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Open Letter to My Friends re Men's Health Ambassador Appointment Media Conference

12 midday - 27 November outside Cringila Pub, Five Islands Road & Lake Avenue, CRINGILA NSW 2502.

It is a wonderful thing when people vilify you and tell lies about you. Certain journalists have claimed that I am homophobic. You be the judge.

Is being homophobic bringing a young man into your home with your young family who has the death sentence of AIDS?  That same young man needed shelter from the storm. A placed filled with unconditional love. He came from a broken home. He had a father wound. He had been sexually abused by other older men. That same young man ended up working the wall in Sydney.

This is not a good place for any young man to have to work. He needed someone to tell him that he was loved and appreciated not for the sex he could give to his paying customers who abused him but because of who he was on the inside a wonderful young man, with a future and a destiny.

Is being homophobic giving an award at a public function in Parliament House, Canberra in August 2005 to a wonderful Lesbian woman from Melbourne who had the guts to set up an organization to help trafficked women caught in the exploitative web of male driven prostitution. Unfortunately some men still are bastards! Certainly not all but some. White Ribbon Day tells the stories.

Another sacking demanded over 'anti-gay' document

27/11 ABC News | A gay rights group is calling on the Federal Government to sack both of the men's health ambassadors who have been linked to a document criticising homosexuality.

Barry Williams from the Lone Fathers group and the Fatherhood Foundation's Warwick Marsh are listed as authors of a publication that says homosexuality is a disorder. The publication was published by Mr Marsh's organisation. The Government has dismissed Mr Marsh but has retained Mr Williams, who has distanced himself from the document.

"I don't even know the words and I had nothing to do with it," he told ABC Radio's AM program.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the document's statements on homosexuality are "quite abhorrent" but she is prepared to accept Mr Williams's explanation about why his name appeared on the document.

Presbyterian Church call a Day of Fasting and Prayer

Sunday 30th November 2008
+ 6 pm Combined Service at The Scots Church, Melbourne,

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of  Victoria, in response to the raft of radical legislation that has been or is anticipated to be before our Victorian Parliament this year, the continuing drought and widely acknowledged societal problems, has called a Day of Prayer and Solemn Public Fasting in all its churches on Sunday, 30th November 2008, culminating that day in a combined Service of confession and intercession for our State in The Scots Church, Cnr Collins & Russell Sts, Melbourne. 

This service will commence at 6 pm and run for about an hour.

Californication - Episiode 7 - Sun 16 November

20/11 Saltshaker Media release | More good news! ... So far, during this series, there are 33 companies and organisations that have responded to FamilyVoice Australia and ourselves, saying they don’t want their ads on Californication. Several companies who told us they didn't want their ads on the show early in the series have recently had ads on the show.

Autobarn and Telstra have both assured us this week that they did NOT pay for any ads on the show and that they have instructed Channel 10 NOT TO PLAY their ads on Californication. You would think that Channel 10 would respect the instructions of the companies advertising with them!

Abortion cheaper than care, says Reproductive Health Alliance

13/11 Herald Sun | A REPRODUCTIVE health lobby group has told the Senate Medicare funding for late term abortions is cheaper than funding disability care.

A Nationals senator has accused the group of thinking "typical of the Hitler regime" after it suggested abortion was a cheaper alternative to looking after children with severe disabilities.

The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, which has as one of it aims the advancement of the status of women and girls, said removing a Medicare rebate for second-trimester abortions would save the government about $180,000 a year. Funding support services for children born with severe disabilities would cost far more, it said in a submission to a Senate committee inquiry.

.... Senator Ron Boswell, a strident pro-life supporter, described the submission as "offensive".

"Its underlying premise that some lives are worth less than others because they will cost too much to support, this is the kind of thinking that was typical of the Hitler regime," he told the Senate today.

The inquiry, which received nearly 500 submissions, examined the impact of disallowing expectant mothers access to a Medicare rebate - item 16525 - for second-trimester abortions.

Gay couple win $23,000 for vilification

12/11 Georgina Robinson, SMH.Com.au | A mother and son have been ordered to pay $23,100 in damages to a gay couple they harassed and vilified during a bitter neighbourhood dispute that was sparked by barking dogs. Queensland woman Jean Lawson and her son Paul Lawson must also publish a 140-word apology in local and state newspapers after calling their one-time neighbours, Timothy Wilson and Shane McCollum, "faggots", "poofs" and "princesses".

In the landmark ruling, Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Tribunal found the Lawsons vilified their homosexual neighbours to further their case during a nasty dispute about Alsatian dogs and a boundary fence.

SCAG to consider children in art concerns

Australian Christian Lobby | In another important step forward in addressing the sexualisation and exploitation of children, NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos yesterday asked the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting in Brisbane to clarify and streamline the National Classification Scheme as it applies to artworks depicting children. Please click here for more details.

This welcome development follows on from the Bill Henson controversy and fulfils a public request ACL made to the NSW Attorney-General two weeks ago to bring the issue up at the SCAG meeting. Click here to read ACL’s media release from October 26

Mr Hatzistergos was quoted in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald as saying: “Recent events have indicated that the community could benefit from greater certainty and consistency in the application of the National Classification Scheme, particularly to art works,"
ACL heartily agrees with this comment and urges the other State and Territory Attorneys-General to speedily address this important issue.

TWO MUMS TWO DADS NOW LEGAL

Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | The Federal Senate has voted to amend the Family Law Act to allow lesbian partners of mothers of children to be "parents" in law, something they clearly are not by natural law. Also, homosexual men who have acquired children under State surrogacy laws will also be presumed to be "parents". A Coalition amendment to make it clear that parenting is not gender neutral failed in a tied vote in the Senate after the Greens, Labor and South Australian independent Nick Xenophon joined to defeat the Coalition and Family First's Steve Fielding.

Meanwhile a Victorian Government bill removes the idea that kids should have a right to both a mother and a father. Victoria's Assisted Reproductive Treatment Bill 2008 seeks to expand access to fertility services, such as IVF and surrogacy, to almost anyone who wants to have a child, irrespective of their circumstances. The bill will allow single men, single women, homosexual couples and heterosexual couples access to assisted reproductive treatment to help them have a child. Infertility treatment used to be just that - a treatment for couples who were medically infertile.

Under the new bill, eligibility for treatment is not dependent on medical need. Instead, anyone who is unlikely to conceive a child in their current circumstances can access treatment, meaning that people who simply lack a partner of the opposite sex with whom to start a family can now use IVF and surrogacy in order to have a child. Obviously, if a same-sex couple uses such services, only one of them will be related to the child; nonetheless, the bill will allow both partners to be legally recognised as equal 'parents', endorsing the fiction that a child has two fathers or two mothers.

A Queensland parliamentary committee has also recommended that surrogacy for same-sex couples be allowed, which also denies a child's right to a mother and father.

PRAYER POINT: Reverend Stuart Robinson

USA: CARDINAL J. FRANCIS HAS SHARP WORDS OF CRITICISM FOR PRESIDENT - ELECT BARACK OBAMA

The Endeavour Forum Newsletter | Speaking Nov. 13 at The Catholic University of America, the former archbishop of Denver called Obama “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic” and said that he campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” Beliefnet.com reported.

Cardinal Stafford, who is the head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary tribunal, was speaking on the theme of “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul” in a lecture sponsored by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.

“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Cardinal Stafford said. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”

Cardinal Stafford said the election of the pro-abortion Obama marks another downward step in the moral disintegration America has descended into since 1968, when Paul VI published his encyclical Humanae Vitae.

“If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said the cardinal. “In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.”

Cardinal Stafford attributed much of the social damage to the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v.Wade decision legalizing abortion. Obama has pledged to nominate only Supreme Court judges who support Roe v. Wade. Said Cardinal Stafford about Roe v. Wade, “Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic.”

CHRISTIANS GATHER IN IRAQ TO PRAY FOR THEIR NATION

Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | There was a prevailing spirit of joy as Christians in Iraq recently attended the fourth national prayer conference held in Iraq. There was a real hunger for Iraqi believers to join hands and pray together. With 618 attendees, it was the largest and most comprehensive gathering of evangelical Christians held in Iraq in recent years. Most of the country’s evangelical congregations were represented at the conference by a pastor or church leader. Around 50 Kurdish believers attended, and even 10 believers from a Shia background.

The main purpose of the prayer conference was intercession for the nation of Iraq. There are few places where Christians face more challenges. In two cities, established Catholic churches petitioned the government to deny permission for two new evangelical churches to be built. In addition, many believers still choose to leave the country due to economic and political instability. But this prayer conference has stood as a beacon of hope for Iraqi Christians. The speakers focused on Isaiah 66 and Ezekiel 22:30, and particularly on the role and importance of Intercession and how to inherit the Kingdom of God.

A special testimony was given by a man from Mosul. Just before the conference last year, the man, who was not a believer, was kidnapped. His family asked the conference to pray for his safe return. After three days he was able to escape. His family told him about the prayer request, and an elder of a local church visited him to share the Word of God. The man is now a believer, Also attending the Conference was a man from Najaf who has been a Christian for two years, but was forced from his hometown after converting. He told how he was overwhelmed by the spirit of joy, love, and acceptance at the conference.

Please continue to pray for Iraq.
 
• Pray for the safety of Iraqi believers.

• Pray for the city of Mosul, where over 2,800 Christian families have been forced to flee their homes in the face of direct threats. Pray that the Lord would deliver these families from harm, and provide for their physical and spiritual needs.

• Pray for unity among the believers in Iraq, that God would bring them together and heal there differences in order to further His Kingdom.

• Pray that the Lord will continue to encourage His followers in Iraq, and that they would continue to spread His Word.

• Pray that the Spirit of God would penetrate the spiritual darkness that is in Iraq, and that besets His people from all sides.

Source: From within Iraq. Withheld for security reasons

USA: OBAMA OPEN TO DIVIDE JERUSALEM

Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | President-Elect Barack Obama has assured the Palestinians he supports a "negotiated settlement" that may grant the Palestinian Authority control over sections of Jerusalem. "He assured us there was a misunderstanding when he said back in June that he supported the Israelis' rights to hold on to Jerusalem. He told us he corrected this right away and that he supports a negotiated settlement that will give the Palestinians territory," said the PA official.

Obama delivered a speech in June to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in which he stated if he is elected president, "Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."  The President-Elect said that he would work to ensure more "freedom of movement" for Palestinians in the West Bank. Freedom of movement usually refers to Israel removing anti-terror roadblocks and checkpoints that have been directly credited with stopping suicide bombers from entering central Israel.

Source: Intercessors for America

USA: Taxpayers Fund “Gay Wedding” Field Trip for First Graders     

Concerned Woment for America | Parents across the country were shocked to learn that a group of San Francisco first graders went on a school-sanctioned field trip to see a same sex "wedding." In what was deemed as a "teachable moment" by the public charter school's interim director, the students blew bubbles and scattered rose petals after watching their teacher exchange vows with her girlfriend. Officiating the ceremony was none other than Gavin Newsom, pro-"gay" power tripper and mayor of San Francisco.

Conservative and liberal critics alike are decrying the use of taxpayer money to bus the students to the ceremony under the auspices of "education." The craven and politically motivated stunt comes just weeks before Californians are to vote on Proposition 8, which would establish that only marriage between a man and a woman would be valid or recognized in California.

The Yes on 8 campaign released a statement shortly after the field trip was made public. "Taking children out of school for a same-sex 'wedding' is not customary education. This is promoting same-sex 'marriage' and indoctrinating young kids," said Frank Schubert, campaign co-manager for Yes on 8/ProtectMarriage.com. "I doubt the school has ever taken kids on a field trip to a traditional wedding," Schubert said.

Concerned Women for America (CWA) President Wendy Wright, states, "It didn't take long for homosexual activists to prove that their main talking point - that same-sex 'marriage' won't affect others - is false. And it didn't take long for activists to go straight to children to advance their agenda, as if other people's children are merely pawns. It should be clear now that unless voters in California pass Proposition 8, parents, clergy, businesses, Christians and all others who believe that marriage can only be between one man and one woman will be trampled over by the demand that everyone accept what is morally wrong."

Protectors of traditional marriage have long warned that if same-sex "marriage" was legalized, our children would be taught that homosexuality was normal and acceptable in our public schools, regardless of whether that conflicts with a family's religious faith.

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/15889/FIELD/family/index.htm

A Life or Death Fight at the United Nations

24/10 American Center for Law & Justice | As you know, the European Center for Law and Justice has been at the forefront of the fight to protect religious freedom around the world.... All this week our ECLJ team was on the ground in New York City to contest this dangerous resolution backed by the  57 nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Over the course of three days, our team made the case for religious liberty around the world, meeting with various member nations who have been voting for this resolution the last few years.  At the center of our argument was the fact that this proposed resolution would undermine the very reason the United Nations was formed-to defend human rights. 

We argued that the goal of the Defamation of Religions resolution – which is to protect Islam from any form of criticism – is in direct violation of the most fundamental principles laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  We also provided evidence from the cases we’ve litigated around the world, which illustrated the dangerous ramifications of allowing a state-sponsored religion to persecute those who choose to believe differently.
 
With Egypt's tabling of this resolution this week, we know it will be voted on in the coming weeks.  We will continue to work against its approval, and towards ensuring that minority religions - such as Christianity in many of the Islamic nations – are free from discrimination or persecution.  If policies like this resolution are allowed to be enshrined in international law, it will literally come at the price of countless Christian lives around the world.
 
We will continue to engage on this critical issue, and will keep you apprised of our progress.

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