NEWS FOR PRAYER & ACTION - JULY 2008
Please Pray for Australia ... the following are designed to keep
you in touch with topical issues, christian frontline ministries and also to inspire Prayer
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Link here for INTERNATIONAL interest links
Link here for EVENTS |
School Funded by Will Smith to Use Scientology Methods
29/07Joshua Kimball, Christian Post | A new private school founded by popular actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith has set off a Hollywood media frenzy over its alleged ties to the controversial “Chur ch” of Scientology. The New Village Academy in Calabasas, Calif., which the Smiths have poured nearly $1 million into building, will open Sept. 3 and use teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Although both Smiths have claimed not to be Scientologists and the academy’s director school insists the facility has no religious affiliation, news of the school’s controversial curriculum has raised flags. "There is no reputable educator anywhere who endorses [study technology]," said David S. Touretzky, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and a critic of Scientology, according to the Los Angeles Times. "What happens is that children are inculcated with Scientology jargon and are led to regard L.R. Hubbard as an authority figure. They are laying the groundwork for later bringing people into Scientology."
... Aside from the school, Will Smith has also come under the microscope for his own possible ties to Scientology, which his close friend, actor Tom Cruise, is an active advocate of. When production on his latest movie, "Hancock," finished around Christmastime last year, Smith reportedly passed out "wrap presents" to the film's crew members: vouchers good for a personality test at a local Scientology center. And in a story in Men's Vogue in December, Smith favorably compared Hubbard's teachings to tenets of other major religions. "I've studied Buddhism and Hinduism and I've studied Scientology through Tom," Smith said. "And nobody's saying anything different! 
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 Victoria - Decriminalisation of abortion - Update and action
15/07 Saltshakers Media release | Victoria's MPs are currently on a winter break - Parliament resumes on 29-31 July and after that sits on 19-21 August.
Some MPs may be travelling but others will be working in their electorates.
NOW is a great time to contact your MPs - especially to VISIT them along with a couple of friends - and ask them to oppose ALL three Models for the decriminalisation of abortion as proposed by the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
More details of the proposals on our campaign page
How do I find out WHO my SIX MPs are?
(1 Legislative Assembly, 5 Legislative Council)
Click this link - type in your address in the GREY 'Search by your home address' box and press Search - your six MPs will be displayed!
Alternatively you can phone the Australian Electoral Commission on 13 2326 and ask for the names! |
Big Brother will be no more after next week
14/07 Saltshakers Media release | Channel 10 announced last night that after 8 years Big Brother ratings had slumped and they would not be presenting the program next year.
We are sure many parents will say Hallelujah to that. We certainly do.
Vote now: ‘Will television be better off without Big Brother?’
Go to OR phone the Yes line - 1900956 434
Clearly the general public have had enough – the YES vote is well ahead – let us make sure it stays that way. The vote will probably end tonight.
Full story at:h |
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Threat to marriage thwarted
04/07 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Traditional marriage came under attack from the Australian Greens on two fronts this week, with the Tasmanian Greens tabling a same-sex marriage bill in that parliament on Tuesday, and the ACT Greens tabling a bill in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Wednesday aimed at providing legal marriage-like ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The Tasmanian move was a repeat of action taken by the Greens in that State three years ago, with the then Government deciding not to debate the motion. Thankfully, the bill again seems unlikely to be successful. |
 AUSSIE ADULT STEM CELL FINDINGS OFFER NEW HOPE FOR PARKINSON SUFFERERS
04/07 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | Researchers have released evidence that a cure for Parkinson's disease could lie just inside the nose of patients themselves. Queensland's Griffith University study published in the journal Stem Cells found that adult stem cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson's patients gave rise to dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a rat.
The debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's such as loss of muscle control are caused by degeneration of cells that produce the essential chemical dopamine in the brain. Current drug therapies replace dopamine in the brain, but these often become less effective after prolonged use. The discovery is the work of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, part of Griffith's Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies.
The advantage of using a patient's own cells is that, unlike stem cells from a foreign embryo, they are not rejected by the patient's immune system, so patients are free from a lifetime of potentially dangerous immuno-suppressant drug therapy. This development follows Professor Mackay-Sim's 2006 development of a world-first technique that demonstrated that olfactory adult stem cells can give rise to heart, nerve, liver and brain cells.
Source: Medical News Today |
Fence at the top of the cliff needed for better child protection
04/07 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) today congratulated Federal and State
Governments for creating a national child sprotection framework but called for a
“fence at the top of the cliff” to help stop child neglect and harm in the first place. |
Surrogacy under the political spotlight
04/07 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Surrogacy remains under the political spotlight, with the West Australian Parliament passing its surrogacy bill last Thursday and ACL’s Tasmanian Director Nick Overton invited to appear at a public hearing on surrogacy in that State last Tuesday.
The contentious WA Surrogacy Bill 2007 passed the WA Upper House in a conscience vote of 27-5 despite concerns that surrogacy is not in the best interests of the child and can have serious legal and relational consequences. (To read the media release ACL WA put out on the issue before it was voted on last Thursday.)
Over in Tasmania the Legislative Council Select Committee is looking into the issue of surrogacy with a view to recommending action to the Tasmanian Government, as well as making a contribution to the national debate on uniform laws. On Tuesday Nick Overton appeared before a Public Hearing on the issue and outlined ACL’s concerns, such as the genetic bewilderment faced by children who effectively have multiple parents. A report from the committee is due to be handed down in August. |
AUSTRALIANS TEST POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL STEM CELLS
04/07 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | Researchers in Melbourne will be the first in Australia to test the power of egg-free human embryonic stem cells, which could provide the cure for a range of life-threatening conditions without exciting any of the moral opposition that surrounds therapeutic cloning. Andrew Laslett of the Australian Stem Cell Centre will today announce that a shipment of the cells - induced pluripotent (iPS) cells - arrived at the centre in May and that he and colleague Naoki Nakayama began working with them.
This is the first time scientists outside the US and Japan have gained access to iPS cells, artificially created without donated human eggs or embryos. Dr Laslett and Dr Nakayama will compare the capabilities of iPS cells with human embryonic stem (ES) cells, which are able to develop into any tissue in the human body, from brain to heart.
Last November, Japanese and US teams hit international headlines when they announced in separate journals that they had transformed, or "reprogrammed", ordinary human cells such as skin cells into ES cells. The ability to turn back the biological clock on cells makes them a potential source of replacement cells for people whose immune system would reject cells from another person. Until the announcements by Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin's James Thomson, the only way to reprogram human donor cells was through theraputic cloning". That technique is controversial because it requires donated excess IVF embryos or human eggs that are destroyed in the process.
Australian Stem Cell Centre chief executive Stephen Livesey cautioned that it was still early days for iPS cells. He said that, to date, researchers had been able to reprogram only between one in 5000 and one in 10,000 donor cells. As well, little was known about what occurred during the process. ....
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports |
Radio’s lesbian lyrics further evidence of cultural slide
04/07 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | ACL’s Western Australian State Director Michelle Pearse joined our team just over 12 months ago and has already made her mark in political, media and church circles.
At just 24, she brings energy, fresh perspective and a high degree of intelligence to our work. Her passion is evidence that Generation Y is engaged and concerned about the dramatic cultural slide we’ve witnessed in recent years.
She has contributed the following piece to today’s E-news:
“A new song has hit our popular radio stations encouraging young people to engage in homosexual experimentation. It’s called ‘I Kissed a Girl’ and is performed by new artist, Katy Perry. This song goes to show how much our culture has fallen in regards to acceptance of these kinds of songs.
“I’m sure you are shocked by some of the content of the lyrics on our radio stations that sometimes incites rape and violence against women, and now added to the barrage of this material enters songs encouraging youth to be more experimental with their sexuality.”
ACL is encouraged by the recent media and political attention on the sexualisation of children with 60 Minutes and the Sunday Program recently featuring the issue.
Katy Perry’s work encourages young girls to experiment with lesbian sex, something that may appeal to young women in reaction to a culture that encourages girls to be objects of sexual gratification. ACL, along with other like-minded groups, will continue working to see the tide turned where marriage, family and healthy sexuality are again valued in popular culture. |
Greens renew push to legalise civil ceremonies
02/07 ABC News | ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has tabled a bill in the Legislative Assembly to allow same-sex couples to recognise their relationship with a legal ceremony. The provision was included in the ACT Government's original Civil Partnerships Bill but the Federal Government objected, forcing the ACT to water down the legislation.
The laws, which came into effect in May, allow same-sex couples to take part in a civil ceremony and register their relationship but any ceremony is not legally binding |
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McDonald's chooses to support homosexual agenda -
Refuses request to be neutral in culture war
03/07 American Family Association | McDonald's has refused a request to remain neutral in the culture war, choosing to continue support of the homosexual agenda. AFA wrote McDonald's asking the company do two things:
- Remove McDonald's name and logo from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) Web site listing McDonald's as a "Corporate Partner and Organization Ally" of NGLCC.
- Remove the endorsement of NGLCC by Richard Ellis, Vice President of Communications for McDonald's USA, from the NGLCC Web site.
McDonald's refused both requests. McDonald's donated $20,000 to NGLCC in exchange for membership in the NGLCC and a seat on the group's board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress on a wide range of issues including the promotion of homosexual marriage.
This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's, or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.
Pat Harris, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Vice President, Inclusion & Diversity at McDonald's, responded: "I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our position on diversity." Notice that Ms. Harris said "reaffirm." Translated: McDonald's will not change their policy of supporting the NGLCC and their promotion of homosexual marriage.
Richard Ellis, who is openly homosexual, was given a seat on the NGLCC Board of Directors. He was quoted as saying: "I'm thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and ready to go to work. I share the NGLCC's passion for business growth and development within the LGBT community, and I look forward to playing a role in moving these important initiatives forward."
Addressing McDonald's promotion of social issues, McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said earlier the company will aggressively promote the issues they approve. In remarks on its Web site, Skinner said: "Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world ... and we do."
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Marriage Protection Amendment introduced in U.S. Senate; forbids forcing homosexual marriage on all Americans
01/07 American Family Association | U.S. Senator Roger Wicker has introduced the Marriage Protection Amendment in the U.S. Senate. This constitutional amendment would keep liberal activist judges from forcing homosexual marriage on every American.
This constitutional amendment simply states: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”
Liberal activist judges in Massachusetts and California, each by a 4-3 margin, have already forced homosexual marriage on their citizens! There is nothing in current law which would keep one judge from legalizing marriage between three men, or two men and four women, or any other combination.
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Hand-picked babies
01/07 Maxim Institute - New Zealand | A controversial recommendation was made to the Government last Thursday suggesting that parents should have the right to choose the sex of their baby in situations where a mother is undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The suggestion comes as part of a report by Toi te Taiao: The Bioethics Council, titled Who gets born? which considers the cultural, ethical and spiritual aspects of pre-birth testing. The report makes recommendations on when pre-implementation genetic diagnosis (PGD) should be allowed. PGD is a rapidly developing science which involves extracting cells and genetically testi ng embryos before they are placed in the mother's womb. As technologies like PGD advance and the potential for new frontiers in science grows, it is important to ask thoughtfully what it means to be a parent and what values should undergird the way technology is used.
The deliberative approach of Who gets born? allows a range of perspectives to be carefully listened to and documented. Ultimately though, the decision made in the report to recommend that parents be allowed to use PGD in choosing their child's sex, rests on the undergirding value that individual choice is always paramount. The report states: "There is [sic] insufficient cultural, ethical and spiritual reasons to prohibit the use [of PGD] for sex selection for social reasons ...." Yet the burden of proof in this matter should lie the opposite way. This technology involves a radical shift in how we view children—seeing them as a commodity instead of a responsibility and a privilege. There is insufficient reason to believe that such a change will not have detrimental social consequences: encouraging a culture which views people as a means to an end, rather than as an end in themselves; and judging the value of life based on certain qualities, rather than regarding it as inheren tly valuable. Personal choice is not the highest good. Many of our decisions impact one another to such a degree, indelibly shaping the future that we are creating, that the Government is justified in regulating or prohibiting them.
The availability of technology does not pre-determine that it should be used, and the bearing of a child should be an unselfish act. Bringing a new life into the world is inherently about relationship and about a community that is bigger than simply the parents or the family of the child. As we embrace technology carelessly, allowing it to fulfil our ever-growing desire for uninhibited personal choices, we encourage a mindset of parenting as another aspect of personal self-fulfilment. Parenting is inherently a generous act of unqualified love—it considers another person as precious and not merely a tool for satisfying desire. This is a truly radical act in a world too often titillated by choice.
Read "Who Gets born"
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New Zealand smacking law heralded as a test case
01/07 Maxim Institute - New Zealand | Interestingly, New Zealand has been referred to by proponents of law change in Canada as a good test case, highlighting how well similar legislation works. Yet early indicators suggest otherwise; we still have a problem with child abuse and parental behaviours have not changed substantially since the law was introduced.
One of the main aims of the law change in New Zealand was to do something about our shameful rates of child abuse. With horrific stories of children suffering continuing to surface in our newspapers, it is curious that Canadian advocates have claimed that the New Zealand model is a success, especially as the law change did little to target the causes of child abuse. Instead, the law's only effect has been to criminalise parents who use reasonable physical discipline.
Even despite this ban on reasonable discipline, parents appear to be prepared to ignore the law and risk police investigation and prosecution. The latest police report on the effect of the law change indicates that numbers of "smacking" events and "other child assaults" have not changed substantially when compared to statistics prior to the law change. Yet the number of reported "minor acts of physical discipline" has nearly trebled. The number of convictions has not changed substantially, however, which suggests a lot of police time is being tied up unnecessarily investigating these incidents.
Similarly, a poll commissioned by Family First and released in May this year indicated that 49 percent of parents were continuing to use a light smack for the purpose of parental correction, meaning that they were effectively ignoring the law. This figure is very similar to the findings of a Ministry of Social Development survey conducted before the law change, in 2005. Canadian proponents for law change, who think that New Zealand has found a way to fix the problem of abuse or to change parental behaviours, are ignoring the evidence.
Read the Six Month Review of Police Activity Following the Enactment of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007
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| Events: |
St. Stephen’s Uniting Church
197 Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Telephone: (02) 9221 1688
Facsimile: (02) 9230 0316
E-mail: office@ssms.org.au
MEDIA RELEASE
“All People That on Earth do Dwell"
A PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION/EXHIBITION
25th September-5th October, 2008
To be held at:
St Stephen's Uniting Church
$300 prize for winner
In each of the following sections:
Senior Amateur
Junior Amateur
People’s Choice
For
Entry forms and competition rules
Phone: (02) 9221 1688
Email: office@ssms.org.au
DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: 18th August, 2008 |
Training tomorrow's leaders
There is a great need in this nation to assist those students and recent graduates who demonstrate a high potential to become influential leaders for Christ across strategic areas of our nation including politics, law, media, science, education, arts and philosophy.
The Compass program, an eight-day course in Christian worldview, aims to address this need.
The inaugural program kicks off this Sunday with 40 students at the University of Queensland. For more information and to register interest for 2009, please go to www.compass.org.au .
Lyle Shelton
National Chief of Staff , Australian Christian Lobby |
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