Muehlenberg
Our Bill is not a happy man. Interviewed on Channel 7's Today Tonight program earlier this month he was most concerned about the treatment he received:
Strange, but when I was introduced, I was called 'deeply religious' and part of the Australian Family Association [AFA]. They got it wrong on the latter, as I twice told them I was secretary of the Family Council of Victoria. ('Vic. Education Dept promotes gay agenda', News Weekly, 24 Jun. 2006)Well, I can understand your frustration, Bill, but you must admit that following all your peregrinations is a challenge. As far as I can make out you arrived in Australia in about 1989 from America via the Netherlands and did some work with the Institute of Public Affairs and Quadrant magazine. You were then employed by the National Civic Council's AFA in 1992 and moved to Focus on the Family Australia in 1996, having first become (part-time, honorary?) Secretary of the Family Council of Victoria in 1994. You moved to Salt Shakers in 1998 but by 2000 had returned to the AFA where you remained until the end of 2005. And you still have articles appearing in AFA and National Civic Council journals.
So I can see why journalists might get a little confused.
16-Jun-06 Ruddock and the ACT civil unions law
Two quick comments about the ACT civil unions law (Mark I), recently overturned by the Federal Government.
Firstly, here is how Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock's reaction was reported when the bill was passed on 11 May 2006:
The bill had been hugely controversial, with ... Ruddock at one point threatening to use Commonwealth powers to stomp on the law.So what made Ruddock change his tune? Religious Right sources are sharing the 'credit' between the Australian Christian Lobby's Jim Wallace and Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett, both of whom hammered the government on this issue.
But this morning, after the legislation was passed by the ACT last night, his spokesman said Mr Ruddock was happy with amendments made to the original bill ... However, [the spokesman] warned Mr Ruddock would still look closely at all the details to ensure the legislation doesn't conflict with Commonwealth law. ('Gay groups applaud ACT civil union bill', AAP, 12 May 2006)
Secondly, Ruddock's explanation for his decision seems to raise an important constitutional question - or might have if the ACT were a state. According to him, the Government decided to disallow the civil unions law because it was:
... deliberately intended to make the ACT arrangements as close as possible to marriage, when the marriage power is clearly vested in the Commonwealth. (Annabel Stafford 'Commonwealth quashes ACT in battle over civil union laws', Melbourne Age, 14 Jun. 2006)Since when does the Constitution grant the Commonwealth power in any area that is merely 'close to' one of the heads of power? A civil union which is 'as close as possible' to a marriage - to use Ruddock's own words - is by definition not a marriage at all. It is another form of relationship, and one that appears ultra vires vis-a-vis the Commonwealth's marriage power.
16-Jun-06 Blast from the past by Pro Life Victoria
Pro Life Victoria (PLV), once a rival but now practically a sister organisation to Margaret Tighe's Right to Life Australia, is getting very hot and bothered about Labor Premier Steve Bracks:
... Bracks has done a deal to 'decriminalise' abortion if he wins the November election ... We need every Victorian who has ever been pro-life ... to come onboard a campaign to stop this barbarity. Otherwise we will be giving in to the obsessive demands of former failed Premier Joan Kirner and [current minister] Mary Delahunty who are browbeating the Premier and Attorney General Rob Hulls into submission to their ideological goals. (PLV Action Alert May 2006)No doctor has been successfully prosecuted under Victoria's abortion law for well over 30 years and calls for its preservation seem anachronistic. As if to remind us how out of touch they are, PLV is distributing old Right to Life postcards. Remember them, you ancient pro-choicers out there? - a photo of a baby with the legend: 'Kill her now it's murder ... Kill her before birth it's abortion.' It should be worth attending a PLV demonstration if they decide to mount one, just to see the crinolines and button-up boots.
16-Jun-06 Who wrote this?
[There are] two million American children with an incarcerated parent. [And jail is] exactly where we will send [those children] one day if we do not begin to reform the criminal justice system. We must re-evaluate who we lock up, why we lock them up and how we lock them up ...So who is this weak-kneed, namby-pamby milksop campaigning to flood the community with social vermin? Convicted Watergate conspirator and now fire-breathing conservative evangelical Charles Colson, that's who.
We need to challenge 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' laws and mandatory minimum sentencing, responsible for filling 60% of our federal prisons with drug offenders, many of whom have no prior criminal record for a violent offence ... (New Life, 8 Jun. 2006)
You see, Colson spends most of his time ranting against abortion, gay and lesbian rights, IVF, pornography and a whole lot of other things with which he's totally unqualified to deal. But he did spend time in prison and he's learnt a lot about the problems faced by prisoners through his Prison Fellowship organisation.
So when it comes to involving himself in an issue he actually knows something about - yes, you guessed it, Chuck Colson turns into a liberal!
10-Jun-06 Online poll shenanigans
Despite their disagreement over tactics, both Salt Shakers (SS) and the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) are working hard to prevent gay civil unions being legalised around the nation. On Thursday 8 June, Melbourne's Herald Sun and Age newspapers ran online polls with similar wording. 'Do you support gay unions?' asked the Herald Sun. 'Do you support gay marriage?' asked the Age.
Both SS and ACL emailed their supporters asking them to vote and thoughtfully providing the 'No' vote number, but only mentioned the Herald Sun poll. This poll was promptly inundated with 'No' votes, finishing up with a whopping 82%-18% 'No' majority. 'We WON', exulted SS. 'Australians have clearly voted', intoned ACL.
Neither group even mentioned the Age poll result. By 9am, this poll was reporting a 73-27 split in favour of 'Yes'. Similar figures were reported throughout the day, with 'Yes' drifting up to 78% early in the afternoon and closing at 76%. It's worth noting that the form of the Age question was stronger than that in the Herald Sun, asking directly about 'gay marriage' rather than mere 'unions'.
Interesting disparity between the two polls, isn't it? Let us pray that our Christian brothers and sisters did not succumb to temptation and cast multiple votes and that they will be mindful of the maxim that ends do not justify means. In the meantime, I really think the Age poll result has much more credibility.
10-Jun-06 Archbishop Jensen does a runner
Thanks, Bronny, for the following snippet from Toni Hassan's interview with Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen on the ABC's Radio National Religion Report (June 7, 2006)
Hassan: ... [M]any argue from a rational point of view that homosexuality is a variant, it's neither moral nor immoral ... Could you at all be irrational? Could you conceive that perhaps you're just not facing the facts of how this has come to be practised in modern life?The interview recommenced 'after some time', but what happened here? Jensen's an old campaigner and should have been able to handle questions like these in his sleep. It might pay Anglican moderates and strategists in the gay and lesbian community to have a long, hard look at this interview. Nothing's sweeter than an opponent with lots of 'no-go' zones.
Jensen: I'm pretty surprised at the question I think. Please explain yourself, what do you mean, homosexuality is, what did you say? I'm not even sure what you're saying.
Hassan: Well that is something that - and I didn't want to mention Justice Kirby - but that is what he said, that this is something that is neither moral nor immoral.
Jensen: Sorry, I'm not going there.
Hassan: ... Last year a [homophobia mapping survey the Australia Institute] produced showed that Catholics, Anglicans and Uniting Church members are the most tolerant, in fact only a third say homosexuality is immoral. So are you out of step, even with mainstream laity? Is there that risk? ...
Jensen: Well you see, I'm very interested in the choice of words which you've used. You draw the distinction, you say that homophobia ..., if you regard homosexuality, the practice of homosexuality as immoral, then that's evidence of homophobia. Well I think that's an astonishing presupposition ... Do you have questions that - ?
Hassan: What sort of questions would you like?
Jensen: Turn it off.
Hassan: You want me to turn it off?
Jensen: Yes.
10-Jun-06 Nick Tonti-Filippini and the innocence of girls
A very promising cervical cancer vaccine should be available in Australia soon. Studies have evidently shown that it's best to vaccinate girls before they have sex and between the ages of nine and twelve because of their strong antibody response. (Melissa Fyfe US approves our cervical cancer vaccine, Melbourne Age, 10 June 2006)
Now this next bit falls into the 'eyes drop out, chin hits floor' department. Catholic ethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filippini has produced this astonishing piece of po-facery:
... Tonti-Filippini said a vaccination program would have to explain sex and sexual diseases to the young girls targeted. 'To raise it with them before they understand the whole question of sexual activity would violate their innocence. I would expect most parents feel the same way.'Yeah right, Nick - in 1906 maybe. There's a huge difference between innocence and ignorance. And are you really prepared to expose girls to the threat of cervical cancer for want of a simple vaccination? Where's the 'ethics' in that?
3-Jun-06 ACL and Salt Shakers still tetchy
The Canberra-based Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and Melbourne's Salt Shakers (SS) 'Christian ethics' group are still at odds over their different approaches to the ACT Civil Unions legislation (for details, see Brian's Blog, 2, 8 and 10 May 2006). ACL, probably the more moderate of the two groups, is trying to occupy the high moral ground: Christians may have 'different methods of achieving a joint aim' but must always support one another 'despite their differences of opinion'. (ACL National Newsletter, June 2006, 1)
Grouchy old Peter Stokes of SS doesn't want to play:
... [T]he last two months have not been easy for us because we have had to challenge the political position taken by the Australian Christian LobbyBoth ACL and SS claim to have marshalled substantial evangelical support for their respective stances. The two groups are also taking different positions on more minor issues such as support for the Gideons in their attempts to place Bibles in more hospital rooms (ACL opposes direct lobbying of hospitals while SS supports the idea - cf. ACL ibid., 2; SS ibid., 17). Peter Stokes seems unfamiliar with concepts like 'give and take' and 'forgive and forget', so the groups face the prospect of a permanent rift.
... The 'lesser of two evils' [which is how SS characterises the ACL position] is never anything but evil, and as Christians we should never advocate for evil. ('Editorial', Salt Shakers Journal, June 2006, 2)
3-Jun-06 More on ACL
Jim Wallace's ACL says it's not a theocratic organisation. My thanks to Sandra for pointing out that the group's logo depicts Commonwealth Parliament House surmounted not by a flag, but by a jumbo-sized cross.
Keep a suitcase packed, that's my advice.
3-Jun-06 New Life on the skids?
The Australian evangelical weekly New Life has functioned for several years as an unofficial clearing-house for Religious Right groups and individuals. Fred Nile, Salt Shakers, ACL, Australian Family Association and lots of other 'godly' people and organisations could always get some space on the letters page or have their media releases printed verbatim.
Strangely enough, according to Rev Bob Thomas of the New Life board, it's also over the last few years that:
... it has become increasingly difficult to maintain the viability of the newspaper and a point has been reached at which the present publishing schedule, format and staffing level can no longer be maintained. ('Time for a change', New Life, 1 Jun. 2006)The upshot is that New Life will become a fortnightly news magazine produced by a small, 'near voluntary' editorial team, which to my untutored eye looks to be chockfull of creationists.
The decline - and, I suspect, encroaching demise - of New Life is not a good sign for conservative evangelicalism in this country. It'll be mildly annoying for this columnist too, as the journal provided a useful weekly roundup of Religious Right news and quotes.
All things considered, though, no great loss.
27-May-06 St Tony Abbott
Now, how much castigation do you think Abbott will receive from the Religious Right over this tawdry little episode? After all, backbiters won't be entering the kingdom of heaven. And what was Jesus supposed to have said about loving your neighbour? And turning the other cheek?Just before lunch [last Thursday], the Leader of the House, Tony Abbott, sought to axe debate on former deputy prime minister John Anderson's [Australian Wheat Board] share dealings. 'I move that the snivelling grub over there be not further heard', he said, referring to ... Labor public accountability spokesman Kelvin Thompson. Cue uproar. Pressed to retract the insult ..., Abbott ventured an apology worthy of an unrepentant toddler. 'If I have offended grubs, I withdraw', he said. (Misha Schubert 'Can grubs snivel?', Melbourne Age, 26 May 2006)
But I was forgetting. Tony is anti-abortion, which means that he is a walking saint, which means that he can do no wrong, which means that we can forget all about scathing editorials by Salt Shakers, New Life or anyone else in the club. Now if a nasty, godless Labor, Democrat or Green politician had said what dear Tony said, that would change everything.
27-May-06 Christian bodies
Most Christians in the US don't believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die ... 36% said 'yes' to the question, 'Do you believe that, after you die, your physical body will be resurrected some day?' Another 54% said they do not believe, and 10% were undecided. 'This reflects the very low state of doctrinal preaching in our churches', said Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ... The findings surprised many top theologians since it seems to put Americans in conflict with both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed ... (New Life, 18 May 2006)How is God supposed to get all the dispersed molecules back together again? And what about the atoms that have become other living tissue e.g. part of someone else's brain? Of course, if it was Al Mohler's brain he probably wouldn't notice if a bit of it suddenly flew out to become part of a resurrectee's armpit, but I don't think I'd like it.
27-May-06 Best line from a letter about 'The Da Vinci Code'
First prize of a kick in the crutch from Tony Abbott and 10,000 years in purgatory goes to Arnold Thomas of Boronia, Victoria:
To those who are upset by 'The Da Vinci Code', please, remember this. It is a novel, it is fiction, it is a made-up story - you know, a bit like your religion. (Age, 22 May 2006)
19-May-06 Guy Barnett's crystal ball
I don't like this. Senator Guy Barnett (Lib., Tas.) seems very confident that the Federal Government will shortly move to overturn the ACT Civil Unions Act. In a recent media release Barnett claims that the ACT legislation institutes 'marriage by another name' and hence should be struck down.
I don't think that Barnett would be so optimistic about his chances here if a certain senior someone hadn't tipped him the wink:
I predict there will be amending of the Federal [Marriage Act] to defend the institution of marriage as the community knows it ... If the Howard Government did nothing there would be nothing to stop every State and Territory in our nation from passing a law similar to the ACT legislation. Along with others I will be lobbying my Government to introduce laws to strengthen, uphold and protect marriage, for which the Australian Government has proper constitutional authority.Elsewhere in his diatribe, Barnett asserts that 'marriage is a rock solid institution'. Why, then, does it require so much protection?
19-May-06 Virgins no longer?
More on virginity pledges. The American Journal of Public Health twice questioned a group of 13,000 high school students, a year apart. In the first survey about 13 per cent said they had taken a pledge that they would remain virgins until married, but in the second survey more than half of that group said they had never taken such a pledge. Also, about one third of the students claimed in the first survey to have had sex, but about 10 per cent of these denied it a year later. (Chee Chee Leung 'Becoming virgins again', Melbourne Age Education Supplement, 15 May 2006)
Those who conducted the study observed that 'survey respondents typically reconcile their memories with their present beliefs', suggesting that 'we can't always believe what teenagers tell surveys about their sexual activity'.
I'd go a lot further than that. We can't always believe what anyone tells surveys about their sexual activity. I don't care how 'confidential' they make the survey: there are some things I'm not telling anyone! How about you?
19-May-06 Mean Mums
'I have the "meanest" mother in the world', writes Judith Bond of Glen Alpine in NSW, a regular contributor of letters to the editor on Religious Right causes:
I had to eat breakfast every day and take homemade sandwiches to school ...I had to wash and dry dishes, make my own bed and even keep my room neat and tidy ... (Melbourne Sunday Age, 14 May 2006)Does this ring any bells? It should. It's been doing the rounds in one form or another since 1967 and the original version is actually copyrighted by Bobbie Pingaro:
I had the meanest mother in the whole world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs or toast. When others had cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich ... We had to wash dishes, make beds, learn to cook and all sorts of cruel things ...One paragraph that appeared in the original rarely makes it into print today. Even Religious Right supporters know that they have to tread carefully here:
...[S]he actually struck us. Not once, but each time we had a mind of our own and did as we pleased. That poor belt was used more on our seats than it was to hold up Daddy's pants.Pingaro has written that she does not mind other people using her work 'as long as it is non-profit and using my name as author'. Judith Bond of Glen Alpine NSW, please take note.
11-May-06 True Love Just Can't Wait
The LA Times reports that virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, don't seem to work very well:
More than half the adolescents who make such signed, public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to a Harvard study. (Elizabeth Mehren 'Teens who pledge virginity have difficulty keeping it up', Melbourne Age, 8 May 2006)This follows a Columbia University investigation which surveyed 12,000 American teenagers and found that 88 per cent of those who pledged chastity reported having had sexual intercourse before they married. ('Most teens fail chastity vow', Age, 11 Mar. 2004)
I recall seeing a documentary set in an American church where a large group of teens took this virginity vow in public while their proud parents smiled and applauded. With a couple of wide-eyed exceptions I've never seen such a lugubrious-looking crowd of girls and boys in my life.
Religious Right groups claim on no authority whatsoever that the Harvard and Columbia studies are 'wrong' and 'opposed to the trends we've been seeing'. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?
11-May-06 Defending the faith?
'I think Jesus is the most famous person in history', wrote Rachel Woodlock in an Easter reflection piece. ('Faith', Sunday Age, 30 Apr. 2006)
'Ho hum', I thought, and apparently so did just about every fundamentalist in Melbourne. But unlike them I read on:
Even as a non-Christian, I have a satisfying familiarity with the traditional Jesus story ... But the Jesus I have come to know and love as a Muslim is quite a different fellow from the one with long blond hair and flowing white robes, whom I knew as a child.Rachel proceeds to outline the standard Muslim view of Jesus' ultimate fate:
... [A]ccording to the Koran, Jesus did not die on the Cross. Only the appearance of his crucifixion occurred, sparing Jesus the ignominy of this cruel Roman punishment ... For Christians, Jesus' death on the Cross demonstrates his ultimate love for humanity. I, too, believe in a sacrifice - not his death but his life ... So at Easter time, I paused and celebrated the life of Jesus.Conservative Christians seem to be so busy fighting lost causes like RU486 that they can't spare the time to respond to a well-written piece that strikes at the heart of their basic beliefs. Or maybe they're all still recovering in hospital.
03-May-06 David Flint and Fred Nile
Professor David Flint, monarchist extraordinaire among many other accomplishments, is a good mate of Rev. Fred Nile (Christian Democratic Party, Festival of Light). Flint's noble visage has often graced the pages of Nile's Family World News (FWN), so it must have come as a bit of a shock for Fred to learn that there was 'absolutely nothing wrong' with his old pal, as Jerry Seinfeld might say:
For 30 years or more, Flint has lived in an apartment overlooking Bondi Beach with a partner he never mentions to colleagues or casual acquaintances ... Forthcoming about everything else, he is silent about the person at the centre of his life. As a young man, he was open about his homosexuality. 'I have never denied it. I've never hidden it', he says evenly. It's just that these days, 'I don't talk about it'. (Jane Cadzow 'Stranger on the shore', Age Good Weekend, 3 Jul. 2004, 29)Fred doesn't have a very high opinion of gays - I believe he's called them 'these sodomites' and certain other unsavoury epithets - and I lost a lot of sleep worrying about the future of the Flint/Nile relationship. But I needn't have worried. There's David on the front page of the current FWN, sharing the limelight at a Queen's Birthday bash with Fred and Elaine Nile, all giggling away together. And on page 5 there's an even better photo of David, standing behind a lectern decorated with not one, but two portraits of the ... well, of Her Majesty, 'added to [the] lectern by Fred'.
Nile admits to being a practical joker. I guess old habits die hard.
03-May-06 Salt Shakers goes for cover
During 2004 and again in 2005, the small Melbourne 'morals' group called Salt Shakers spent a great deal of time and effort trying to scupper two television shows. The first of these was The L Word, an often entertaining lesbian soap, while the other was the phenomenally successful Desperate Housewives. Week after week, Salt Shakers would laboriously prepare long lists of sponsors who had advertised on the shows. Supporters were then expected to complain to these companies who would, in theory, fall over each other in their haste to get their ads off the programs. Needless to say, both campaigns failed, the first miserably and the second totally. (For the full story, see Brian's Blog, 19 Nov. 2005)
On this week's Desperate Housewives, I watched a boy clearly identified as a minor kissing and generally fooling around with another boy. Salt Shakers' response? So far, not a word.
The L Word is currently being replayed on Channel 7. Despite the late timeslot the show has attracted a multitude of regular sponsors, both state and national. Salt Shakers' response? Not a peep.
Maybe they've learnt their lesson. And maybe not.
27-Apr-06 Churches rip themselves up
(1) Anglicans
More than 100 leading Australian Anglicans have accused the previous Archbishop of Canterbury of disloyalty, as divisions over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican church deepen. The Anglicans have written to Dr George Carey, the previous spiritual head of the church, accusing him of undermining his successor, Archbishop Rowan Williams, and offering himself as an alternative leader. Dr Carey recently confirmed 300 American evangelicals who do not accept their own bishops because they supported the election of an openly gay priest as Bishop of New Hampshire. The letter is signed by 120 Anglicans, including four Australian bishops ... (Barney Zwartz 'Anglicans furious at former archbishop', Melbourne Age, 27 Apr. 2006)(2) Catholics
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini ... said that while abortion was regrettable, 'any person must be respected who, hopefully after much reflection and suffering, in extreme cases follows their conscience, even if they decide on something that I do not approve of'. (Malcolm Moore 'Cardinal defies Pope on AIDS', Sunday Age, 23 Apr. 2006)(3) Presbyterians
I was astonished and disappointed to see in 'New Life' (9 March) an anonymous letter calling me irresponsible and apparently malicious. I refer to the letter criticising 'The Age's' reports about [a cultic body known as] the Fellowship ... As religion editor of 'The Age', I am the author of those reports.While most of us tend to favour the more liberal side in these disputes, it's actually more useful if a rough balance of power is maintained over a long period of time thereby depleting as many ecclesiastical resources as possible. In terms of rights and wrongs though, it's quite straightforward. Anglican traditionalists simply don't know enough about the formation of the Bible. Catholic traditionalists have no idea how important 'primacy of conscience' is to the survival of their religion. And may all the plagues of Egypt descend on both houses of Presbyterianism.
First, I defend 'The Age's' action. This was an important story: unprecedented action by the Presbyterian Church disciplining what has widely been identified as a cult and acting in the interests of all Presbyterians ...
Second, 'New Life'. No reputable paper anywhere publishes anonymous letters simply because the correspondent would be uncomfortable to be identified with his or her opinions. Every media organisation I have worked for - and there are several - considers such cowardice to be contemptible, and it should not be aided by Christian publications ... (Barney Zwartz, letter in New Life, 27 Apr. 2006) (Incidentally, the virulence of the exchange on this topic led to a rapid editorial retreat: 'This correspondence is now closed - Ed.')
19-Apr-06 Virtual sex
In 10 years, artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy. 'There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a [virtual] partner of certain dimensions and qualities ... (with) certain things happening', said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. A field dubbed 'teledildonics' already allows people at remote computers to manipulate electronic devices for sexual purposes. (Melbourne Age, 19 Apr. 2006)So there you go, Senator Barnett! Filter that!!
19-Apr-06 Losing religion
Recent research apparently shows that between 69 and 94 per cent of young American Christians 'forsake their faith' after leaving high school, while another study found that 88 per cent of youth leave the church in adulthood. (Christian Post as quoted in Australian Prayer Network International News, 17 Apr. 2006)
These figures reflect statistics circulated for several years by conservative pollster George Barna and cast strong doubt on assertions that the USA is a nation of churchgoers. The process of secularisation is extremely corrosive in its effect on religious observance in all developed countries, with America as the last, lingering holdout.
19-Apr-06 Biblical Spin
The Archbishop of Canterbury is not a big fan of The Da Vinci Code:
In a strongly worded Easter sermon, Dr Rowan Williams said there was a tendency to treat biblical texts 'as if they were unconvincing press releases from some official source, whose intention is to conceal the real story'. (Melbourne Age, 17 Apr. 2006)In fact, Rowan, that's a very sensible way in which to treat all biblical texts. As Bible scholar Bart Ehrman (2005) points out:
Not only do we not have the original [biblical texts], we don't have the first copies of the originals ... What we have are copies made later - much later. In most instances, they are copies made many centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places ... [T]here are more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. (Misquoting Jesus, 10)Pace Archbishop Williams, the 'real story' has certainly been concealed from us to some extent, although whether intentionally or unintentionally is often impossible to tell. As Ehrman concludes:
If one wants to insist that God inspired the very words of scripture, what would be the point if we don't have the very words of scripture? ... It's a bit hard to know what the words of the Bible mean if we don't even know what the words are! (ibid., 11)
13-Apr-06 Salt Shakers annoyed
Salt Shakers are tearing their hair out over the Queensland doctors who can now legally prescribe the abortion drug RU486:
Even those of us who saw it coming did not think it would happen this fast - that it would take little over a month after the appallingly irresponsible vote in our parliament for the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] to officially give permission for RU486 to be used to kill babies!!! (Salt Shakers E-News, 13 Apr. 2006)Hmm, 'killing babies'? I translate this as follows: 'Female sexuality is disgusting and pregnant women must be forced to go to term regardless of anyone's interest including that of the foetus. This is the women's punishment for being icky and not nice.'
13-Apr-06 Creationists split
The recent schism between the Australian and American branches of the creationist Answers in Genesis organisation must have been a lulu. The Aussie branch, now re-named Creation Ministries International (CMI), clearly got the rough end of the pineapple and has now issued the following distress call:
Mag Still Available in US - Many former subscribers to [Australian journals] 'Creation' mag and the 'Journal of Creation' ... are unaware (and we don't know who they are) that these two quality periodicals are still available in the USA ...(CMI email, 3 Apr. 2006)In other words the American mob are trying to grab the entire US market for themselves and freeze out their old Aussie mates. Oh to have been a fly on the wall at the break-up meeting.
13-Apr-06 Bill Muehlenberg - Freelance Culture Missionary?
Bill Muehlenberg, recently-departed National Vice-President of the Australian Family Association (a National Civic Council front) is now describing himself as 'a freelance culture missionary standing up for God's standards in the secular world.' Bill, we can't tell you how grateful we all are that you condescended to spread the Good Word in our rude and godless land. You are evidently much better qualified to do so than any of our local bumpkins as you do not seem to remain for long with any of the groups that you join. May I apologise on behalf of those poor sinners for their shameful failure to discern your true worth, and may you continue to enlighten us concerning the nature of God's standards which are apparently known only to Americans, and especially to you. Amen.