Australian Christian Lobby
For years conservative church leaders have portrayed gay people as bewitching devils out to seduce innocent passers by into a life of sin. Rainbow-clad monsters. But the surprising events of the last week have shown that some of them care more about homosexuals than they do about men in general, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, or people with genes that predispose them to cancer.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has joined the Australian Christian Lobby’s Jim Wallace in voicing his concern about the health risks gay people face.
And so what if they’re bandying about an utterly flawed life expectancy statistic to back up their stance? At least they care (well, on the face of it they care about gay men anyway – lesbians didn’t get a look in).
Continue reading "Linking gays to smoking shows how much they care" »
Dear Mr Jim Wallace, head of the Australian Christian Lobby,
I think I know why so many gay men commit suicide.
Maybe part of the problem is it’s both deeply embarrassing and hard to articulate what it’s like to be the victim of homophobic abuse to someone who has never experienced it. According to the Suicide Prevention Australia, 200 gay teenagers commit suicide each year, that’s about one in every two days.
Continue reading "“Death by a thousand cuts” - A letter about homophobia" »
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John Taylor says:
Actually they are not like the Taliban. You can negotiate with the Taliban and the Taliban have sympathisers. Read more »
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xar says:
so glad you are here with us to share your story Luke, the bullies of this world, adult and child alike, need to be told their hate isn’t ok, their actions and words are not ok. We are not fooled by Jim’s attempts to justify his homophobia as “concern for… Read more »
Did anyone seriously predict that Australia’s first female, unmarried, atheist, living-in-sin prime minister would end up being the religious right’s best friend?
Yesterday, the Australian Christian Lobby announced that the keynote speaker at its national conference in October would be our very own Julia Gillard. The announcement came on the same day that anti-gay activists converged on the lawns of Parliament House for their annual National Marriage Day, which saw politicians from both major parties sharing a stage with some of the most notorious anti-gay fringe dwellers going around.
This raises a few questions. What responsibility should politicians assume when they choose to associate themselves with quite extreme religious groups? Where do they draw the line?
Continue reading "Gillard, another PM who sucks up to the religious right" »
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Nullagravida says:
“Where do they draw the line?” This week, after Wallace’s more-inane-than-usual claim that homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking, the PM has cancelled her speech. You can rest easy now. Read more »
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Face of Boe's Granny says:
I want the right to vote on marriage equality via a referendum. It’s not fair to have a handful of senators ( clowns by any definition in all parties) decide this historic bill. And genuine marriage equality must embrace all interests together, immediately, not just gays. Like middle-aged men who… Read more »
You can say what you like about their brew, but you know things have reached boiling point when our two biggest mass-produced coffee chains go to war over something other than jumbo caramel low fat lattes.
Gloria Jean’s Coffee, which has 460 Australian stores in its portfolio, is in a bit of hot water over a $30,000 donation it made to the Australian Christian Lobby, which is fighting an increasingly bitter fight against the possibility of legalising gay marriage.
Sniffing the aroma, its competitor Starbucks just posted this on its Facebook site:
Starbucks Australia would like to publicly announce our proud support of Marriage Equality for all.
Continue reading "Standard or double shot of ideology with that?" »
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Hazel says:
What does God say? He says: “For a man to lie with a man is an abomination.” Doesn’t anyone care about the spread of AIDS, Hepatitis, cancer and the rest of sexually transmitted diseases? Read more »
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Bec says:
Boycotting Gloria Jeans - who is being discriminatory now? Don’t they have a ‘right’ to donate/advertise wherever they want? It sounds to me like it’s the gay lobbyists who are intolerant. Read more »
In a recent Punch piece Australian Christian Lobby head Jim Wallace reminded us of our unquestioned right to religious freedom. In fact he went so far as to label the push for gay marriage a threat to religious freedom.
As a gay marriage advocate let me say this: Mr Wallace is right, we desperately need to maintain religious freedom.
The only problem is that Mr Wallace didn’t argue for religious freedom.
Continue reading "Hey Jim, let me teach you about religious freedom" »
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Dear Jim,
Re: Welcome to the ‘Homosexual Lobby’ and today’s vote on same-sex marriage in Tasmania.
UPDATE: The historic motion backing same-sex marriage has been passed by the Tasmanian House of Assembly, the Mercury reports.
Over the past few months you have either said, tweeted or endorsed the following: “Anzacs didn’t die for gay marriage”, “the global gay Gestapo…is brainwashing people”, “gay marriage will disrupt the natural order”, “gay marriage will lead to paedophiles marrying children”, and of course you came to Miranda Devine’s defence when she linked the London riots to Senator Penny Wong and her partner expecting a child.
Continue reading "Hey Jim Wallace, they’re not devils down in Tassie" »
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Should we allow the depiction of homosexuals in the media?
Well of course we should, shouldn’t we? The answer is pretty self evident. But then I have to ask – are depictions of homosexuals “sexier” than straight sex? You may have seen the news.com.au report that the Adshel company has pulled the “Rip and Roll” advertisements for HIV awareness for same-sex couples.
UPDATE: The CEO has just reinstated the advertisements, saying the company had been targeted by the Australian Christian Lobby’s orchestrated campaign, rather than a series of individual complaints as first thought.
Continue reading "Gay sex. Apparently sexier than straight sex." »
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Joel says:
Perhaps in creating equity within society, rather than showing two gay men practicing safe sex, they should be accompanied by a straight couple and a lesbian couple who are portrayed to also practice safe sex. Straight and lesbian couples are just as prone to sexually transmitted infections and viruses as… Read more »
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Jay says:
Homosexuality is growing more and more acceptable within society as the years go on. Give it ten to twenty more years and it will be a social norm, just as normal as heterosexuality; no one will think twice about it. Also, is it just me or does Christianity seem to… Read more »
ANZAC Day is a day for commemoration and celebration of Australian identity, so long as we remember the gays and the Muslims were never a part of this.
Anzac Day has become much more than a day of commemorating a military campaign; it has become a national focal point through which we locate what it means to be “Australian.” While the notion of “Australian values” raises disparate and often romantic ideas of mateship, courage and loyalty, it is sometimes insidiously mobilised to express prejudices.
Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, made this point painfully clear when he lamented over Twitter “that as we remember servicemen and women we remember [the] Australia they fought for - wasn’t gay marriage & Islamic!”
Continue reading "Christian lobby chief violates the true Anzac spirit" »
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Aziz says:
Amen. Amen to that. Remember we shell. Remember in Silence. Not in vilification and hate speech. Thank you Eric and Raj. Peace. Read more »
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j says:
oh gosh buckyboy whats wrong with you, how can one person be filled with so much hate…. maybe if you really let god into your heart you would stop being so angry and unhappy and just learn that just cause somethings arent what you are dosent make them wrong and… Read more »
It’s become something of a social minefield to admit you’re a Christian.
We tiptoe around the issue at gatherings, lest our peers assume we’ve secretly been judging them, or are about to kickstart a lecture on contraception.
There’s awkwardness around that Catholic priest joke they just told, and people excuse themselves before they hear the question “So have you found Jesus?”
Continue reading "Australian Christian Lobby ... I disown thee" »
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LC says:
Then I suggest you and your church comes out publicly saying the ACL does not represent you. I say this not because I don’t believe you. I’m saying this because the ACL has a real choke-hold over both major parties (check their stances on abortion, voluntary euthanasia, school chaplaincy and… Read more »
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LC says:
<Guffaws> Too true And that’s his main point. The main reason he dilikes the ACL is not simply because of their opposition to R18 games, but because of the way they have blatantly rewrote the facts to suit their agenda, just plainly ignore the overwhelming body of peer-reviewed evidence which… Read more »
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