556 search results for "free speech"

A Victorian MP is pushing to broaden the state’s anti-vilification laws in an effort to crack down on unapproved speech. Victorian upper house MP Fiona Patten, leader of the Reason Party — formerly known as the Sex Party — proposed the amendments to the Racial and Religious Tolerance Bill 2001 to include gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. The changes would also include substituting “race” with “protected attribute” and substituting “incites” with “likely to incite hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that person or class of persons.” According to Patten, “Hate speech…

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A Finnish politician is under police investigation after posting a Bible verse on her Facebook page. In June 2019, Christian Democratic MP Päivi Räsänen shared a section from Paul’s letter to the Romans along with criticism of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland over their decision to endorse Helsinki LGBT Pride 2019 event. Finnish Police launched the investigation against Ms Räsänen on suspected incitement against sexual and gender minorities. It has also been reported that authorities have additionally charged Ms Räsänen with “agitation against an ethnic group.” In an interview with Faith Wire, Ms Räsänen said, “Already the fact that…

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Like many, my heart has become heavy over the past several weeks as legislation which sought to decriminalise foeticide was pushed through the NSW Legislative Assembly (the lower house) and was successfully passed 59-31. While it must pass the Legislative Council (upper house) in order to be enacted into law, it is immensely likely that pass it will. The sadness that I, and many others, feel however isn’t solely restricted to the Reproductive Healthcare Reform bill in of itself, but what it is representative of. Namely, the moral—or rather immoral—state of current society. We’ve not only moved away from the Judeo-Christian…

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Sonia Hornery MP launched an extraordinary attack on a local church this week when the evangelism they’ve been doing most weekends for several years coincided with an LGBTIQAX+ Pride Festival. The state MP for Wallsend, just West of Newcastle, NSW, accused the church of “hate speech” because they were preaching the Gospel to people attending the festival. Last weekend, Newcastle celebrated diversity at the Newcastle Pride Group Page Festival. Unfortunately, members of a local church thought it appropriate to put out hate flyers targeting people attending the festival. These flyers were handed out to people attending the Festival and placed all over cars parked…

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A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that the State cannot force Christian filmmakers to express messages contrary to their faith and conviction. Two years ago a Minnesota court ruled that Telescope Media Group, a Christian film company run by husband and wife team, Carl and Angel Larsen, was in violation of the state’s Human Rights Act. According to the court, the Act essentially compelled the parents of eight to use their creativity and services to create films celebrating homosexuality and same-sex marriage, contrary to their faith and conviction. At the time, Alliance Defending Freedom claimed: State officials have categorically, publicly,…

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Covington student, Nicholas Sandermann’s $250 million defamation case against The Washington Post was dismissed late last month, after a federal judge ruled that the Washington Post hadn’t slandered Sandermann in its reporting of the infamous, so-called “standoff” between himself and Native American, Nathan Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Saurabh Sharma of the Dailycaller said the “judge threw out the case” saying that The Washington Post didn’t defame the Covington students, but were irresponsible with their use of “loose, figurative,” and “rhetorical hyperbole”. [i] This is despite The Washington Post, along with some Twitter users and others within…

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An elderly Christian street preacher who was arrested by UK police for ‘disturbing the peace’ with his “Islamophobic” Christian message has been awarded £2,500 for wrongful arrest. Oluwole Ilesanmi was preaching outside Southgate tube station in London in February when two Metropolitan Police officers ordered him to stop preaching. When the 64-year-old refused, the officers arrested the elderly preacher, ripping his Bible from his hands, then cuffing his wrists behind his back. Mr Ilesanmi was accused of “Islamophobia” after he called Islam an ‘aberration’. The arresting officers told the elderly preacher, “Nobody wants to listen to that.” When Mr Ilesanmi…

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There’s no question that China is a nation of rampant government surveillance. However, what you may not be aware of is that you are currently being watched if you are a WeChat user. In an era of countless social media applications, it’s normal to download whatever application is popular for communication without considering the ‘Terms and Conditions.’ So what’s the big deal with WeChat? It’s important to understand the history of WeChat in order to understand how it got to where it is today. Here’s a brief history of the company: January 2011 — Chinese company, ‘Tencent,’ debuts the messaging…

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Rev. Franklin Graham has warned the Equality Act will have “catastrophic consequences” for both religious freedom and women’s rights if it becomes law. According to Life Site News: “The Equality Act would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include ‘sex,’ ‘sexual orientation,’ and ‘gender identity’ among expressly recognized ‘non-discrimination’ categories in ‘public accommodations’ (the definition of which would be dramatically expanded); and force employers of 15 or more people to recognize their claimed ‘gender identity,’ forbid them from ‘discriminating’ based on ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity,’ and mandate transgender ‘access’ to sex-specific facilities.” In the latest issue of the Billy…

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An article in the Spectator Australia by Terry Barnes applauded Scott Morrison’s squishy love Gospel and harpooned Israel Folau’s fierce “fire and brimstone” Gospel. It juxtaposed the two Pentecostals as altogether different brands of Christianity: one of unforgiveness and damnation, the other of forgiveness and love. Naturally, having carefully crafted such a context for comment, Terry praised Morrison’s interesting as it is an ambiguous exhortation, “Wherever you are, be who God made you.” Barnes inferred from this a divine endorsement on the entire list of Scripturally prohibited behaviours which Folau quoted, contrasting the “heartless” footballer’s meme and the Prime Minister’s positivity.…

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It’s every writer’s worst nightmare. You spend countless hours researching, writing and promoting your latest book—claiming to have discovered something all of the professional scholars have strangely missed—when it’s revealed that your interpretation is clearly flawed. But that’s precisely what has happened to Naomi Wolf, and it’s not the first time it’s happened either. Back in 1992 Wolf published the feminist classic, The Beauty Myth, (New York: Doubleday) in which she argued that 150,000 women die of anorexia in America every year. What’s more, Wolf compared this to the Holocaust stating: When confronted with a vast number of emaciated bodies…

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Tommy Robinson has filmed an impassioned plea to Donald Trump, asking the President and his administration to grant him and his family political asylum in the United States. In a video aired by InfoWars and later uploaded to social media, Robinson states: My name is Tommy Robinson, today I am calling on the help of Donald Trump, his administration, and the Republican Party, to grant me and my family political asylum in the United States of America. Robinson went on to say: I’ve been found guilty of exercising what is the equivalent of exercising First Amendment rights. Benjamin Franklin had…

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Under current defamation law, social media users can be held legally responsible for third-party content on any post they make. The guiding rule seems to be: You posted it. You incited it. Ergo, you’re responsible for it. In other words, anything someone posts on my timeline or writes in the comments section, that is deemed offensive, defamatory or “hate speech” could end in a lawsuit. For those who only have a private Facebook account, there is currently no mechanic to prevent this from happening. The only real preventative measure is to keep an eye on comments or keep your friends…

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It’s clear that Israel Folau is the latest target of media elites, intellectuals, and woke corporate executives. Just take a look at Mark Powell’s recent post and you’ll get a glimpse of how far their attacks have gone. While many support Folau’s right to express his convictions, what’s not clear is how we are supposed to go about doing this. Here are five practical ways you can be supporting Folau and his family at this time: 1. Pray for Israel, his family, and those who are persecuting him We ought to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ;…

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Since the re-definition of marriage, no one is denying the validity of the “slippery slope” argument anymore. Instead, they’re simply shaking their heads and wondering, “Has the world  gone mad?!” It seems as though the world is hurtling down the slope faster than the Gadarene swine. According to The Australian, even Gillian Triggs, the former head of the Human Rights Commission, has accused the corporate sponsors of Maria Folau’s netball team of “bullying”. Media pundits, business leaders, as well as current—and former—sporting heroes all seem to be in front of the pack but, as Andrew Bolt rightly points out, one…

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You know that things have really spiralled downward when Princeton atheist and bioethicist — Peter Singer — is defending Israel Folau and his freedom to express his Christian convictions. Singer writes: [Folau’s] post no more expresses hatred toward homosexuals than cigarette warnings express hatred toward smokers. The only rational reason that anyone would get so upset about Folau’s post is if you actually believe that he is speaking the truth about heaven and hell. Singer continues: [Folau’s beliefs] do not trouble me, because there is, in my view, no god, no afterlife, and no hell. Nor do I differentiate, ethically,…

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In a nation that worships our sport and our sporting elites, Liz Ellis is a beloved Australian sporting hero. Liz played 122 netball games representing Australia, four years of which were as captain. Her personality displayed in the media is down to earth, her relative modesty and unassuming humour make it easy to like her. She seems like she should be a voice of moderation. But yesterday Liz Ellis effectively accused Maria Folau of supporting or endorsing homophobia in a comment on Twitter. There are serious problems with Liz’s comments, problems which reveal a toxic practice of intolerance and bigotry against…

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An Emily’s Voice promotional which featured the words, “a heart beats at four weeks”, on four Newcastle buses has been removed. The action was taken after an outraged Newcastle resident accused the pro-life promotional material of being “dangerous propaganda; a guilt driven directive on what [a woman should] do with their body.” The complaint was posted on Facebook to the NSW Transport Minister’s page and “action was immediately taken” to tear the material down. Emily’s Voice is an organization that seeks to encourage people to consider alternatives to abortion. Their mission is to “help Australians fall in love with the…

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The opening sentence of Jacques Ellul’s, ‘Islam and Judeo-Christianity: A Critique of their commonality’, reads, ‘For nearly a decade, French intellectuals, generally speaking, have been seized with an excessive affection for Islam.’ (p.3) What follows is a ninety-four-page treatise on the reasons for why this excessive affection is not only dangerous but misguided. Ellul acknowledges the existence of a disproportionate tolerance of Islam. He then compares that to the disdain of how French intellectuals have been interacting with Judeo-Christianity (Biblical Christianity), since the 1960s’. The reason for this excessive affection is due to Islam’s proximity to Marxism (“scientific” socialism). Roger…

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Progressivism has become so pervasive that it’s about time that a children’s book is written on the political left. We’ve all been wanting to understand those big words that are thrown around time and time again and so, for social education of knuckle-dragging-cave-dwelling-deplorables everywhere, here are your 21st century ABC’s. A is for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AOC: The Fresh New Face of the Democratic Party, or as Ben Shapiro says, “So fresh. So face.” Never before have the ideals of communism been espoused in such eloquence and grandeur than through the lips of this 21st century feminist prophet. According to AOC,…

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