Salt Shakers Journal Summary May 2008

Subscribe to the Salt Shakers Journal

Editorial (in full below)
There is an old saying that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, but today there seems to be a growing amount of imitation that is not flattery.

Underground church inAustralia?
Peter Stokes examines the future for the church in Australia in the face of laws that aim to control religious activities and speech.

News and Action
Tasmania : Liberals & hate speech; Cloning: ACT and WA; WA: Human Rights; Vic: Relationship Register; WA: Prostitution Bill

ACT Civil Partnerships
Homosexual groups are continuing to lobby the ACT government and Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, asking them to persist with their proposed Civil Partnerships Bill.

Academic Independence ?
The independence of our academics is under threat following action taken by the University of Queensland (UQ). They asked an academic to ‘apologise’ to a drug company!

Abortion: Legislation and Numbers
Abortion continues to be on the national agenda, with Victoria and Queensland facing legislation to ‘decriminalise abortion’.

Abortion and mental health problems
The Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK has changed its position concerning the link between abortion and mental health.

Some good new! Children’s ad code
A new advertising code, which bans sexualised images of children under 14 in ads, has been announced by The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA).

Consequences of Cannabis use
Jenny Stokesexposes the mental and physical health consequences that result from cannabis use.

Government Changes and ‘Consultations’
Prior to the election we noted some of the consequences of having the ALP in power at the federal level as well as in every state and territory.

Family First: Senate Inquiries
Family First Senator Steve Fielding has proposed a number of private Senator’s Bills - Senate Committees are currently conducting Inquiries into several of these.

What is ‘Apologetics’
Bill Muehlenbergdefines this important part of Christianity and exhorts us to continue defending the faith and giving answers for what we believe.

Planned Parenthood and Abortion
Last month the Australian government announced funding, through AusAID, for a program to help deal with sexual and reproductive health.

Lambeth Conference Boycott
Many conservative Anglican bishops have decided to boycott the Lambeth Conference in July 2008 because of increasing division over the ordination of homosexuals.

It’s a strange (sick) world
Jenny Stokesexamines the recent news reports on the ‘pregnant man’ and the 60 minutes incest story.

Free speech under attack across the world
Jenny Stokeslooks at the different bodies pushing for the limitation of free speech and religion and the increase of political correctness and tolerance.

World News
Sweden: Homosexuality; Mexico: Abortion; California: Home Schooling; UK : Blair & homosexuals.
_____________________

Editorial (full version)
There is an old saying that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, but today there seems to be a growing amount of imitation that is not flattery. Imitation by using Christian terminology to promote ‘other’ ideas - many of them very unchristian, that would suggest they were actually mocking rather than complimentary.

When glancing through The Age’s special ‘Earth Hour’ magazine I was confronted with, “Act now or repent forever”. Wow! How astonished I was to see an evangelical statement in The Age! But alas, it was not ‘Christian evangelicalism’ being promoted, it was the new ‘earth religion’ of ‘global warming’ and the dire consequences of ‘eternal repentance’ were not for sin, but for not turning your lights out.

Well, we must confess that we did not turn our lights out on Saturday April 5 - But we are now in front for about 75 years because on the following Wednesday, not only did our lights go out but the whole electrical supply to our home shut down thanks to a storm. Lights, fridge, TV, microwave, the lot, even the gas heating because it uses an electric fan, and nothing came back until Saturday evening.

Were we being punished for not turning off our lights on the previous Saturday for 1 hour? Do we now need to “repent for ever” as Tim Flannery suggested?

Was this wild storm, just 4 days after Earth Hour, actually God saying “Look what I can do - you guys think you can save the planet because nobody else is in control. Well have a look at this! Wham!x!x! - take that!”

Now I know God could do that, but I don’t think that is the answer either.

Thankfully, we have a great God who does not make us pay 75 times for one sin, in

fact we only have to repent once for any sin because He has already done the rest, on the Cross 2,000 years ago.

He paid the price for all our sins and although confession and repentance are regularly needed as we walk this degenerating earth, there will come an eternity, not of repenting but of rejoicing and fellowship with God, Jesus, and all those who are in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Sadly, today there are those, even in the Christian church, who do not seem to believe God is in control, that He, “has the whole world in his hand’ as we used to sing. There are even many who do not believe that there is a Hell awaiting those who do not repent and believe on the name of the Lord.

In the last month we have seen the Victorian and WA governments pass legislation to further normalise immorality. In WA they legalised prostitution and in Victoria they passed the Relationship Register for both heterosexual couples who do not want to commit to ‘marriage’ and, even worse, for homosexual ‘couples’.

What is it that makes some politicians vote for immorality despite mounting evidence that immorality cannot be contained once given a government’s stamp of approval?

Money, plain stupidity, self interest or is it that we have simply elected people who fall into the category described by Paul in Romans 1: 21-23 ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Let us pray that they will repent.

Yours in Christ Jesus

Peter & Jenny Stokes