Sentinels Prayer Update: - PRAY For Our Leaders & What can happen in a year

31/01 | It's been two years since we took time out from producing our Sentinels Prayer Updates in order to develop Link-Zone into a companion resource that encourages prayer for our Nation and support for those positioned on our Frontlines.

As previously declared, "we believe that our God is a God of strategy who purposefully positions and prepares His people to meet every need." With the unrelenting bombardment of 'bad' news and prophecies of 'doom' that target us daily, it is important that we are able to separate ourselves from the world's frustrations, fears and anger. Sentinel's intent, therefore, is to focus on God's perspectives, by being aware of what is happening in our world without vacating the role of watchmen.

AUSTRALIA RIGHT TO MAKE OWN DECISION ON FOREIGN AID ABORTION POLICY

30/01 Senator Ron Boswell | “There has been no request from developing countries to fund abortions in their countries as confirmed by department officials at Senate estimates in 2008,” said The Nationals’ Senator Ron Boswell today.

“I welcome Minister Smith’s comments today that the Rudd government ‘would not be driven by the decision that President Obama has made’.”

“To start funding abortion in developing countries just because President Barack Obama has lifted the abortion ban on non-government organisations would be ludicrous,” said Senator Boswell. 

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

Australia urged to use aid dollars for life, not death

28/01 Australian Christian Lobby | At a time when soaring food prices and the economic downturn are driving millions more into poverty overseas, Australia should not be blindly following America’s lead by diverting precious aid dollars towards funding abortions, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the Parliamentary Group on Population & Development (PGPD) pushing to overturn Australia’s long-standing ban on using aid money for abortions are trying to impose the pro-abortion ideological stance of many of them on Australia’s aid program.

SA: Church schools can ban gay staff in South Australia

29/01 Greg Kelton, The Advertiser, SA | CHURCH schools will retain the right to refuse to employ gay teachers in South Australia under a watering-down of proposed anti-discrimination laws. Religious schools also will retain the right to prevent students, who belong to a non Christian  religion, from wearing the dress or adornments of that religion at school.

The new Bill, which replaces a controversial 2006 Bill, gives employers a loophole under which they can refuse to employ people wearing religious dress, such as burkas, by allowing them to set "reasonable" standards of workplace dress.

Proposed legislation to make the changes is set down for debate when Parliament resumes on Tuesday.

Freedom of Religion - Making Your Submission

27/01 Saltshakers | We know many of you have been working on a submission to the Australia Human Rights Commission’s Inquiry called ‘Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st Century’.
 
Submissions close on 31st January – so it is now TIME to get your submission/letter done and sent off!

Please use your OWN words and order!

Important links:

The Inquiry website – click here
The Discussion Paper – click here.   pdf is 5 MB; Word version is 180 KB
For more information and DIRECT links, click here for the Saltshaker Campaign page.

Tell pollies not to follow Obama on abortion

27/01 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Barak Obama’s move to lift America’s ban on overseas aid being used to fund abortion in poor countries has put enormous pressure on the Rudd Government to follow suit.

With Parliament resuming next week, this pressure is set to intensify. It is vital we e-mail our politicians this week and urge them to use our foreign aid money to protect women and their babies, not to have them aborted.

Some pro-abortion politicians argue that funding for abortion is needed to reduce maternal deaths. However, trained midwives, blood stocks and a clean birthing environment are far more effective in preventing maternal death than providing abortions. In fact, a $2 birthing kit can cut maternal deaths in the third world by up to two thirds.

NATIONAL: Courage, Resilience and Compassion"We are all in this together"
Address at Australia Day Citizenship Ceremony Regatta Point, Canberra

26/01 | Distinguished Australians one and all. And I begin by acknowledging the First Australians on whose land we meet and whose cultures we celebrate as the oldest continuing cultures in human history. Reflect on that fact for a moment on this our national day. That we are privileged to have among us these cultures who link this nation with deepest antiquity, unique across the world, unique across the world, in the dance, in the music, in the beautiful paintings we find etched in the caves of the Kimberley and beyond. Paintings more ancient than those we read about in our history books, in ancient Spain and ancient France. Indeed the deepest reach to our deepest past. And we are so privileged as a people and as a nation to share this continent with these great cultures.

On this Australia Day, what are the values that have shaped this vast land into the great nation that it has become? I believe there are three – courage, resilience and compassion. Courage, knowing the dangers that lie ahead on the road, but defying those dangers and taking the decision to proceed. Resilience, when the road becomes hard and the comforts scarce, staying the course until the journey’s end. Compassion, when we extend an outstretched hand to those who fall by the road, who stumble or who are injured, and to help see them through as seeing them through is seeing all of us through. Mateship, a fair go, a fair go for all.

UK: Cranmer Blog - There are Occasions when Turning the Other Cheek is Sheer Folly

25/01 Cranmer Blog - "Examining Religio Political Agendas with Politico Religious Objectives | ...to hear that he [Lord Ahmad] has threatened jihad on the House of Lords if their lordships should fail to meet his demands only serves to intensify Cranmer’s loathing of the man.

It appears that a member of the House of Lords had invited the Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, to a private meeting in the Palace of Westminster. She had intended to invite her colleagues in the Lords to a private viewing of his ‘documentary’ Fitna, followed by discussion and debate in true parliamentary fashion. This is, after all, a liberal democracy, and their lordships enjoy the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of association, not to mention certain parliamentary privileges for the protection of their function in the legislature.

But no sooner had the unsuspecting baroness sent out her invitations, Lord Ahmed raised hell. It is reported that he ‘threatened to mobilise 10,000 Muslims to prevent Mr Wilders from entering the House and threatened to take the colleague who was organising the event to court’.

It is a sorry state of affairs indeed that a parliament whose liberties have been forged through centuries of religious intolerance should succumb to the threats of one intolerant Muslim. Lord Ahmed is manifesting a notion of Divine Right, and one suspects it is precisely the sort of defence of Islam that Prince Charles shall make when he is sworn ‘Defender of Faith’. The blasphemy laws are being re-forged to protect one god, one faith and one prophet; they no longer defend YHWH, Christianity, Jesus Christ or the Church of England. Lord Ahmed is not functioning as a Labour peer; he is the self-appointed khalifa of all things Islamic. He is not concerned to protect freedom of expression or freedom of speech, but to stifle debate and ensure that Parliament submits to the Dar Al-Islam. ..... If Lord Ahmed had threatened Cranmer with ’10,000 Muslims to prevent Mr Wilders from entering the House’, His Grace would have assured his Lordship of 100,000 people of all faiths and none to prevent the Muslims from preventing Mr Wilders from entering the House.

There are occasions when turning the other cheek is sheer folly.

Freedom From Religion

25/01 Bill Muehlenberg |The inquiry being conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC – formerly the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) actually has been around a while. An earlier inquiry took place in the late 1990s. HREOC released a report in 1998 called “Article 18: Freedom of Religion and Belief” which made a number of recommendations.

The conservative years of the Howard Government saw the report languish, but with a new Labor government, the Commission has been reinvigorated to keep pushing its agenda. And although its current working document, “Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st Century” may appear somewhat benign, it is potentially a very real threat to religion in general and Christianity in particular.

Inquiry's loaded but without aim

24/01 Angela Shanahan, The Australian | Most Australians seem to be getting along pretty well in freedom of religion - or from religion - with a variety of beliefs that span the spectrum from deep and meaningful, full of tradition and philosophy and demanding practice, to Mystic Medusa. Everything would seem quite satisfactory in the religious freedom department, although a lot of us might think that religion itself could fare better. We live in a country where anyone can believe anything and can publicly demonstrate it: from having World Youth Day and wearing crosses, or a yarmulke or even a black veil and gauze over your eyes, unlike the citizens of the great proto-revolutionary French republic. Of course we don't need this inquiry, so why we are having it?

To answer that I had a look at the commission's template for submissions with its series of questions. There are sets of questions about the place of religious leaders in public debate, about religious bodies in public as part of the fabric and administration of social services and whole lot on cultural sensitivities and (surprise, surprise) "gender inclusivity" and "sexual diversities".

There is also a lengthy series on legislation and the Constitution's section 116. That section says: "The commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the commonwealth".

Here is a sample of those questions with my responses. Q. Is this section of the Constitution an adequate protection of freedom of religion and belief? A. Absolutely. It has worked well for more than 100 years. Q. How should the Australian Government protect freedom of religion and belief? A. By acting in accord with Section 116 of the constitution and not fraudulently extending its reach into relations between religions or their internal matters. And this beauty: Q. When considering the separation of religion and state, are there any issues that presently concern you? A. I am concerned by attempts by bodies such as the HRC to insert themselves into the religious sphere in violation of the clear intent of Section 116 of the Constitution.

So it goes until we get to the clincher: Q. Would a legislated national charter of rights add to these freedoms of religion and belief? A. No. It would be an unwarranted and dangerous interference into our liberties.

So basically this new foray by our human rights watchdogs is designed not to protect religious freedom but to provide some phony evidence that we need a charter of rights that could just as easily have the effect of restraining and limiting our present religious freedom

NO OVERSEAS DEMAND FOR AUSAID ABORTION PLAN

Archived - June 2008, QLD Senator Ron Boswell | "Department officials confirmed in Estimates today that Australia has not been approached by overseas countries to fund abortion related activities," said The Nationals' Senator Ron Boswell today.

"I asked whether overseas countries had come to us and asked us for help in funding abortion services. The Department responded that they were not aware of any particular requests to fund abortion related activities."

"Why is the Rudd government even considering funding abortion in its overseas aid programs when Australia has never done so in the past and has not been approached by other countries to do so?"

READ ALSO: Australian Christian Lobby Media Release - "Push to divert aid funding for abortions driven by a ‘home-grown’ ideological agenda" -

Motherless children next on homosexual agenda

23/01 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Homosexuals would be able to acquire babies under scenarios canvassed in a discussion paper examining the harmonisation of Australia’s surrogate parenting laws.

Released this week by the Standing Committee of Attorneys General, or SCAG as it is known, the paper seems to take its lead from legislation rushed through the Victorian Parliament late last year giving lesbians access to IVF and homosexual men access to surrogacy arrangements.

The Victorian legislation and now the SCAG discussion paper are the latest in a long march towards the radical redefinition of family and the denial of the fundamental rights of children.

One of the few politicians to comment on the SCAG proposal, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell, said he supported consistent surrogacy laws but said the best home environment for children was with a mother and a father.

"…My view remains that children are best brought up in heterosexual households.” Click here to read more.

The deadline for submissions is April 16. Please click here to view the discussion paper and please write a short submission defending the right of children to be given every chance to have both a mum and dad in life.

It is wrong that the lifestyle aspirations of some adults means that babies should be deliberately brought in to living arrangements where they are fatherless or motherless.

Laws passed in NSW last year allow lesbians with children to lie on birth certificates by denying a child’s paternity.

Freedom of Religion - time to act!

23/01 Saltshakers Newsletter | A national Inquiry is currently being held on the topic of ‘Religion’.
When the topic is actually Freedom of religion and belief in the 21st century’ we should all take sit up and take note, because this affects every one of us – because in essence this could well be called ‘Freedom FROM belief’!

The Inquiry and national consultation is being held by the federal Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) – formerly the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC).
 
AHRC has published a 16 page Discussion Paper and is asking for SUBMISSIONS – letters, comment, etc.
It is VITAL that we ALL respond – submissions close on 31 January 2009.

Click here to read the two short articles Saltshakers published in our November and December 2008 journals.

Part 1 outlines the background and the overall objective.

Some key points:

• HREOC conducted an Inquiry in 1998 called Article 18: Freedom of religion and belief. It investigated Australia’s ‘obligations’ under the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• The Report proposed the establishment of a ‘Religious Freedom Act’. The Howard government opposed the idea.
• The Inquiry is being run in “partnership” with Monash University, RMIT and the Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF). That means Gary Bouma from Monash (who acted as an expert witness for the Islamic Council in the Catch the Fire vilification case), Des Cahill (RMIT) and Hass Dellal (a  Muslim who runs the AMF).

These three men wrote the book Religion, Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding Australia for an Immigration Department project in 2004. It proposed a rotating roster of prayers in federal Parliament, a national interfaith ‘sacred space’ and a Multifaith Council. A separate book proposed the establishment of local Interfaith Networks…
[Click here for our website page that has links and comment on those publications. ]

Part 2 outlines the main focus of the Inquiry and the ‘questions’…

The major objective is to produce a report which will give “recommendations for promoting freedom of religion and belief (including secular belief) in Australia”. The Discussion Paper lists seven areas for consideration - each of these includes a number of questions.
 
What sort of questions?

To show you what AHRC and the researchers are really focusing on, let me list a few questions:

* How are federal and state and territory governments managing incitement to religious hatred, and the question of control and responsibility?

* Would a legislated national Charter of Rights add to these freedoms of religion and belief?

* Is there religious radicalism and political extremism in Australia? If so, what are the risks to Australia?

* How is diverse sexuality perceived within faith communities?

* Do you consider environmental concern to be an influence shaping spiritualities and value systems?

* Are there religious groups, practices and beliefs that you think are of concern to Australians? 

WHAT do these matters have to do with ‘religious freedom’?

Caving in to Islamists

Jan 09 Janet Albrectsen, The Australian | "CAN this be right? Last month I wondered aloud whether 2009 would differ from previous years and see a reinvigoration of the West's commitment to free speech. Instead, with January not yet over, another assault on freedom of expression has arrived portending yet another year of stifled speech.

Last Wednesday, a Dutch court ordered the prosecution of far right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims in his film, Fitna. The three-judge appeals panel said: "The instigation of hatred in a democratic society constitutes such a serious matter (that it is necessary) to draw a clear boundary in the public debate."

In response to many public complaints against Wilders, the court rejected the original view of Dutch prosecutors who, back in June, said: "That comments are hurtful and offensive for a large number of Muslims does not mean that they are punishable. Freedom of expression fulfils an essential role in public debate in a democratic society. That means that offensive comments can be made in a political debate."

It's too bad that the judges on the appeals court felt pressured to order a prosecution. In so doing, they exposed the West's feeble commitment to free speech. This is not about supporting the views of Wilders, who in his short film, likens the Koran to Mein Kampf, caricatures the prophet Mohammed and includes footage of Muslim acts of violence and hatred. However, it would be remiss not to point out that Wilders damns Muslims using their own actions, showing, to take just one example, Muslim demonstrators wielding "God Bless Hitler" placards. That aside, a significant distinguishing feature between Muslim countries and the West has been our belief in freedom of expression. . . .".

Motherless children next on homosexual agenda

23/01 Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter | Homosexuals would be able to acquire babies under scenarios canvassed in a discussion paper examining the harmonisation of Australia’s surrogate parenting laws.

Released this week by the Standing Committee of Attorneys General, or SCAG as it is known, the paper seems to take its lead from legislation rushed through the Victorian Parliament late last year giving lesbians access to IVF and homosexual men access to surrogacy arrangements.

The Victorian legislation and now the SCAG discussion paper are the latest in a long march towards the radical redefinition of family and the denial of the fundamental rights of children.

One of the few politicians to comment on the SCAG proposal, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell, said he supported consistent surrogacy laws but said the best home environment for children was with a mother and a father.

"…My view remains that children are best brought up in heterosexual households.” Click here to read more.

The deadline for submissions is April 16. Please click here to view the discussion paper and please write a short submission defending the right of children to be given every chance to have both a mum and dad in life.

It is wrong that the lifestyle aspirations of some adults means that babies should be deliberately brought in to living arrangements where they are fatherless or motherless.

Laws passed in NSW last year allow lesbians with children to lie on birth certificates by denying a child’s paternity.

What is Wrong with a Bill of Rights

02/01 Bill Muehlenberg | The question is, do we need such a Charter or Bill of Rights (BoR)? We believe the answer is no. Here are ten reasons why.

One. We already have all major rights fully protected in Australia. The right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on are already carefully protected rights. Australia has, through common law, various institutions and customs, and the three arms of government, a wide variety of rights already securely in place. The burden of proof must lie with those seeking change to show that major rights violations are taking place.

DO YOU VALUE YOUR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?

05/01 Dr. David Phillips, National President | I bring you warm greetings in the new year of 2009, with all its challenges and opportunities! One of the first challenges we face is a threat to our religious freedom.

Some of you may remember the two pastors - Daniel Scot and Danny Nalliah - who faced years of trauma before a Victorian tribunal because in 2002 they conducted a Christian seminar in a Christian church, on Islam. It took over five years for the complaint by the Islamic Council of Victoria to be settled - after more than a million dollars had been spent in costs on both sides.

We owe much to the two pastors' courage and perseverance - but Victoria's religious vilification law is still on the statute books. Moreover a new religious freedom project by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC, previously the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission - HREOC) could lead to a *national law against religious vilification*.

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.

Nothing Right about a Bill of Wrongs

30/12 Bill Muehlenberg | ...A number of social and political commentators have weighed into the debate. Here I offer the thoughts of four recent writers who have expressed concern about such a Charter. Piers Akerman asks why we need to even consider this: “Cynics might say that this distraction should keep the chattering classes too busy to notice rising levels of unemployment or the growing list of broken election promises beginning with computers for every student and the restoration of the Murray-Darling river system, but that would be a disservice to the True Believers. To them, the lack of a national bill of rights is sufficient argument in itself to call for a document to be immediately prepared and foisted on the long-suffering public, not withstanding the reality that Australia’s extraordinary record of stable government and outstanding level of public civility, despite the appalling behaviour routinely displayed in the state, territory and federal parliaments.”