During the course of last week’s meeting in Morwell, and indeed at other stops along my road-trip, people have shared my concern about the way we continue to redefine words to suit a broader perspective, to be more inclusive, or even to be politically correct. The impact of this is subtle, but by redefining our words, we are actually redefining our culture. ‘Mental illness’ is now the latest casualty.
Confucius once wrote: When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom. This has been a key campaign slogan…. and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see how this is playing out in society today.
The word family is being squeezed into a new shape, the word rainbowhas taken on new meaning, the Judeo-Christian heritage is out andAbrahamic faiths are in. (Interesting concept – was Abraham a man of many faiths?)
More recently, the definition of racism has been expanded to include gender and religion; something most can see has nothing to do with race at all. And while embryologists, who study life and should know, refer to the ‘continuum of life’ it is politically expedient to redefine life as something that occurs after birth.
With this redefining comes a loss of freedom. Freely reaching our own conclusions about these social issues has been removed from families and relegated as a matter for the state. The state is increasingly dictating morality. We are no longer free to reach conclusions about family even when affirmed by natural law; this is considered a narrow view of family. We are no longer free to voice views suggesting that rainbow families promoting same-sex parenting may not in reality offer the promise presented by this very loaded positive imagery. We no longer are free to enjoy an inalienable right to life – this is only for those already born. We are not free to dispute the theological origins of this notion of Abrahamic faiths; this would be vilifying to another religion. Historicity must bow to ideology.
And now we have mental illness being redefined in the same way as the word racism. It’s been broadened of course to be more inclusive. Just asracism will now catch all those considered to be homophobes and Islamophobes in the net, consequently increasing litigation and shutting down free speech by branding more concerned Australians as racist, the outcomes expected by this new definition of mental illness are just as disturbing.
According to Age journalist Amy Coorderoy this broader definition may mean more people receiving unnecessary labeling and unnecessary treatment, (Autism increased 2,000 per cent simply by changes to its definition); it may also mean more costs for employers facing workers compensation claims for ‘mental stress’, therefore less risk-taking by employers and more legal challenges. “The net result for employers will be more money and higher costs”. [1]Great.
Employers will not have the same freedom to employ, they will rather be ruled by fear of future workers claims.
We should all be concerned about mental health and we should all be concerned about families and life itself. But it seems to me that the most likely outcome of this social engineering by redefining words will be more people more tightly bound in a net only offering less freedom and greater costs. How will this really assist mental health, and more importantly, what is it doing to us as a society?
Australian Christians’ federal policies include calls for greater freedom and less tax, and support for real cultural tolerance of a reciprocal nature. This Australian desire for a level playing field, or a ‘fair go,’ may make it hard for some to understand the Aussie ire raised over the Qantas decision to provide only halal, or sharia compliant, food, on their Dubai flights. In the name of tolerance and diversity, it’s now halal for everyone. But you don’t have to travel to Dubai to miss out on bacon bits. Although KFC advertises bacon burgers, you may be disappointed if you travel to Melbourne’s Fawkner branch, where once again it’s halal only for everyone.
Qantas reports this news has resulted in their facebook page being bombarded with ‘racist and religiously offensive’ comments. Yet few really understand why halal certification is offensive to so many. The Baw Baw Shire Council may be about to find out. Their noble efforts to assist economic growth in the region have led to a full-scale council promotion of extending local halal (Islamically permissible) markets. So what is fueling this apparent intolerance to accepting halal for everyone?
Halal slaughter requires male Muslim only slaughtermen, who must face Mecca while the Islamic creed is recited over the animal during slaughter. Of course Mecca is a ‘halal’ city where non-Muslims are not permitted at all and many people feel this is not the direction Australia should therefore be facing.
The Baw Baw Council has included a beginner’s guide to halal on their website, produced by Bahrain-based AMJ Projects. It tells us Muslims are ‘obliged to follow sharia law’ and that halal products are compulsory for Muslims. Having rate-payers fund Islamic obligations to follow sharia law through local government is a genuine concern. Additionally, the legitimacy of this statement may be disputed theologically. Quran 5:5 permits Muslims to eat the food of Christians and Jews.
Most Australians do believe in a ‘fair go’ and don’t have a problem with Muslims accessing halal food for themselves. However, many do have a problem with halal being compulsory for everyone else. This is where the Kosher system differs, as it is ‘user-pays’. Jewish people pay a premium for their special diet. But with everything from meat to glucaid, medicine, honey and make-up now halal, the cost of halal certification acts as a religious tax imposed on all Australians. Vegemite is halal and Kraft is not offering a non-halal option for die-hard lovers of vegemite.
The removal of choice is one reason some are angry, but there are others. One little known fact is that there was no halal certification as such for 1300 years. This new innovation of the Muslim Brotherhood, together with the promotion of sharia finance to ensure the whole business of funding, production and distribution is ‘halal’, has become a global market estimated to be upwards of $1.2 trillion. The Muslim Brotherhood promoted the halal industry as a ‘financial jihad’ against the West. Some Australians may find that offensive.
Statements from various Islamic leaders confirming this are not helpful.
The Grand Mufti of Bosnia Herzegovina declared at a world halal conference in Karachi in 2010 that the halal industry was all about dominating the world economy. You may ask, what’s wrong with a western democracy supporting the ascension of political, economic, social, and religious Islam? Some find this difficult to express and hence the anger on the Qantas facebook page and possibility of the same for the Baw Baw council.
Australian Christians believes that many Australians feel ‘sold out’ by Australia’s compliance to sharia laws. Some see a ‘halal only’ KFC in Australia as a mini Mecca where non-Muslims are not catered for and not welcome. Including bacon and halal products on the menu would represent real tolerance rather than a complete sellout.
Many non-Muslim refugees who have come to Australia following persecution as minorities in Muslim majority countries are watching with disbelief as we promote sharia laws as ethical and opportune, and insist in our schools on appreciation of Islam; appreciation being another dictate of sharia compliance.
The concept of halal is much bigger than vegemite. There is genocide in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan by people who want a ‘halal’ or sharia compliant state and reports by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom state that ‘in our lifetime…Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt’, thus creating this reality there.
We have to take more seriously whether local, state and federal governments should be promoting the expansion of Islamic markets. When we see lands laundered of non-halal people; sharia finance laundering to cleanse money from defilement by contact with non-halal organizations; food laundered from defilement by non-halal products or people; we should be seeing a bigger picture rather than pulling the ‘racism’ card on frustrated Australians. By Australian standards, sharia laws that legally discriminate against non-Muslims and women are racist; opposing them should not be. It should be a democratic and responsible option.
There are 17 certification bodies like the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) in Australia which all add costs, effectively a religious tax, for delivery of halal certified goods to consumers. There are capital costs and ongoing costs; the aligning of killing floors in slaughterhouses to face Mecca; there are costs in adding prayer rooms on site, the cost of certification itself and the ongoing cost of regular inspections. One new halal certification label can cost up to $10K. But the real cost in social terms may be much greater.
This week Victorian Senate candidate Vickie Janson, with husband Michael and son Nathan, hosted an evening for Rev Muhammed Ibrahim from Nigeria. Rev Muhammad’s title and name represent who he is; a Muslim background believer in Jesus Christ.
The reverend has a passion for assisting Muslims who like him have changed their beliefs about who Christ is and his Nigerian based ministry is called Passion for Converts.
In Australia, changing your beliefs is no big deal at all. No one is generally concerned when a family member starts attending a church or mixing in a new crowd of people. But as Rev Muhammad pointed out, this is not so in Muslim majority areas such as northern Nigeria. Despite Nigeria being 60% Christian, the majority residing in the south, there are still serious consequences for those who flee the north for refuge in the mainly Christian south as a consequence of changing their beliefs. i.e. If this change is away from Islam, there appears to be no objection for moving the other way!
Rev Muhammad noted how institutional the discrimination is with people who reject Islam suddenly losing their job for some minor issue and how re-employment anywhere becomes very problematic. He noted that this was because Muslims have the monopoly on strategic government positions, even in the south. He also noted the rejection and persecution by family members for this change of mind, and the lack of support afforded those who have lost it all. His passion is to assist in the support and skilling of Christians from Muslim backgrounds so that they are not forced to abandon their newly held convictions for these pragmatic reasons. Freedom of choice becomes limited when some choices result in a great many handicaps. This ministry aims to meet both spiritual and physical needs by providing spiritual support to deal with the challenges faced, and practical work skills and opportunities in order that converting is not an automatic entry into poverty.
If you would like to make a donation to this ministry to establish Muslim background believers in Christ so that they can work and co-exist peacefully with their Muslim neighbours in Nigeria and promote a new culture of freedom of belief you can contribute to his ministry here:
ANZ Bank Muhammed Ibrahim 014 271 208305532
Rev Muhammed concluded by saying ‘it’s the same Islam here as in Nigeria’. Given that, he encouraged those in attendance to stand firm for freedom of belief in the public arena because freedom to choose Christ is so dramatically undermined by political Islam.
Local Victorian author Anne Lastman has written a highly recommended book on the topic of abortion.
Anne Lastman is also the founder of Victims of Abortion.
Click on” More than two victims ”
to view the book’s flyer.
Many taxpayers may be as shocked as I was this morning to read in The Australian that ‘tens of millions of dollars’ is effectively wasted on teacher training that in some states leaves up to 90% unable to find a job. One wonders why we continue to train teachers when there is such an oversupply, except of course in maths and science, where shortages still exist. This move away from teaching ‘absolutes’ is not surprising but perhaps we should be asking if raising the qualifications of the unemployed in areas where they is little hope of employment is a responsible use of taxpayers money and students time.
The Australian reports that:
Federal and state governments spend at least $16,000 a year to train a teacher, or about $64,000 over the course of a four-year education degree.
Universities receive about $9500 per student per year from the federal government for every student enrolled in teaching, and can charge up to $5500 per student per year in HECS fees.
In addition, the federal government pays universities about $800 per student every year to help meet the costs of organising practical training.
Full article here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.
There appears to be a pattern of qualified unemployed citizens in Australia and simultaneously a shortage of ‘skilled workers’ in particular industries. Perhaps the move from hard to soft sciences has something to do with this, but whatever the trend, it is high time the left and right hands in Australia had a real discussion in order to put an end to all the waste and lead young students into false hope of employment in their chosen field.
0411 298 464
vickiej@australianchristians.
PO Box 99, Sandown Village
Victoria 3171
Conservative thinkers are much better at managing the economy.
… families, communities and nations are built on sacrifice not the prevalent ‘rights mentality’…
by: Maurice Newman, From: The Australian March 25, 2013 12:00AM
Here is Maurice Newman’s opinion piece from the Australian:
• by: KEVIN DONNELLY
• From: The Australian
• March 16, 2013 12:00AM
MOST of the debate about Julia Gillard’s national crusade in education centres on school funding and how the government intends to respond to the report chaired by Sydney businessman David Gonski.
The existing model expires at the end of the year and the government is scrambling to decide on an alternative by the April meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.
Just as important as funding is the government’s national curriculum, especially the history syllabus, that is being forced on our schools.
In a speech delivered earlier this year commemorating the life of Paul Hasluck, John Howard criticised the history curriculum for ignoring the fact that “Australia is part of Western civilisation; in the process it further marginalises the historic influence of the Judeo-Christian ethic in shaping Australian society and virtually purges British history from any meaningful role”.
The day after Howard’s speech, the Prime Minister’s appointee to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority mounted the barricades rejecting the claim of bias. Chairman Barry McGaw argues that the new history curriculum “does not prejudice our Western and Judeo-Christian heritage. Their influences on Australian culture and our legal and political systems are clearly dealt with”. He is incorrect. On reading the curriculum, it is obvious those responsible are hostile towards the institutions, beliefs and grand narrative associated with Western civilisation that make this nation unique.
While Australia’s culture and society have evolved over the years, our language, way of life and political and legal institutions have been inherited primarily from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
It’s also the case that European migrants constitute a significant influence on the Australian character, and given that the proposed curriculum fails to give students a solid grounding in the art, music, science, culture and history of Europe, they will leave school educationally impoverished.
The fact that the only perspectives through which every subject, including history, must be taught are indigenous, Asian and environmental reveals an ideological slant.
At every year level and with the overwhelming number of topics and areas of study, teachers must incorporate “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures”. The same cannot be said for Australia’s Western, Judeo-Christian heritage and tradition.
Add the fact that students must be taught “intercultural understanding”, with its focus on diversity and difference, and are told to value their own cultures and the cultures, languages and beliefs of others, and it’s clear that the underlying philosophy is cultural relativism.
When uniquely Australian celebrations and events are mentioned, they are treated as simply one among many. Anzac Day appears alongside NAIDOC week, Ramadan and Buddha Day.
At Year 3, important celebrations like Christmas Day and Bastille Day are listed, but again, these uniquely European events are given the same significance as cultural-left favourites such as Harmony Day, National Reconciliation Week and National Sorry Day.
Christianity is mentioned a couple of times but its significance is diminished by treating it as one religion among many, alongside Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam.
After an earlier draft was criticised for not mentioning the Magna Carta, there is now mention of that seminal document as well as the Westminster system of government and concepts such as the separation of powers.
The urge to congratulate those responsible for the addition disappears, though, on reading the suggested topics students are asked to study, including denying citizenship to indigenous Australians, the Stolen Generations, discrimination against women, assimilation policies, mandatory detention and abuse of children in “orphanages, homes and other institutions”.
Further evidence of the cultural Left’s stranglehold on the curriculum is at Year 10, under the heading “rights and freedoms since 1918″, where the usual politically correct favourites are listed, including women’s movements, the civil rights movement in the US and the fight for indigenous rights in Australia.
Absent, notwithstanding the imperative to include an Asian perspective, is any mention of the millions killed under totalitarian communist regimes at the hands of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh.
In its treatment of political movements, while capitalism, socialism, nationalism, imperialism, Darwinism and Chartism are listed, ignored are classical liberalism and conservatism.
The curriculum’s other major flaw is that much of what should be compulsory is voluntary.
At Year 7, students must choose between studying ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome. At Year 9, students only need to study one of the following: the Ottoman Empire, Renaissance Italy, the Vikings or medieval Europe.
The fact that students can experience 10 years of compulsory schooling without encountering Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, works of art such as the Sistine Chapel or major movements in Renaissance science, medicine and political philosophy will leave them culturally adrift.
The overwhelming sense one is left with is that those responsible champion the worst aspects of what currently passes as an education. Everything must be taught through a PC prism: it’s wrong to discriminate and make judgments of relative worth (except in relation to gender, ethnicity, class, multiculturalism and the environment) and learning must be inquiry-based and centred on the world of the child.
Ignored is that a pluralist society can only survive and prosper if its citizens have been taught those values, concepts, ideas and body of knowledge on which respect for and acceptance of diversity and difference are based.
What the US Declaration of Independence describes as the unalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” do not arise spontaneously, by accident or in a cultural vacuum.
The fundamental tenets of freedom and democracy that we take for granted are grounded in the history of Western civilisation and the debt owed to Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Such should be the basis of any worthwhile history curriculum.
Kevin Donnelly is the director of the Education Standards Institute.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/history-curriculum-sacrifices-western-values-at-the-altar-of-political-correctness/story-fn59nlz9-1226598315957
Competition Winner: Australian Christians and Inner Faith Travel have great pleasure in announcing the winner of the fabulous prize of a $10,000 trip to Israel.
Margaret C from Liverpool in N.S.W. was selected by at random from our list of over 2,500 entrants.
Margaret will be receiving her prize at an award ceremony in a couple of weeks. We will post some photos of the occasion on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/AustralianChristians
If you didn’t win this time but would still like to travel to Israel, check out the fantastic trips available through Inner Faith Travel at http://ift.net.au/
The attached mp3 file is a recording of Vickie Janson’s radio interview on 2CH Sunday night 10th March 2013.
Click here to listen
As we celebrate Labour day in Western Australia, this document (transcript below) outlining working conditions at A.M.P. in 1852, reminds us how much things have progressed in 160 years.
WORKING CONDITIONS WHEN A.M.P. WAS 3 YEARS OLD
The following is a copy of office Rules issued by a Sydney Firm
(not A.M.P.) in the Year 1852.
M……….……………. & S…………………………..
Merchants and Ships Chandlers
Sydney Town 1852
Rules for Clerical Staff
1.
- Godliness, Cleanliness and punctuality are the necessities of a good business.
2.
- On the recommendation of the Governor of this Colony, this firm has reduced the hours of work, and the Clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on week days. The Sabbath is for Worship, but should any Man-of-War or other vessel require victualling, the clerical staff will work on the Sabbath.
3.
- Daily prayers will be held each morning in the Main 0ffice. The clerical Staff will be present.
4. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colours, nor will they wear hose, unless in good repair.
5. Overshoes and top-coats may not be worn in the office, but Neck scarves and Headwear may be worn in inclement weather.
6. A Stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be-kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the Clerical Staff bring 4 pounds of coal each day during cold weather
7.
- No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission of Mr. Ryder, The calls of nature ere permitted and the Clerical Staff may use the garden below the second gate. This area must be kept in good order.
8.
- No talking is allowed during business hours.
9.
- The craving for tobacco, wines and spirits is a human weakness and as such is forbidden to all numbers of Clerical staff
10.
- Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food. is allowed between 11 .30 a.m. and noon, but work will not on any account cease.
11.
- Members of the ‘Clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to Mr. Ryder.
12.
- Mr. Ryder will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the Main Office and the private Office, and all boys and Juniors will report to him 40 minutes before Prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. Brushes, Brooms, Scubbers and Soap are provided by the Owners.
13.
- The newly increased Weekly Wages are as hereunder detailed
Junior Boy (to 11 years ) 1/4
Boys ( to 14 years ) 2/1
Juniors 4/8
Junior Clerks 8/7
Clerks 10/9
Senior Clerks (after 15
years with the Owners) 21/-
The owners hereby recognise the generosity of the new labour laws, but will expect a great rise in ouput to compensate for these near-utopian conditions
