to THE AGE
Both the current Spanish crisis (‘Civil war wounds reopened as sides fire up over Catalonia’, 16/10) and ongoing controversy over the events in Australia in 1975 (‘Did Britain have a role in Dismissal?’) are similar in that, behind argumentation about constitutional matters, two different and mutually hostile visions of the political order are embattled.
Historian Jenny Hocking appears to be conducting her research in order to fire up anti-British and pro-republic sentiment. Both in 1936 and today Catalonian separatism has been used to try to move Spain away from Christian monarchy towards secular and atheistic republicanism. This is accompanied by misrepresentation (‘Franco’s Falange’): Franco was a Catholic patriot, not a fascist, and successfully kept both the Falange and Hitler at arm’s length after the 1939 Nationalist victory. He bequeathed to Spain the present unifying monarchy.
History shows that we have much more to fear of an Australian republic going communist than of our present Christian monarchy going fascist.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
to THE AGE
Anna Krien is illogical in her claim that in their ‘no’ campaign the churches ‘should shut right up about the protection of children’ (‘Churches’ marriage-vote hypocrisy’, 18/10). The fact that a minority of church people have been guilty of child abuse does not mean that other church people have no ‘moral high ground’ from which to comment on the ways in which marriage, as currently defined, protects children. Nor can either group be equated with ‘the churches’.
Krien’s blanket assertions that the Safe Schools programme is ‘far from radical’ and is not linked to ‘marriage equality’ do not constitute a convincing answer to the detailed arguments and evidence that the ‘no’ advocates have placed on the public record.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
to THE AGE
It is good that Jill Murphy, a ‘yes’ voter in the postal survey on marriage, can accept, if grudgingly, that a ‘no’ vote ‘is not solely a product of homophobia’ (12/10). However, she neither tells us her ‘no’ friend’s arguments nor tries to rebut them. Instead, she trots out all the old chestnuts about how outrageous the survey is, that it enshrines ‘prejudices’, that it causes unnecessary suffering to gay people, that gays wanting to marry concerns no-one else and that ‘no’ voters are often motivated by fear.
More alarmingly, she seems clearly to believe that the community’s decisions on who is to have what rights must accord with her own simplistic views about ‘equality’ and ‘love’. She also ignores entirely the major arguments of ‘no’ advocates. So, yes, ‘our identities are bound up with our beliefs’, but it is possible to free ourselves from error by using reasoning to approach truth.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
We knew it, it was only a matter of time. The globalists elites do not take defeats lightly:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/the-brexit-crowd-are-right-to-smell-a-rat/
It will take so long to transition out of the EU, that by that time there will be more than enough “migrants” to ensure a new vote, and put those Brits right back in their place. Remember, Britain, like Australia and the United States, is on schedule to serve the elites by becoming non-white majority real soon:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3613682/RIP-Britain-academic-objectivity-Oxford-Professor-DAVID-COLEMAN-one-country-s-population-experts-says-white-Britons-minority-late-2060s-sooner-current-immigration-trends-continue.html
Time to take to the streets in protest, Britain, while you still can!
to THE AGE
Christ was not a ‘revolutionary’ (5/10) but a spiritual teacher calling those interested to seek ‘the kingdom of heaven’, a kingdom ‘not of this world’. He did not approve of the sins of sinners, whether they were ‘the unpopular groups’ in society or members of the establishment. He has left no record of how he would vote in the current postal survey; but one feels he would not have succumbed to simplistic slogans or have lacked compassion for those with whom he disagreed.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
to THE AUSTRALIAN
The political crisis in Spain involving the secessionist Catalonian campaign reminds us how fortunate we are to live in a firmly united nation, far removed from the possibility of civil war. Or do we?
Various campaigns from left-wing idealists threaten our own stability and security: ‘same-sex marriage’ and a general assault against the church; ‘constitutional recognition’ of our so-called ‘first peoples’; an open doors approach to refugees and immigration; a politicized education system that deliberately muffles the voices of traditional wisdom; the erosion of free speech; anti-American fanaticism, and so on.
Other Australians must not just sit by and let it all happen. Edmund Burke’s famous warning must be heeded: that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
By the time you read this, the results will be known, but they are likely to be negative. Catalan has conducted a “banned” referendum about independence from Spain, and the Spanish government has responded as any despot would do, seizing over 2.5 million ballots, as the Madrid Deep State uses the police to squash the referendum:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4934218/Tractors-roll-Barcelona-ahead-independence-vote.html
The High Court, surprise, surprise, ruled that the referendum was illegal, even though this essentially begs the question about the “legality” of such a decision, and legal body itself. As well, the court ordered Google to delete an app which Catalan separatists were using to publicise the referendum. There’s free speech for you!
John Howard is doing a little to redeem his disgraceful time as prime minister in his No campaign. The latest is a full-page ad in The Weekend Australian, September 30-october 1, 2017, p. 10, which gives a good summary of the threats of a successful Yes vote. Most shocking for democracy, Labor and the Greens will not accept a successful No vote. There are no protections clearly forthcoming on religious freedom, and Howard mentions the disgraceful cases involving section 18 C, of the Racial Discrimination Act, as not engendering much confidence. What a pity he did not do anything about this when he was on watch, but like Abbott, bowed to the ethnic/multicult lobby.
He notes, following the Safe Schools controversies, that education activists are “ready to introduce classroom material regarding gender issues unacceptable to the mainstream of Australian parents.”
John, this is already occurring and we have not seen anything yet, if they get the Yes vote up.
American football has embraced political correctness big time, with bended knee protests against Trump, and the White people who keep this stupid multiracial sport afloat. For example:
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/09/26/gregg-popovich-white-people-need-to-be-made-uncomfortable/
http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/09/26/sports-illustrated-reveals-new-cover-athletes-united-against-president-trump/
“There has to be an uncomfortable element in the discourse for anything to change,” Popovich explained. “Whether it’s the LGBT movement, women’s suffrage, race, it doesn’t matter. People have to be made to feel uncomfortable, and especially white people because we’re comfortable. We still have no clue of what being born white means.”
to SUNDAY AGE
Kit Carson is surely right (‘Say “yes” to a better Australia’, 1/10) to observe that the postal survey debate has morphed into a culture struggle between an ‘Old Australia’ and a proposed ‘New Australia’. Where he is grievously wrong is in supposing that the ‘progressive Australia’ he favours is an improvement on the old.
A ‘no’ victory will assist conservatives and non-authoritarian liberals to defend a traditional Australia based on sacred revelation and metaphysical understanding, a nation in which key values are truth, freedom, honour, quality, hierarchy and equity.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
People, especially girls and women, need to learn to say “NO”! If people in the West had learnt to say No then we may not have some of the crises which we now face.
The same sex marriage campaign Yes side, has sent out unsolicited text massages for the Yes side. The messages were sent using a “technology platform,” used by political parties. Obviously enough, all the usual suspects have defended this invasion of privacy. In fact, the electoral use could be in violation of the Privacy Act as well, and it would be good for lawyers to get onto this and see if the law can be used against them.
We have been pounding away in these pages about the undermining of the value of free speech in the West. In case readers think that all this this is some personal quirk, I introduced “The Australian” test; if you can find the same sort of argument, no doubt more mildly put, in that globalist newspaper, then you know that we are onto something.
So, on free speech consider Jennifer Oriel, “Political Correctness is Closing Australian Minds,” The Australian, September 25, 2017, p. 12:
to THE AGE
Peter Hartcher is right that the legal definition of marriage ‘has not stood since time immemorial’ (‘An Australian tradition we need to remember’, 23/9), but what has remained constant is the nature of marriage itself. Although it is not true of every individual person, in general human beings are monogamous, and rightly so, because that is the best and safest way for children to be successfully raised to maturity. That is what the churches and their biblical doctrine are defending.
Australia does not have a ‘proud progressive tradition’ in this context. The increased number of divorces and separations, leaving children without one or both parents in the family home, that has occurred in recent years is not progress but retrogression, resulting partly from foolish legislation. Let’s not compound the error.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
Letter to The Editor - Tony Abbott is right to warn that if people fear them, they should vote ‘no’.
to THE AUSTRALIAN
Peter van Onselen produces a few furphies himself in his defence of a ‘yes’ decision for the postal survey (‘”No” side offers a masterclass in debating techniques’, 23-24/9). First of all, slippery slopes really do exist. The ‘no’ lobby has produced convincing evidence that an apparently innocuous change to the law could lead to several undesirable results, including compulsory application of ‘radical and gender programs in schools’ and serious attacks on the free speech of traditionalists.
Secondly, while a comparison of children of same-sex couples to ‘the Stolen Generations’ may be excessive, that does not dispel the argument that children do significantly better with their own biological parents in a firm marriage.
Thirdly, a ‘yes’ victory may not mean that every ‘yes’ voter endorsed political correctness or Safe Schools, but it will certainly strengthen those trends; so Tony Abbott is right to warn that if people fear them, they should vote ‘no’.
Finally, same-sex marriage isn’t just about alleged ‘equal rights and freedom’, it’s about giving to one small minority at the expense of other persons, especially children.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic
How I miss Bex tablets, taking a Bex with a cup of tea, then a nap really helped with psycho-political neurosis. What a pity that they were highly addictive and caused kidney disease. And, now we have the brain ache of the same sex plebby, and the endless debate and conflict that goes with it.
Good to see that some of the points made earlier in this debate by some of us are getting presented by others, not that they have been influenced in any way by us. The rational mind reaches the same conclusion.
For example, the threat that same sex marriage would have on parent’s rights to their children’s education, has now been put in an advertisement, telling us, that based on the Canadian experience, a Yes vote will lead to the celebration of homosexuality in schools: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/christian-kids-will-be-forced-to-celebrate-homosexuality/news-story/f812b86f5d7fe25b9568c5ae8d235231
I have followed the media response to Dick Smith’s strategy dealing with immigration, which was to launch an attack on the growth economy. It has received almost no sympathetic response in the MSM: The Weekend Australian, September 16-17, 2017, p. 22. This is to be expected, since the MSM is pro-growth to the core.
It has not been a wise use of money by Dick. The growth mad pro-immigration lobby accept none of his assumptions. They think that the more migrants that are brought in the more jobs are created. No matter about IT displacing jobs, migrants have so much magic that they can solve every problem.
John Howard has been copping it from the chattering class for saying that the same sex marriage debate encompasses issues of religious freedom: The Australian, September 19, 2017, p. 4.
It is hard to see how the issue does not, since the issue has already angered multicultural Australia, with Chinese Christian churches fearing that same sex marriage would open their children up to radical gender theory in schools, as well as ringing in legalised polygamy: as above. Religious leaders now say that once same sex marriage is legalised it will become illegal to preach that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. After all, it will not be.
At the base level, Christianity is under threat. It is an illusion to think that there can be some protection for religious freedoms when the entire point of this movement is to deconstruct the past. The debate brings out all the issues of centrism, identity politics and political correctness that have been with us since, well, when Adam met Eve, I mean, Steve.
Are you out door knocking on this issue? If you are old, use your phone. If not, and it gets in, don’t complain. I will not listen to you.
The issue of White Christians becoming a minority in America, Britain and Australia, among other places in the West, screams out for analysis. How did this happen? Basically, because of two trends. First, mass immigration of non-White people, who are predominantly non-Christian, and more significantly, a trend of secularisation, brought about by increasing materialism, affluence and leisure:
https://www.amren.com/news/2017/09/end-white-christian-america-will-mean/
This is all problems, problems, problems, for our worldview. The displacement of Christianity, which provide the metaphysical foundation for Western civilisation, would have been beyond comprehension for most traditionalists, in the 1960s, yet it has happened. Likewise would be the creation of White minorities through mass immigration of non-Whites.
“It will be unlawful to vilify, intimidate or threaten to harm a person either because of views they hold on the survey or in relation to their religious conviction, sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status,” a government spokesman said.
“That will be a sunset provision, it will only last for the period of the postal plebiscite.”
The protections are similar to those already enacted in various state jurisdictions around Australia but do not currently exist at a Commonwealth level.
The laws, to be rushed through both chambers of Parliament by Thursday night, will apply to “conduct” during the campaign, which could include advertising, leaflet materials or behaviour.
