Religious Right Groups
Life Ministries, WA
| Leadership: | Dwight A. Randall, Director; Andrew Lansdown, Writer/Editor |
| Date formed: | Approx. early 1980s, at which time Randall’s elder brother Leroy was prominent (e.g. New Life, 22 Nov. 1984) |
| Area of operation: | WA. However, its publications and activities are regularly referred to by Religious Right bodies in the eastern states. |
| Estimated membership: | Small. Basically the ‘Randall and Lansdown Show’, although the group does boast a speakers’ panel. |
| Finances: | Appears to live the hand-to-mouth existence typical of smaller Australian Religious Right organisations. Solicits donations and raises some funds from the sale of its publications, mainly written by Lansdown. |
| Main objectives: | Life Ministries ‘exists to help Christians deal with difficult moral and theological issues from a biblical perspective’ (Life News, Feb. 2003, 8). In practice, this commitment takes the form of dogmatic opposition to abortion, euthanasia, feminism, ‘pornography’, homosexuality, prostitution and evolution. |
| Main activities: | Publishing, public speaking, preaching at churches, lobbying politicians, circulation of videos. Dwight Randall ran unsuccessfully for WA State Parliament in 2001. |
| Links with other groups: | Gets along very cosily with other WA bodies, particularly the National Civic Council. Dwight Randall is currently Vice-President of the Christian Democratic Party in WA. Fred Nile of the Festival of Light/CDP and Peter Stokes of Salt Shakers are both chums of Randall’s (Salt Shakers Journal, Oct. 2000, 18). |
| Publications: | Bi-monthly magazine Life News; many pamphlets and a few booklets, most by Andrew Lansdown. |
| Sample quotes: | Killing unborn children is sin, while executing murderers is not. God ‘hates’ those who shed innocent blood. Such acts are an ‘abomination’ to him. On the other hand, God commands that murderers should be put to death … Killing unborn children displays a callous disregard for the value of human life, while executing murderers demonstrates a belief in the sanctity of life … [Abortion results from] the capricious ‘choice’ of pregnant women … (D. Randall ‘Pro-life and pro-death at the same time?’, Family World News, October 2000, 9) |
| (Concerning Paul’s command, ‘Wives, be subject to your husbands’) Because our minds are defective and our hearts are defiant, we tend to equate submission with humiliation and inferiority. However, God intends it to be a state of honour. Just as the church enters her glory when she submits to Christ, so a wife enters her glory when she willingly and actively acquiesces to her husband … What does marital subjection/submission mean? In essence, it means that wives should have a respectful and compliant attitude towards their husbands. Whether they are in the bedroom or the kitchen or the nursery, they should not have a rebellious or resentful heart.(A. Lansdown Sexual Equality: A Scriptural View, 1992) | |
| Lansdown also holds strong views about hell. Its horror ‘is magnified by the fact that it is eternal … It will endure forever. The people whom God sentences to hell will never get out. They will be subject to never-ending, never-lessening punishment.’ Interestingly, however, in Lansdown’s version of hell, the inmates go right on being bad! People there are ‘abandoned to their sin, so that evildoers go on being evil and the filthy continue being filthy’. (A. Lansdown ‘One Good Thing About Hell’, New Life, 10 Aug., 1995. N.B. Not published with a specific Life Ministries imprimatur.) | |
| Assessment: | The word ’sententious’ denotes a person ‘fond of pompous moralising’ and thus precisely describes the main Life Ministries personnel. A small, strongly American-influenced group which cooperates effectively with like-minded organisations, and which has flown the Religious Right’s flag in the West for many years. |
| Contact details: | 4/334 Wanneroo Road, Nollamara WA 6061 www.iinet.net.au/~life/ |
