News for Prayer and Action

Rally for Life! 09

There is a push for the complete decriminalisation of abortion in Queensland as evidenced by the abortionists and Queensland state politicians who spoke at the Abortion Forum held in Brisbane in October last year.

Complete decriminalisation means:-

1. Abortion would be allowed up until birth for any or no reason
2. Abortion would be available throughout public hospitals thus implicating and pressuring more medical personal to be involved
3. Pro-life doctors would be compelled to refer women to others who are proabortion (as in Victoria)
4. Catholic/Christian hospitals would be under pressure to refer for or provide abortions.

Is this the kind of Queensland you wish to live in?

Visit the Cherish Life website for more information

UK: To place children with two gay men when an adoptive mother and father are available, just to uphold a brutal dogma, is a sickening assault on family life

29/01 Melanie Phillips, Mail Online | When homosexuality was legalised back in 1967 did anyone dream that some four decades on a British grandmother and grandfather wanting to adopt their own grandchildren would be refused permission and the children adopted instead by two gay men? The case in Edinburgh reported today, where precisely this grotesque development has occurred, illustrates the sickening way in which what started out as a decent attempt to be tolerant towards a minority lifestyle has turned into a totalitarian assault upon family life and human rights.

For two years these grandparents fought for their right to care for the children, a five-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister, whose 26-year-old mother is a recovering heroin addict. But at 46 and 59 they were ruled to be too old to adopt. Reluctantly, therefore, they agreed to the children being adopted by another couple, on the basis they would be brought up by a loving mother and father figure. But although several heterosexual couples were available to adopt them, the children were handed over instead to two gay men.

When the devastated grandparents objected they were threatened that unless they dropped their opposition they would never see their grandchildren again on account of their ‘negative’ attitude towards gay adoption.

There are so many layers to this gross and terrifying abuse of power that one hardly knows where to start. The reason why adoption is so successful at raising healthy, well-adjusted children is that it replicates as far as possible the biological mother and father whose presence in the family is so crucial to the well-being of their children

The prevailing argument that all types of family are as good as each other as far as the children are concerned simply isn’t true. While some children emerge relatively unscathed from irregular households, children need to be brought up by the two people ‘who made me’ - or, in adoptive households, in a family which closely replicates that arrangement.

Where that does not happen, the child’s deepest sense of his or her identity as a human being is at some level damaged.

A child needs a mother and father because their roles in bringing that child up, and the way the child sees each of them, are not interchangeable. They are different and complementary, which is why if one of them is absent the child suffers, in many cases very badly indeed.

Historic Message From Hon. Peter Costello For Australia Day United Prayer At Melbourne Town Hall

26/01 Catch Fire Ministries | “Good morning to everybody that is meeting together in the Melbourne Town Hall on this Australia day.  I can’t think of a more important thing to be doing than to Unite in Prayer on this, our National day for our nation.  And I bring you special greetings to each and every one of you that is there today and is praying for our nation standing in prayer on its behalf for it and for all of our people.

Many Australians don’t know that shortly after the 1st Australia day January the 26th, the first sermon was ever preached on Australian soil by the chaplain that came out with the first fleet. The chaplain took as his text a verse from the Psalms, and he preached a sermon on these words.  “What shall I render to the lord for all his benefits to me?”  Course the benefits that he was preaching about was the coming of the First fleet to Australia, the landing and the establishment of the new country

Free Speech in Britain? Geert Wilders event cancelled at House of Lords

26/01 Jenny Stokes, Saltshakers | A colleague in the UK has just sent me information relating to the following - where a meeting at the House of Lords to hear Geert Wilders was subject to a threatened protest - and objections from Lord Ahmed, a Muslim.

The result? - The event was cancelled.

It reminds me of the time when Pastor Daniel Scot spoke at the house of Lords in Britain about the seminar, the court case - AND ISLAM.

He managed to avoid the sort of action that Geert Wilders has encountered... perhaps it shows how things have changed - or else the Muslims didn't know Daniel Scot was due to speak.

The Coercive Utopians Are At it Again

25/01 Bill Muehlenberg | Amongst the favourite terms blithely thrown around by the various radical social activist groups are “tolerance,” “acceptance,” “inclusion,” and “love”. Sounds pretty good. But the rhetoric seldom matches the reality with these groups. They are all about sweetness and light – until someone dares to cross them. Then the real deal breaks forth ... The EU is at the forefront of coercive utopianism, forcing its PC agenda on one and all. It is a leading body working for anti-family, anti-life and anti-faith activities

Just recently it has made clear how it deals with anyone who dares to stand against this social engineering. One EU group has called for the end of financial aid to Nigeria, because it has so horribly crossed the line.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, and it is wracked with poverty, disease and environmental degradation. Yet an EU Intergroup wants all foreign aid to this needy country suspended because of its crimes against humanity.

... Well, it turns that Nigeria actually voted to keep marriage between one man and one woman. Yes I know that sounds too shocking and incredible to be true, but it is. As one media account says, Nigeria’s “House of Representatives voted to prohibit attempts to create legal ‘gay marriage.’ The Nigerian vote was unanimous this week in favour of a bill that ‘prohibits marriage between persons of same gender, solemnisation of same and other matters related therewith’.”

... So because of this horrific sin, the EU homosexual rights group wants the nation to be punished – and big time ....

But one Nigerian representative, Igo Aguma, defended his nation with these remarks: “It is time for us at this point in time to think back and look at the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The greatest means of transmitting this disease is through the act of sodomy. Young children are already victims of been lured into this cruel and unimaginable act.

Thousands unite to pray on Australia Day

Special greeting from Peter Costello

22/01 Catch Fire Ministries | Thousands of Christians from all denominations will unite to pray for our nation on Australia Day. In support of this prayer celebration, the Hon. Peter Costello (former Federal Treasurer) will bring a special greeting to around 2000 Christians at Melbourne Town Hall on Monday 26 January.

In this era of economic downturn, the prayer meeting which brings together Christian leaders from many different denominations will be held from 10am to 1pm at the Melbourne Town Hall focusing on prayer for the Australian Government, the faltering Economy, Armed Forces, Farming Communities (and the need for more Rain), Unity of the Church and Christian Pastors / Leaders, the Media, Indigenous People, and the Youth generation, as well as general stimulation to the business sector.

Pastor Danny Nalliah, President of Catch the Fire Ministries – an interdenominational Christian ministry, said he had specifically asked Mr Costello to bring a message to them on the day because he is ‘a man of integrity’.

“We wanted Peter to bring a special message to this gathering because he is a man of integrity who constantly demonstrates good moral values. He also is very genuine and loves his country. He’s a man who is willing to stand his ground for the truth. We’ve not seen him flip flop to please people, rather he is a man who stands for Australian values based on our Judeo Christian heritage,” Mr Nalliah said.

Most babies aborted for convenience

23/01 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Long-time concerns that people are placing personal convenience ahead of unborn life have been reinforced by a University of Melbourne study released this week which shows that bad timing is the most common reason for women to seek an abortion at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
The results of an analysis of 3018 women seeking abortions between October 2006 and September 2007 showed that 34 per cent of the women (1026) listed their primary reason for an abortion as “does not want children now” or “not the right time.”

Other reasons given include already having enough children (18 per cent), caring for a young baby (9 per cent) and being too young (11 per cent).

By contrast only 19 per cent of women said they were seeking an abortion for financial, relationship or medical reasons (a combined figure), and rape was the reason for only one per cent of cases. Please click here for more details.

These disturbing results again highlight the need for more to be done to reduce Australia’s horrific abortion rates and to promote the value of unborn life. They also point to the Victorian Government’s folly in last year making the State’s abortion laws even more lax.

Children in care doubles

23/01 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | The number of children placed in out-of-home care has more than doubled in the past decade from around 14,500 in 1998 to 31,166 in 2008 according to a report released on Wednesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. In the past year alone there has been a 10 per cent increase.

The report, Child Protection Australia 2007-08, showed that as at 30 June 2008, 48% of children in care were in foster care, 45% were in relative or kinship care, and just 5% were in residential care. Please click here for more details.

According to the report’s co-author, John Sant, factors such as low family income, parental substance abuse, mental health issues and family violence, are tending to lengthen the time children are spending in care. These distressing figures again reflect the need for society and governments to do more to support and strengthen families.

Plan to ban Qld adult shops near schools

05/01 SMH.com.au | Adult shops will be banned from opening within 200 metres of Queensland schools and churches under proposed new planning regulations.

The move follows Whitsunday Regional Council's difficulties trying to stop an adult shop opening opposite a Catholic school in April last year. There have been similar problems in Cairns and on the Gold Coast. At the same time, there has been a spike in the number of adult stores opening across the state.

The Adult Retailers Association of Queensland says the state has more outlets than any other jurisdiction in Australia, with the number doubling to 137 between 2002 and 2007. Acting Premier Paul Lucas said adult stores were legitimate businesses, but he understood why parents would not want one in their school environment. "Life is a balance, society is a balance, and this is not an unreasonable balance," he told reporters.

Centrelink recognises same-sex relationships from 1 July 2009

04/01 Centrelink website | The Australian Government passed wide-ranging reforms that recognise all couples, regardless of the sexual orientation gender of partners.

From 1 July 2009 changes to legislation will mean that customers who are in a same-sex de facto relationship will be recognised as partnered for Centrelink purposes. All customers who are assessed as being a member of a couple will have their rate of payment calculated in the same way.

SPAIN: ADULT STEM CELLS GROW WHOLE ORGAN

15/01 Endeavour Forum Jan /Feb 09 Newsletter | A 30-year-old Spanish woman has made medical history by becoming the first patient to receive a whole organ transplant grown using her own stem cells. Experts said the development opened a new era in surgery in which the repair of worn-out body parts would be carried out with personally customised replacements.
Claudia Castillo, who lives in Barcelona, underwent the operation to replace her windpipe after tuberculosis had left her with a collapsed lung and unable to breathe. The bioengineered organ was transplanted into her chest last June at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

Four months later she was able to climb two flights of stairs, go dancing and look after her children – activities that had been impossible before the surgery. Miss Castillo has also crossed a second medical frontier by becoming the first person to receive a whole organ transplant without the need for powerful immunosuppressant drugs.....

USA: Parents of Children with Down Syndrome to Unite at March for Life to Raise Awareness of Eugenic Abortion Epidemic

15/01 Kathleen Gilbert | The parents and families of children with Down Syndrome are preparing to gather at the March for Life in the U.S. Capitol on January 22 to spread awareness of the massive number of disabled children targeted for eugenic cleansing in the womb.

Eileen Haupt of Vermont and Leticia Velasquez of Connecticut have already gathered dozens of families of disabled children wishing to form a presence at the march. The initiative, known as KIDS (Keeping Infants with Down Syndrome) will commemorate the 9 out of 10 Downs children in the U.S. who are killed in the womb, as well as seek to address modern prejudices against the disabled. The group is open to all members of the disabled community.

Leticia Velasquez, a mother of three daughters whose 6-year-old has Down Syndrome, has a background in journalism and writes for several publications on disability issues.

Velasquez said that the simple fact that 90% of Downs children are aborted is shocking to most people, and should be better known. Furthermore, Velasquez said the decision to kill an unborn child with Downs is routinely based on antiquated information, as rapid progress has been made in improving the health and life expectancy of Downs sufferers.

While she had not experienced pressure to kill her Downs child, as she refused prenatal testing, Velasquez said she has heard the stories of several other women who, upon learning their unborn child has Down Syndrome, "receive the most terrible pronouncements from their doctor, everything from 'you're going get a divorce,' to 'you can't do this to your children,' to 'he'll ruin your life,' to 'he'll never learn, or read, or walk,' or you name it, they said the kid wasn't going to do it.

"And of course, they've all been wrong," she said.

Eileen Haupt was drawn into the pro-life movement after her daughter Sadie was born with Down Syndrome and she learned about the high incidence of aborting unborn babies with Down Syndrome. She is on the board of the Vermont Right to Life Committee and is the Alternate Delegate from Vermont to the board of the National Right to Life Committee.

Haupt told LSN that she wants to battle the prevailing idea that disabled children are a mere "burden."

"They are an absolute blessing. That's not to say there's not challenges that go with that," she said, noting that many believe "that somehow life (with a disabled child) is difficult and it's negative, and it's not at all - in my experience, it's been a positive experience."
Haupt said that 10-year-old Sadie, whom she boasted is beautiful and uniquely precocious despite her handicap, has "been a total blessing to me."


To join KIDS or for more information, CLICK HERE or contact:
Eileen Haupt
5 Old Pump Road
Jericho, VT 05465
(802) 899-4882

Source: LifeSiteNews.com

UK: Her mum would have loved her so much: Tearful words of man whose baby was born TWO DAYS after wife died

13/01 Daily Mail | Two days after Jayne Soliman was declared brain-dead, her grieving husband saw her life-support machine turned off.In a moment of unbelievable poignancy, he was then given their baby daughter to hold for the first time. Doctors had kept 41-year-old Mrs Soliman's heart beating after she suffered a brain haemorrhage. For 48 hours they pumped large doses of steroids into her body to help the baby's lungs develop. Then they delivered baby Aya Jayne by caesarean section. At 26 weeks, she weighed just 2lb 11/2oz.

The tiny infant was placed on her mother's shoulder for a moment before being handed to her father, Mahmoud Soliman.Aya - her name is a word from the Koran meaning miracle - is now doing well in hospital while 29-year-old Mr Soliman struggles to cope with the misery of suddenly losing his wife and the joy of becoming a father.

USA: Darwinists Attempting to Require Teaching Evolution-As-Fact in Texas Schools

15/01 American Family Association | Texas public school science standards are under attack from those who deny there are any weaknesses in Darwin's theory of evolution. This effort is spear-headed by one of the most liberal lobbying groups in Texas, who routinely promotes values antagonistic to yours in nearly every way you can imagine.

Texas' current science standards specify teaching both "strengths and weaknesses" of science theories and hypotheses, including evolution. It is part of the way scientists operate to critically examine issues in seeking truth. A small but vocal minority of committed Darwinists have removed this "strengths and weaknesses" language from the proposed revision to those time tested standards.

USA: Soup refuses to remain neutral, joins gay activists in the culture war

10/01 American Family Association | According to an article by Erik Sass in the Dec. 24 edition of the Media Daily News, Campbell's Soup will not be neutral in the culture war. The Media Daily News reports that Campbell's will continue to use its advertising dollars to support homosexual publications pushing the homosexual agenda and same-sex marriage. AFA had asked the company to remain neutral in the culture war.

The company sponsored two pages of ads in both the December 2008 and January 2009 issues of The Advocate, the nation’s largest homosexual magazine. The ads featured the company's Swanson line of broth.

The Media Daily News article said the soup company will continue to support the homosexual agenda: "A Campbell spokesman was quoted as saying, 'Our plans for the Swanson brand include additional placements in The Advocate'."

To show their commitment to same-sex marriage, Campbell's featured two "married" lesbians and their son in one of the ads.

PepsiCo gives $1,000,000 to help promote the gay agenda

06/01 American Family Association | In the last two years, Pepsi has given $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and $500,000 to the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). The $1,000,000 was to be used to help promote homosexuality in the workplace. Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion.

Both HRC and PFLAG supported efforts in California to defeat Proposition 8 which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. HRC, the homosexual group financially supported by Pepsi, gave $2.3 million to defeat Prop 8.

Pepsi forces all employees to attend sexual orientation and gender identity diversity training where they are taught to accept homosexuality.

Call for rights watch in Pacific

05/01 Jonathan Pearlman Foreign Affairs Correspondent | THE Pacific Islands should set up a regional human rights body to help reverse decades of poor governance and improve safeguards for women and children, a leading Pacific rights group has recommended.

In a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry, the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team says human rights violations in the region are "very rarely" reported. Individual states do not have the capacity to run their own human rights bodies and should band together to form a body that could monitor compliance and eventually investigate violations, it says.

For all human rights to advance significantly in the region there needs to be a regional body to access information and for individuals to access justice," the submission says.

USA: 'Never Again' - combatting a culture of death

04/01 One News Now | The Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide will be held in May in Landsdowne, Virginia. In the aftermath of the passage of an assisted suicide constitutional amendment in Washington State, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, says the meeting and discussion are especially important "to build a culture that rejects 'mercy killing.'"

"And the purpose of the symposium itself will be to bring together our leadership and other people who are interested in the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide and to forge a stronger and forceful direction as to why euthanasia and assisted suicide should remain illegal and why it is a direct threat to our most vulnerable in society," he notes.

According to Schadenberg, that includes the handicapped and the elderly. While top experts will be there, he says it is important for the everyday citizen to join with them as well.

Vatican says contraceptive pill pollutes

05/01 SMH.com.au | THE contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said on Saturday.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating. "We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers."

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