A Nation Guided by the Moral Fashion of the Day
If good and bad are ultimately defined by culture, then the moral relativist must grant that there is always a circumstance in which every act, even the most heinous, can be justified.
The West is doomed: “My dog is just as important as your kid”
Last year News.com.au posted an absurd article titled, My dog is just as important as your kid. The piece contains some real zingers, like: If there was a fire and I had to choose between saving my dog or your son, I’d save my dog. I’ve had people tsk-tsk me, giving me crap for paying for doggie daycare one day a week… So why the hell are dog owners treated like second-rate citizens in this so-called pet-loving country of ours? Our puppers aren’t allowed in so many places, like on public transport, even though the ratio of well-behaved and clean dogs to…
The blind tyranny of YES campaigners
Paula Gerber, Professor of Human Rights Law, at Monash University said: “Australia should lend its support to persecuted LGBTI people in other parts of the world. This includes the Asia-Pacific region where 19 countries criminalise homosexuality.” This is the hypocrisy and inconsistency of many who voted YES to SSM: YES advocates were quick to dismiss religious people who claimed morality is defined by the Bible, not our culture. Given the fact that Gerber’s position on SSM contradicts Jesus’ definition of marriage, we may safely assume that she does not consider the Bible the supreme voice on moral matters. And if…
When #EqualityForAll does not include Christian bakers
Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, opens his doors to everyone. “People of all walks of life are always welcome in the store… I serve everybody, I just don’t make cakes for every event,” Phillips has said. Phillips is a Christian, which means he refuses to use his artistry to decorate cakes that endorse a message contrary to his faith and conviction. “There are certain messages that I don’t create,” Phillips states. “I don’t do cakes for Halloween, I don’t do cakes that would promote sexual things, or anti-American things, or things that would disparage other people, including [those] that identify as…
“Eat Sh-t Lyle” now trending on Twitter
The Australian Parliament votes in favour of redefining marriage and how do same-sex marriage supporters celebrate? By taking to their Twitter feeds and tweeting, “Eat sh-t Lyle.” The phrase has been tweeted so many times that it’s now trending globally. And given the behaviour of the YES supporters during the course of the survey, I don’t think anyone is even slightly surprised. "Now I am become Lyle, the eater of shit." — Benjamin Law ? (@mrbenjaminlaw) December 7, 2017 Eat shit, Lyle. — Clementine Ford (@clementine_ford) November 14, 2017 eat shit lyle — dan nolan (@dannolan) December 7, 2017 eat…
Maybe God isn’t such a killjoy after all
D. James Kennedy: “A few years ago the former Surgeon General of the United States, David Satcher, reported that some twelve million Americans are infected by sexually transmitted diseases each year. Worldwide there are more than one hundred million cases of gonorrhea alone. In addition, there are cases of syphilis, chlamydia, herpes (millions of people have that), as well as the dreaded AIDS and twenty-one other horrible sexually transmitted diseases. So maybe God isn’t such a killjoy after all by forbidding sex outside of marriage. And maybe every good gift and every perfect gift does come down from above, and…
Religious liberty and Australian culture
Roughly 40% of Australians voted No to same-sex marriage and, according to a recent Newspoll, roughly 40% also reject the legitimacy of religious protections for Australians who disagree with same-sex marriage. The debates taking place in Federal parliament regarding religious liberty are culturally significant. The cultural reformation of the 1960s has transformed social views on sex, marriage, family, and, increasingly, gender. And yet clearly not all have gone with the tide. What became increasingly obvious during the same-sex marriage debate and now with the debate over religious protections is that culturally Australia is shifting back to the acrimonious sectarianism that…
Liberals ignoring basic freedoms
Rowan Dean, Lyle Shelton, and Morgan Begg discuss same-sex marriage, Safe Schools, anti-discrimination laws and the failure of senior Liberals to protect basic freedoms. Lyle Shelton’s remarks are worth highlighting: “This is not just a matter of religious protections. Freedom of speech is not even protected under the Dean Smith bill. That is a fact. Forget about paid professional clergy, or people like me who’ve got a faith. If you’re a non-Christian or a non-Muslim and you want to express the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman, you could be taken to a tribunal. That’s just…
If you forfeit the Bible, you forfeit debate
One thing noticeably absent from recent debates in Australia is any reference to God. It’s believed that euthanasia, same sex marriage, and abortion are all issues to be settled irrespective of the Bible. The assumption is, God has not given us a moral standard, so God will not keep us accountable to a moral standard. If we’re not the workmanship of a Creator, we’re the product of an accident – a big bang, followed by billions of years of evolution. Matters of morality therefore, are to be decided, not by divine revelation, but by debate and democracy. The problem is, once…
What’s next for the YES campaign?
It’s amazing how quickly the “YES Equality” advocates have turned into the exact opposite of what they supposedly professed. “NO Equality” is on the rise and I suspect, given their recent victory in the postal survey, campaigners will be looking for new battles to fight. In fact, we’re already beginning to witness it unfold. Just take a look at some of the material being pushed on social media. Magda Szubanski wants a marriage bill with #NoExemptions. That means, tolerance and acceptance are not enough. She demands participation, whether you like it or not. This totalitarian mentality extends beyond the Twitterverse,…
What was the Sin of Sodom?
In the article titled, To Christians arguing ‘no’ on marriage equality: the Bible is not decisive, Robyn J. Whitaker suggests the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, as recorded in Genesis 19, has “nothing to say about homosexuality.” The destruction of the two cities is rather attributed to “sexual violence and rape.” But is Whitaker’s analysis correct? The story of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction begins in Genesis 18, when Abraham is met by the LORD and two angels. After the LORD told Abraham, “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave” (v.20), the two angels departed in the direction…
Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state
“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” This quote has often been attributed to Adolf Hitler. Whether or not he said it is beside the point. As sinister as it sounds, it’s widely held that, “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” Educating children is an investment. And there are many trying to invest in your children today. So, what are we allowing them to put into their textbooks? What sort of state, what sort of future, are we allowing them to create? And what are we going to do about it? The…
For we are dumb and policed
“For we are Young and Free.” What a lovely line. I think of swimming at the beach, a cheering crowd at a concert, a happy family eating Christmas lunch. Or we might think of the freedom to live where we want, to study what we want, to work where we want, and to buy what we want. Below these delightful tip-of-the-iceberg freedoms, lie the four foundational freedoms of conscience, assembly, religion, and expression. Freedom of conscience is your freedom not to be coerced to act against your convictions about what is good and what is evil. Mel Gibson’s 2016 movie Hacksaw Ridge, for…
Love’s Hall of Shame
Share your experience in the comments below. One of our volunteers had this happen to them this morning in Sydney. This type of behaviour by either side is unacceptable & unAustralian. pic.twitter.com/ko2rbAJ96l — Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) November 14, 2017
A Nation Abandoned by God
“He did not know that the LORD had left him.” (Judges 16:20) This is perhaps one of the saddest verses in all of the Bible. Samson, the strongest man that ever lived, awoke to find himself surrounded by his enemies. But what was more troubling than the evil that was present, was the good that was absent. God had left Samson, and he did not realise it until it was too late. Today the results of the Same-Sex Marriage survey were released. More than 12.7 million people (79.5%) respond to the question, Should the law be changed to allow same-sex…
Myth: Jesus Never Said Anything About Homosexuality
Although Jesus does not specifically use the word “homosexuality,” it’s imperative to understand that the failure to use a term does not indicate a failure to teach on a topic.
New Attacks on our Freedom of Conscience
Last week the Federal Group denied service to a Coalition for Marriage gathering. The Plenary Hall at Wrest Point Casino was booked and paid for, and then cancelled forty-eight hours before the event. The University of Tasmania was approached. The Stanley Burbury Theatre was free, but the University also denied service. The event “did not fit within the terms of hire for university facilities.” Thankfully the Vice-Chancellor reviewed the refusal, and the evening went ahead. We could say a lot about the Federal Group’s discourteousness, cancelling very late a booking made in good faith. And we could say a lot…
The Moral Malaise in Public Life
In 1916 and 1917, during World War I, Australia went through two divisive referenda dealing with the issue of whether men could be conscripted for overseas service. In 2017 we have gone through a divisive plebiscite on the issue of whether only heterosexual couples can legally marry. One of the strange features of the whole business was the numerous expressions of moral outrage without any basis in a thought-out moral system. This is disturbing but hardly surprising. Unaccustomed as one is to agreeing with anything David Marr comes up with, he did recently point out in the Guardian that the…
The slope we’re already sliding down
Have you ever been scolded for using the infamous “Slippery Slope Argument” when debating Same-Sex Marriage? Do you remember the good old days when people naively thought that “love is love” and “equality for all” only counted for same-sex couples? Yeah, about that… Yesterday, the ABC introduced their readers to Andrew, a divorced man who felt “unable to express himself” in marriage. Andrew said, “I felt this whole expectation you will find everything in one person to be a little unrealistic.” After doing away with the “illusion” of the monogamous paradigm, Andrew discovered, what he described as “the most deeply…
Campbell Markham Speaks on Freedom of Religion
Campbell Markham speaks on Freedom of Religon at the More Than Marriage event held on Saturday 23 September 2017. “There are many people, perhaps in this room, who lament that the debate over marriage is not an even fight. Because those who want to redefine marriage – they’ve got the opinion polls on their side, they’ve got Facebook and Apple and Airbnb on their side. They’ve got the Prime Minister and the opposition leader on their side. They’ve got Fairfax and the ABC and SBS on their side. They’ve got Quantas and the AFL and the Wallabies on their side,…
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