NEWS
AUGUST 2016
3
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Activists spy on church sermons KALEY PAYNE
Christopher Yardin / Flickr
Churches that meet in public school halls in NSW on Sundays are under attack for the content of their sermons. Sermons found on the websites of Hunter Bible Church, Maitland Evangelical Church and The Lakes Evangelical Church (all part of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) on the NSW mid-north coast were the subject of complaints by Dr Darrin Morgan, sent to the NSW Department of Education. The Newcastle Herald and SBS report the content of some of the sermons, which relate to sexuality, including: “Homosexuality is one of the things that send people to hell.” “Anything outside of that, whether it is homosexuality or adultery or pornography or sex before marriage; anything that doesn’t conform with what God created us into, is wrong.” “God’s good design for sex within marriage” is between “one man and a woman”. In an interview with SBS, Morgan said he didn’t believe public school facilities should be used to “promote beliefs which marginalise members of both the school and wider community.” In a statement, the NSW Department of Education drew a clear distinction between teaching hours and how facilities are used outside of that time. “The Department does not allow any
group or church to use school grounds to preach homophobic messages,” reads the statement, while saying members of the community are encouraged to use school facilities for “appropriate purposes” when they are not required by the school. Sydney Anglican minister and head of Centre For Public Christianity, John Dickson, warned on Facebook about the new tactics of these advocacy groups. “They search for references to same-sex relationships, package up the quotations in a manner that suits their cause, and then write formal complaints to the Department of Education about homophobic sermons being preached in school facilities. For example, they will take a preacher’s passing reference to the Leviticus death penalty, and cast it as the preacher’s own view that LGBTI folk today should be killed (any reformed evangelical who actually taught such a thing would be disciplined for heresy and probably sacked). This isn’t fair play,” he wrote. Murray Campbell, a conservative Baptist minister in Victoria, says the Internet has made church activities much more easily accessible to the public. “Our sermons and websites are available to whoever is interested, including wacky atheists, angry secularists, and agenda-driven journalists.”
We’re going back to vote (most likely) but when?
Call to defer plebiscite JOHN SANDEMAN A senior Coalition source has told Eternity that Coalition backbenchers are fighting to ensure that the plebiscite on same-sex marriage is put back to 2017. A same-sex marriage plebiscite would have to be “very rushed” to make it through both Houses of Parliament for a poll this year. The next sitting of parliament is only seven weeks long. The Government wants to deal with terrorism and some economic legislation as its first priorities. A Senate inquiry and the drafting of “yes” and “no” cases will occupy most of the time available.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Senator George Brandis and Senator Scott Ryan are key players who support same-sex marriage and who want to hold the plebiscite this year. Conservative Coalition MPs are seeking more time for the “no” case to build up its campaign. Eternity understands that campaigning groups such as the Marriage Alliance support this push. As Eternity goes to press, the Senate results for the mainland states and territories were a few days from finalisation. Despite being a double-dissolution election – halving the quota for election to the upper house, Christian values
parties (Family First, Christian Democrats, Australian Christians) were facing a wipe-out. In Victoria, John Madigan, elected from the Democratic Labour Party in 2010, stood for a new group, the Manufacturing and Farming Party but scored only .15 of a quota. In South Australia, Senator Bob Day of Family First was looking to Liberal Party preferences after his primary vote went backwards. Doubling the Christian Democrat vote in NSW to 170,000 was not enough to break though. The Family First Party preferencing the Liberal Democrats’ David Leyonhjelm may have sealed its fate.