Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Friday 14 June 2019
Parents with LGBTIQ children call on Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison "to do as he promised which was to govern for all of the people which surely must include the LGBTIQ people"
Media
Release
10th
June, 2019
Religious
Freedom is not an issue - Religious Privilege is a huge concern
After
Marriage Equality was achieved, the right wing of the Government decided
Christian rights were at risk. A Religious Review was held due to concerns
about the rights of Christians.
Mr
Ruddock, a conservative and Att. General who was the architect of rewording the
“marriage act” to read as “man and woman” to exclude same sex couples, was the
Chairperson.
Eventually,
after much delay the Review showed there was very little concern for
Christians.
However,
the government’s paranoia about LGBTIQ people is a great concern to LGBTIQ
people and their loved ones.
Because:
Welfare
groups, aged care and hospitals are predominantly run by Religious bodies
Teachers
working at Christian schools may be retrenched and students expelled
Businesses
owned by Christian individuals or organisations
May
all be given the right to refuse service or care, just because their clients,
customers or staff involved are LGBTIQ.
Additionally,
there is the concern of the promotion of hate speech. Christians may not believe
their words are harmful, or may not care but the impact of what is said or
written can be devastating for the LGBTIQ person and their loved ones. Again
any freedom, including freedom of speech should never be used as a tool for
abuse.
The
ratio of Christians suffering poor mental health or suicide from hate speech is
minimal. However, the negative impact of hate speech, homophobia and transphobia
against LGBTIQ people is extremely high.
So,
as National Spokesperson for parents with LGBTIQ children, I am calling on Mr
Morrison and his team to do as he promised which was to govern for all of the
people which surely must include the LGBTIQ people. They pay taxes, contribute
to society and vote.
Labels:
children,
free speech,
hate speech,
human rights,
LGBTIQ,
religion
Saturday 18 May 2019
Tweet of the Week
Labels:
Australian society,
religion
Saturday 27 April 2019
Quotes of the Week
“The ABC's Vote Compass has
been harvesting the opinions of Australians for three elections now……The vast
majority of respondents — 78 per cent — think that the decision to remove
Malcolm Turnbull in August last year was the wrong call. That conclusion is
drawn from 153,354 responses to Vote Compass between April 10 and April 16……Among One Nation voters, 59 per
cent approved of Mr Turnbull's removal, while 41 per cent disapproved. ” [Journalist
Annabelle Crabb writing for ABC News
online, 19 Aptil 2019]
“Pentecostalism is
in fact the perfect faith for a conviction politician without convictions.” [Writer & historian James Boyce writing in The
Monthly, Februart 2019]
Labels:
elections 2019,
libspill,
religion
Saturday 9 March 2019
Quote of the Week
"They were openly saying that they would cooperate, but I think you
could almost say that the way that they classed their cooperation would be
similar to a protester lying on the ground in the middle of the street not
resisting the police, but the police would have to pick that person up and drag
them off the street. I think that that's the level of cooperation that the
Catholic Church gave us." [Former Detective Sergeant Doug Smith, speaking of Victoria Police
Taskforce SANO's investigation into Cardinal George Pell, quoted in ABC News
online, 4 March 2019]
Friday 1 March 2019
What will it take to shame religious institutions into joining the national redress scheme for people who suffered institutional child sexual abuse?
Readers living in the Clarence Valley will notice that the Anglican Diocese of Grafton named as perpetrating abuse* by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has not yet joined the national compensation scheme which would allow victims who suffered at the hands of the diocese to seek full redress.
Readers further afield will notice that a large number of Protestant and Catholic institutions are dragging their feet with regard to this redress scheme.
Institutions That Are Not Yet Participating in the Redress Scheme For People Who Have Experienced Instituti... by clarencegirl on Scribd
https://www.scribd.com/document/400681740/Institutions-That-Are-Not-Yet-Participating-in-the-Redress-Scheme-For-People-Who-Have-Experienced-Institutional-Child-Sexual-Abuse
* This is the same Anglican Diocese of Grafton which Clarence Valley Council openly supports by inviting it to offer up a prayer of its choice at the beginning of council monthly meetings.
Labels:
child sexual abuse,
compensation,
religion,
royal commission
Monday 17 December 2018
Proposed Religious Discrimination Act looks a lot like PM Scott Morrison appealing to his 'base' ahead of the May 2019 federal election
On 13 December 2018 Australia's 'interim' Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook, Scott Morrison, announced that his government intended to protect religious freedom in Australia and to protect the rights of Australians to be themselves by way of a new piece of legislation titled the Religious Discrimination Act.
Not a line of this legislation appears to have been put down on paper to date even though it is apparently expected to come before the Australian Parliament in the seven days or so it will sit before the May 2019 federal election.
One would have thought that religious freedom and diversity of faith was thriving in Australia given over 127 different formal manifestations of religious faith/spirituality exist in its cities, towns and villages without ongoing overt community discord or institutionalised discrimination.
Even former Liberal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock concedes the Religious Freedom Review he led found little evidence that discrimination is occurring in Australia. That lack of hard evidence at population levels mean that government cannot reliably assert that religious discrimination as a form of harm is an existing problem requiring the 'solutions' it is proposing - such as Prime Minister Morrison's idea of a religious freedom commissioner to handle religious discrimination complaints, even though it was not recommended by the review.
As religious faith holds no interest or importance for up to 15 million of the est. 24.6 million Australians alive today, I'm sure a good many voters are wondering what the fuss is all about and why Morrison is intent on protecting against nebulous future enemies which do not yet exist and whose probability appears to exist in his mind and nowhere else.
After all, the Australian Constitution bars the creation of a state religion as well as barring laws prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, organised religions receive tax exempt status, education in faith-based primary & high schools is funded by the federal government and, discrimination in employment or occupation on the basis of religion is already unlawful under federal legislation.
One has to suspect that the real intention of this new Religious Discrimination Act is to justify and codify discrimination by organised religions against individuals and groups in the wider secular society.
BACKGROUND
According to
the Australian Community Survey (ACS)
2016:
*61% of Australians
say religious faith/spirituality plays no part/little part in their decision
making;
*21% don’t
believe there is any God/spirit/life force;
*a further
14% used to believe in God but don’t anymore;
*38% never
pray or meditate;
*47% never
attend a religious service; and
* only 18 % of
Australians regularly attend religious services.
Labels:
human rights,
religion,
right wing politics
Monday 15 October 2018
Australian Politics 2018: Liberal and Nationals hard right agenda revealed
It appears the rigid hard-right core of the Liberal and National parties, whose face for public consumption is Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thought that Australian voters would find it acceptable that the only people that religious institutions of any denomination would not be able to discriminate against will be heterosexual individuals and those born with absent or ambiguous secondary sexual characteristics.
Everyone else would apparently be fair game for every rabid bigot across the land.
Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender citizens and their children are not to be afforded the full protection of human rights and anti-discrimination law in this New World Order.
It doesn't get any clearer than the main thrust of the twenty recommendations set out below.
However, now the cat is out of the bag Morrison is backtracking slightly. Just hours after arguing schools should be run consistent with their religious principles and that no existing exemption should be repealed, Scott Morrison told Sky News that he was "not comfortable" with private schools expelling gay students on the basis of their sexuality.
Rejecting new enrolment applications by gay students was something he was careful not to directly address.
It should be noted that "not comfortable' leaves a lot of wiggle room to look the other way as state and federal legislation is either amended or new Commonwealth legislation created which would allow this blatant discrimination to lawfully occur.
Recommendations
found in the Religious
Freedom Review: Report of the Expert Panel:
Recommendation 1
Those jurisdictions that
retain exceptions or exemptions in their anti-discrimination laws for religious
bodies with respect to race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status should
review them, having regard to community expectations.
Recommendation 2
Commonwealth, state and
territory governments should have regard to the Siracusa
Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights when drafting laws that would limit
the right to freedom of religion.
Recommendation 3
Commonwealth, state and
territory governments should consider the use of objects, purposes or other
interpretive clauses in anti-discrimination legislation to reflect the equal
status in international law of all human rights, including freedom of religion.
Recommendation 4
The Commonwealth should
amend section 11 of the Charities Act 2013 to clarify that advocacy of a
‘traditional’ view of marriage would not, of itself, amount to a ‘disqualifying
purpose’.
Recommendation 5
The Commonwealth should
amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to provide that religious schools can
discriminate in relation to the employment of staff, and the engagement of
contractors, on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship
status provided that:
The
discrimination is founded in the precepts of the religion.
The
school has a publicly available policy outlining its position in relation to
the matter and explaining how the policy will be enforced.
The
school provides a copy of the policy in writing to employees and contractors
and prospective employees and contractors.
Recommendation 6
Jurisdictions should
abolish any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that provide for
discrimination by religious schools in employment on the basis of race,
disability, pregnancy or intersex status. Further, jurisdictions should ensure
that any exceptions for religious schools do not permit discrimination against
an existing employee solely on the basis that the employee has entered into a
marriage.
Recommendation 7
The Commonwealth should
amend the Sex Discrimination Act to provide that religious schools may
discriminate in relation to students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender
identity or relationship status provided that:
The
discrimination is founded in the precepts of the religion.
The
school has a publicly available policy outlining its position in relation to
the matter.
The
school provides a copy of the policy in writing to prospective students and
their parents at the time of enrolment and to existing students and their
parents at any time the policy is updated.
The
school has regard to the best interests of the child as the primary
consideration in its conduct.
Recommendation 8
Jurisdictions should
abolish any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that provide for
discrimination by religious schools with respect to students on the basis of
race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status.
Recommendation 9
State and territory
education departments should maintain clear policies as to when and how a
parent or guardian may request that a child be removed from a class that
contains instruction on religious or moral matters and ensure that these
policies are applied consistently. These policies should:
Include
a requirement to provide sufficient, relevant information about such classes to
enable parents or guardians to consider whether their content may be
inconsistent with the parents’ or guardians’ religious beliefs
Give
due consideration to the rights of the child, including to receive information
about sexual health, and their progressive capacity to make decisions for
themselves.
Recommendation 10
The Commonwealth
Attorney-General should consider the guidance material on the Attorney-General’s
Department’s website relating to authorised celebrants to ensure that it uses
plain English to explain clearly and precisely the operation of the Marriage
Act 1961. The updated guidance should include:
A
clear description of the religious protections available to different classes
of authorised celebrants, and
Advice
that the term ‘minister of religion’ is used to cover authorised celebrants
from religious bodies which would not ordinarily use the term ‘minister’,
including non-Christian religions.
Recommendation 11
The Commonwealth
Attorney-General should consider whether the Code of Practice set out in
Schedule 2 of the Marriage Regulations 2017 is appropriately adapted to the
needs of smaller and emerging religious bodies.
Recommendation 12
The Commonwealth should
progress legislative amendments to make it clear that religious schools are not
required to make available their facilities, or to provide goods or services,
for any marriage, provided that the refusal:
Conforms
to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of the religion of the body
Is
necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of
that religion.
Recommendation 13
Those jurisdictions that
have not abolished statutory or common law offences of blasphemy should do so.
Recommendation 14
References to blasphemy
in the Shipping Registration Regulations 1981, and in state and territory
primary and secondary legislation, should be repealed or replaced with terms
applicable not only to religion.
Recommendation 15
The Commonwealth should
amend the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, or enact a Religious Discrimination
Act, to render it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s
‘religious belief or activity’, including on the basis that a person does not
hold any religious belief. In doing so, consideration should be given to
providing for appropriate exceptions and exemptions, including for religious
bodies, religious schools and charities.
Recommendation 16
New South Wales and
South Australia should amend their anti-discrimination laws to render it
unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s ‘religious belief or
activity’ including on the basis that a person does not hold any religious
belief. In doing so, consideration should be given to providing for the appropriate
exceptions and exemptions, including for religious bodies, religious schools
and charities.
Recommendation 17
The Commonwealth should
commission the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative
information on the experience of freedom of religion in Australia at the
community level, including:
Incidents
of physical violence, including threats of violence, linked to a person’s faith
Harassment,
intimidation or verbal abuse directed at those of faith
Forms
of discrimination based on religion and suffered by those of faith
Unreasonable
restrictions on the ability of people to express, manifest or change their
faith
Restrictions
on the ability of people to educate their children in a manner consistent with
their faith
The
experience of freedom of religion impacting on other human rights
The
extent to which religious diversity (as distinct from cultural diversity)
is accepted and promoted in Australian society
is accepted and promoted in Australian society
Recommendation 18
The Commonwealth should
support the development of a religious engagement and public education program
about human rights and religion in Australia, the importance of the right to
freedom of religion and belief, and the current protections for religious
freedom in Australian and international law. As a first step, the panel recommends
that the Attorney-General should ask the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human
Rights to inquire into and report on how best to enhance engagement, education
and awareness about these issues.
Recommendation 19
The Australian Human
Rights Commission should take a leading role in the protection of freedom of
religion, including through enhancing engagement, understanding and dialogue.
This should occur within the existing commissioner model and not necessarily through
the creation of a new position.
Recommendation 20
The Prime Minister and
the Commonwealth Attorney-General should take leadership of the issues
identified in this report with respect to the Commonwealth, and work with the
states and territories to ensure its implementation. While the panel hopes it
would not be necessary, consideration should be given to further Commonwealth
legislative solutions if required.
Because Scott Morrison made no secret of his dislike of same-sex marriage and his intention to make new laws protecting so-called religious 'freedoms'. he is now going to have a fight on his hands every single day until the next federal election - these recommendations have made that a certainty.
Thursday 11 October 2018
Religious Freedom Review Report: a curate's egg in the hands of an Australian prime minister who doesn't understand the definition of secular or why there is a separation between Church and State
"Australia
is not a secular country — it is a free country. This is a nation
where you have the freedom to follow any belief system you choose.” [Scott Morrison,
2007]
“Secular
[adj] of or pertaining to the world or things not religious, sacred or
spiritual; temporal, worldly.” [Patrick Hanks & Simeon Potter, Encyclopedic World Dictionary, 1971]
On 22
November 2017 then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the
appointment of an Expert Panel to examine whether Australian law adequately
protects the human right to freedom of religion.
The Panel’s Religious
Freedom Review Report was delivered on 18 May 2018, accompanied by a statement
that the report was now in the hands of the Prime Minister any government
response was a matter for him.
The
prime minister of the day is now the Liberal MP for Cook - a nakedly ambitious man
who uses his public profession of Christian Pentecostal faith as a political tool.
Until this
week the national electorate had no idea what the report might contain. It remained a closely guarded secret.
Which leads
one to wonder if the leak which came Fairfax Media’s way is in fact Morrison
preparing voters for what at best is highly likely to be proposed legislation which
attempts to extend the exemptions religious institutions enjoy when it come to obeying human rights and
anti-discrimination law and at worst an attempt to insert church into the heart of
state.
Religious schools would
be guaranteed the right to turn away gay students and teachers under changes to
federal anti-discrimination laws recommended by the government’s long-awaited
review into religious freedom.
However the report, which
is still being debated by cabinet despite being handed to the Coalition four
months ago, dismisses the notion religious freedom in Australia is in “imminent
peril”, and warns against any radical push to let businesses refuse goods and
services such as a wedding cake for a gay couple.
The review was
commissioned in the wake of last year’s same-sex marriage victory to appease
conservative MPs who feared the change would restrict people’s ability to
practise their religion freely.
The contents of the
report - seen by Fairfax Media - are unlikely to placate conservatives and
religious leaders, and will trigger concern within the LGBTI community about
the treatment of gay students and teachers.
The report calls for the
federal Sex Discrimination Act to be amended to allow religious schools to
discriminate against students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender
identity or relationship status - something some but not all states already
allow.
“There is a wide variety
of religious schools in Australia and ... to some school communities,
cultivating an environment and ethos which conforms to their religious beliefs
is of paramount importance,” the report noted.
“To the extent that this
can be done in the context of appropriate safeguards for the rights and mental
health of the child, the panel accepts their right to select, or preference,
students who uphold the religious convictions of that school community.”
Any change to the law
should only apply to new enrolments, the report said. The school would have to
have a publicly available policy outlining its position, and should regard the
best interests of the child as the “primary consideration of its conduct”.
The panel also agreed
that faith-based schools should have some discretion to discriminate in the
hiring of teachers on the basis of religious belief, sexual orientation, gender
identity or relationship status…..
The panel did not accept
that businesses should be allowed to refuse services on religious grounds,
warning this would “unnecessarily encroach on other human rights” and “may
cause significant harm to vulnerable groups”.
The review also found
civil celebrants should not be entitled to refuse to conduct same-sex wedding
ceremonies if they became celebrants after it was was legalised.
The review does not
recommend any changes to the Marriage Act. Nor does it recommend a dedicated
Religious Freedom Act - championed by several major Christian churches - which
would have enshrined religious organisations’ exemptions from
anti-discrimination laws.
“Specifically protecting
freedom of religion would be out of step with the treatment of other rights,”
the report found.
However it did recommend
the government amend the Racial Discrimination Act or create a new Religious
Discrimination Act, which would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of
a person’s religious belief or lack thereof.
The panel said it had
heard a broad range of concerns about people’s ability to “manifest their faith
publicly without suffering discrimination”.
This included wearing
religious symbols and dress at school or work, communicating views based on
religious understandings, obtaining goods and services and engaging in public
life without fear of discrimination.
The report also
recommends federal legislation “to make it clear” that religious schools cannot
be forced to lease their facilities for a same-sex marriage, as long as the
refusal is made in the name of religious doctrine.
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison last month told
Fairfax Media new religious freedom laws were needed to safeguard
personal liberty in a changing society.
“Just because things
haven’t been a problem in the past doesn’t mean they won’t be a problem in the
future,” he said.
While the panel accepted
the right of religious school to discriminate against students on the basis of
gender identity or sexual orientation, it could see no justification for a
school to discriminate on the basis of race, disability, pregnancy or intersex
status.
“Schools should be places of learning, not breeding grounds of
prejudice. This looks and feels like a vindictive attempt to punish LGBTI
people for achieving marriage equality." [just.equal spokesperson Rodney Croome, 2018]
As is usual for this prime minister, Morrison fronted the media with half-truths and misdirection about the Religious Freedom Review Report, implying that the contentious matters within the report were already uniformly codified in law across all the states.
This is far from the truth.
As is usual for this prime minister, Morrison fronted the media with half-truths and misdirection about the Religious Freedom Review Report, implying that the contentious matters within the report were already uniformly codified in law across all the states.
This is far from the truth.
Thursday 20 September 2018
Sometime Australian Prime Minister & MP for Cook, Scott Morrison, is the protector of religious freedom? Don't make me laugh
This was Australia’s
most recent Liberal prime minister quoted in The
Sydney Morning Herald on 17 September 2018:
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison will enact "preventative regulation and legislation" to
shield freedom of religion from future enemies, giving his strongest hints to
date about the government's intentions regarding "religious freedom"
laws.
What a load of
codswallop, manure, dung, heifers dust, cowpats, meadow cocktails – what ABSOLUTE BULLSH*T!
The Liberal Member
for Cook Scott Morrison already
knows that the Australian Constitution without qualification guarantees religious
freedom in this country at federal level:
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. [my yellow highlighting]
As the
Australian Constitution is the highest source in the land on this issue, one can only suspect that:
a) Scott
Morrison has never read the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (as
amended up to 1977); or
b) Scott Morrison is shamelessly pandering to his
far-right, ideologically blind & bigoted supporter base, in the hope of being re-elected in 2019.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
He
appears to forget that Australia has also ratified a number of UN resolutions which directly or indirectly protect religious freedom and these have been upheld by the courts.
While he ignores the fact that Tasmania has had a religious freedom provision written
into its state constitution since 1934 and Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia,
the Northern Territory as well as the ACT have passed legislation prohibiting
direct and indirect discrimination on the ground of religion. Only South Australia appears to have no legislation specifically covering religious freedom to date.
Morrison also
forgets that whatever legislation he forces through this parliament, or whatever
regulations he imposes, can all be undone in the first instance by subsequent federal parliaments and in the second instance by the minister of the day.
If he really
wants to genuinely strengthen existing religious freedoms he would call a
referendum to change the Australian Constitution.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
Thursday 13 September 2018
Australia has a prime minister who rejects realitiy and embraces idiocy
Scott Morrison with a coal specimen supplied by the Minerals Council of Australia ABC News, 9 February 2018 |
During an interview
with the ABC 7.30 program on 11
September 2018 Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison declared he is “troubled” by the politics of envy in
Australia and has “a very strong view” on what fairness means.
His version
of “fairness” is a redefinition far removed from the contents of any dictionary
wherein it is usually taken to mean impartial and just treatment or behaviour
without favouritism or discrimination.
His expresses
his version of fairness as “those that have a go get a go” or “a fair go for
those that have a go”– phrases that are inherently judgemental.
It seems that in Morrison's world only individuals who are already capable of helping themselves in some fashion will deserve
assistance from others.
Morrison
again refused to say why the parliamentary Liberal Party changed leaders and in the interview sought to divorce himself from both the spill process and outcome, as though he
wasn’t a participant in those rolling leadership ballots.
But what
caught the attention of a numbers of viewers was his response to two questions.
The first response contained Morrison's assertion that he had separated climate/ environment and energy policies and admissions that he was removing climate change targets from future energy policy and was giving no guarantee of future funding for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
The first response contained Morrison's assertion that he had separated climate/ environment and energy policies and admissions that he was removing climate change targets from future energy policy and was giving no guarantee of future funding for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
The second involved his belief that there was a need for additional legal protections of religious freedoms when none were being threatened.......The moment @ScottMorrisonMP condemned my great grandchildren to death. @abc730 #auspoll #climatechange pic.twitter.com/eKlhfEY7jc— Fr Rod Bower (@FrBower) September 11, 2018
For Scott Morrison the primary fear of a majority of the Australian population is less important that demonstrating his missionary zeal to institutional Christianity and his unwavering support to the fossil fuel industry.Sales: "Can you give me an example at the moment where people's religious freedoms are being impinged?"— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) September 11, 2018
Morrison: "That's not the point. Australians want to be sure that in the future those things won't be"
oh dear #abc730
Monday 10 September 2018
Under Morrison's prime ministership will church and state begin to regressively merge?
Liberal MP
for Cook, former Australian Immigration Minister and former Treasurer, Scott
John Morrison, is being marketed as Australia’s first Pentecostal prime
minister.
Right from
the start of his parliamentary career Morrison politicised his own faith and made
sure he identified as a Pentecostal ‘Christian’ in his First
Speech in the House of Representatives on 14 February 2008.
This month
the Pentecostal ministry returned the favour by commencing his re-election
campaign….
The
Guardian, 7
September 2018:
Pentecostal leaders have
warned their congregation that “darkness” will spread across Australia and
Christians will be persecuted if Scott Morrison
does not win the next election.
Others have been told
that Morrison’s rise to power was a “miracle of God” that answered three days
of prayer and fasting. They have been told that Morrison has made a public
stand for Christian freedoms, and has promised to keep doing so, so God intervened
to ensure he beat the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, in
the Liberal leadership spill.
Videos posted to YouTube
show how Pentecostal and evangelical religious communities are reacting to the
rise of Morrison as prime minister.
Last Sunday, pastor Adam
F Thompson from Voice of Fire Ministries and Adrian Beale from Everrest
Ministries told a congregation of Hope City Church that Morrison’s elevation to
power was divinely inspired.
Thompson, who says he
can interpret dreams and that supernatural signs and manifestations accompany
his ministry, said he’d received a message from God that Morrison and the
Coalition must win the election.
“The Lord woke me up at
4.30am this morning,” Thompson told the Hope City Church congregation on
Sunday, in a
video he asked to be recorded.
“Scott Morrison, he’s a born-again Christian,
he’s probably one of the first ever born-again prime ministers, but it’s not
time to celebrate at the moment.
“This is a crucial time
right now … In the next six months it’s time for the body of Christ [the
Christian church] to put its differences aside … and come together and agree
that Jesus is the Messiah and start praying together and calling it in and
praying for our prime minister right now, and for our government.
“I really see that the
body of Christ is going to have influence in the arena of – the political arena
of this nation.
“[But] if the prime
minister right now doesn’t get elected in this next election there’s going to
be darkness coming. And I’m not being negative. The laws are going to change
where darkness is going to come and there will be persecution on the church.”
Thompson asked the
congregation if they truly wanted a Pentecostal revival and reformation in
Australia.
“If it doesn’t happen in the next six months,
in the next year I should say, there is going to be, the laws are going to come
in, where they’re going to change and darkness will come,” Thompson said.
“The Lord is saying he
wants us to rise up and pray, rather than come into persecution where we’ll
have no choice.”
In the video, Beale from
Everrest Ministries then leads the congregation in prayer for Morrison, calling
on God to help Australians grasp the value of his intervention in the
leadership spill.
“Just as Scott has come to the fore, unexpected
Lord, you’ve kept him hidden for a time such as this,” Beale said.
“Lord, we pray that the
whole of the body of Christ in Australia would grasp the value of what you’ve
done, Lord, and get behind our new leader … and that the next election would be
won so that godly principles would be put into place, rather than the enemy
having his way.”
In a
different video posted to YouTube, Warwick Marsh from the Australian
Christian Values Institute has claimed three days of prayer and fasting had
been answered with two miracles.
“Firstly, on the 15th of
August, the Senate voted down the euthanasia in the territories proposal. No
one expected this. This was an absolute miracle,” Marsh says in the video,
which was posted last month.
“Secondly, on Friday the
24th, the Liberal party voted in a new prime minister, Scott
Morrison, after a week of political turmoil.
“Many people here in
Australia of faith believe this was a miracle of God, as Mr Morrison has a
strong faith in God and has made a stand for Christian freedoms and has
promised to do so in the future.
In apparent response Morrison has stated....
Pause for a moment and consider the ramifications for an Australian democratic secular society, when the far-right leader of a right wing federal government apparently believes that secular society has no greater claim to legitimacy than faith-based society and, that prayer not environmental or economic policy is an appropriate response to the effects of climate change.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Scott
Morrison was managing director of Tourism
Australia from 2004-2006 when he lost
his $350,000-a-year job after what insiders describe as a bitter falling-out
with the federal Tourism Minister and Liberal MP for McEwan, Fran Bailey.
Subsequently
he stood for parliament as a Liberal Party candidate and won the seat of Cook
in the 2007 federal election.
On the
election of the Abbott Government in 2013 he began his ministerial career:
Cabinet Minister from 18.9.2013
Minister for Immigration and Border
Protection from 18.9.13 to 23.12.14
Minister for Social Services from
23.12.14 to 21.9.15
Treasurer from 21.9.15 to 26.08.2018
Prime Minister from 24.8.2018.
As Minister
for Immigration and Border Protection Morrison had a reputation for refusing
information to parliament, mainstream media and the general public.
Eight asylum seekers in onshore/offshore detention died during his term as immigration minister - these deaths included three suicides (one by self immolation), one ruled a death in custody, one due to failure to receive adequate medical care whilst in offshore detention and another a murder of an asylum seeker by offshore detention security guards.
His well-known antipathy towards asylum seekers has been demonstrated by his actions and statements such as this in 2013:
Eight asylum seekers in onshore/offshore detention died during his term as immigration minister - these deaths included three suicides (one by self immolation), one ruled a death in custody, one due to failure to receive adequate medical care whilst in offshore detention and another a murder of an asylum seeker by offshore detention security guards.
His well-known antipathy towards asylum seekers has been demonstrated by his actions and statements such as this in 2013:
In 2015 and 2018 Scott Morrison took part in the removal of two Liberal prime ministers - Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. In the first instance by agreeing not to stand as deputy on Abbott's ticket and in the second instance by sending his own supporters to lobby for the second leadership spill and then successfully standing for the vacant prime ministership.
The first two Newspolls published after he was sworn in as Australia's 30th prime minister were unfavourable to the government he leads. The second was the Coalition Government's 40th consecutive unfavourable Newspoll with First Preference voting intentions running at Labor 42% to Coalition 34% and Second Preference voting at Labor 56% to Coalition 44%.
So unlike the prime minister he replaced, Morrison experienced no 'honeymoon period' after he came to office.
Due to the resignation of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on 31 August 2018 Scott Morrison currently leads a government without a majority in the House of Representatives.
The first two Newspolls published after he was sworn in as Australia's 30th prime minister were unfavourable to the government he leads. The second was the Coalition Government's 40th consecutive unfavourable Newspoll with First Preference voting intentions running at Labor 42% to Coalition 34% and Second Preference voting at Labor 56% to Coalition 44%.
So unlike the prime minister he replaced, Morrison experienced no 'honeymoon period' after he came to office.
Due to the resignation of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on 31 August 2018 Scott Morrison currently leads a government without a majority in the House of Representatives.
Morrison has not been generally viewed in a favourable light by the media nor by some who worked with him in the private sector.
The
New Daily, 25
August 2018:
Morrison attended Sydney
Boys’ High School through to Year 12. In March 2015, approximately 300 alumni
of the schools former students signed a letter protesting Mr Morrison’s
attendance at a fund-raising event. The letter accused Mr Morrison of having
“so flagrantly disregarded human rights”…..
Veteran Canberra
journalist Laurie Oakes once said on television that the government “should
avoid the goading and arrogance of Scott Morrison, where he just pours mullock
on journalists”. Oakes added that his attitude towards journalists was
disgusting. “When people like Scott Morrison give us the finger when we ask
tough questions, we’ve got to shine a light on that and expose it because it’s
not acceptable.”
To become Liberal
candidate for Cook in 2007, he lost the preselection ballot, 82 votes to 8, to
Michael Towke, a telecommunications engineer and the candidate of the Liberals’
right faction. However, allegations emerged that Towke had engaged in branch stacking and
embellished his resume.The Liberal Party’s state executive disendorsed Towke
and Morrison won the pre-selection. Later, the allegations against Towke were
disproved and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was successfully sued by
Towke.
When 48 people died in
the Christmas Island disaster of 2010, Morrison objected to the Gillard
Government offering to pay for families’ fares to the funerals in Sydney……
The BBC’s Nick Bryant
ungenerously wrote: “My hunch is that Scott Morrison doesn’t spend much time
agonising over the contradictions that have marked his career, or fretting
about the veering course of a political journey that has taken him from the
moderate wing of the party, to the right. The main point for him is that his
career has been heading in an ever-upward trajectory.”
The
Saturday Paper,
8 September 2018:
Twelve years ago,
Morrison was sacked from Tourism Australia – two years into his term as boss
there. The then Liberal minister for tourism, Fran Bailey, in 2006 said the
board could no longer work with him. He was “incapable of being a team player”
and faced a revolt from state and territory tourism executives.
An Australian National
Audit Office report released a scathing report into Tourism Australia’s
management of “perceived conflicts of interest” while Morrison was at the helm
and quoted industry observers who had “expressed the view that the perceived
conflicts of interests of board members are a major risk to Tourism Australia’s
reputation”.
Morrison’s reported
half-a-million dollar payout was questioned as excessive and not in accordance
with regulations according to then Remuneration Tribunal president John Conde.
Morrison’s ability to
listen to others was questioned during his time as treasurer. Sydney Liberal
John Alexander, who headed a group of parliamentary colleagues worried about
housing affordability, was incensed by Morrison’s dismissive attitude to him.
The task of holding his badly fractured government together will make
Morrison’s time at Tourism Australia seem like a walk in the park.
Karl Stefanovic put it
bluntly on the Nine Network: “You are the boss but you have little or no
control over the party … Your party is an absolute dog’s breakfast.” Amazingly,
Morrison said he was “not fussed” about all that. “We are focused on the job
ahead.” But in a giveaway that it’s getting to him, the PM leaked one of his
own pending announcements: that his five-year commitment to raise the pension
age to 70 was being ditched. Labor’s Jim Chalmers quipped the PM was getting in
first.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
3 November 2012:
In 1998, aged 30,
Morrison went to New Zealand to run that country's national Office of Tourism
and Sport, answering directly to the then tourism minister, Murray McCully. He
became known as "Murray's Rottweiler", so enthusiastically did he
throw himself into a battle between the minister and the national tourism
board. When the dust settled, the casualties included the board's chairman and
chief executive, as well as McCully himself. A Wellington newspaper reported
that in the ensuing inquiry, Morrison emerged as "a cross between Rasputin
and Crocodile Dundee".
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