News Archive January-March 2005

31 March 2005: Heads of Churches speak against religious vilification laws
The Victorian Heads of Churches have been discussing Victoria's religious vilification laws. In an article in The Age (30 March), Barney Zwartz says "All agree it is unsatisfactory, but they differ on what needs changing." They plan to speak to Premier Steve Bracks about the laws.

Click here for the article "Hatred law needs overhaul - churches".
ACTION: Click here for more details - and the ACTION sheet on contacting the head of your denomination to ask them to support the removal of the religious vilification laws. It includes their email addresses...

21 March 2005: Franklin Graham festival concludes
Festival Victoria has just concluded three days of meetings at Telstra Dome in Melbourne.
On the Friday morning 1200 business and civic leaders attended a breakfast addressed by Franklin Graham.

Around 92,000 people attended the four events at Telstra Dome and thousands responded to the gospel message presented by Franklin Graham.
Rob Isaachsen, of Melbourne Pastors Network, reports that over 800 churches worked together to hold the event. He says "6,500 people of all ages went forward for counselling and 4,000 made first-time professions of faith. The counselling was done by the 3,200 people trained for the event, many volunteering with trepidation, but experiencing new freedom and faith as they sensed the Lord leading them."
Franklin Graham told people that God sent His son Jesus to earth to die for our sins. As we approach Easter, it was a timely reminder of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He told the audience that Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6) and they had to repent of their sins and ask God's forgiveness and receive Jesus Christ into their life. Not politically correct, maybe, but the truth of the gospel impacted many hearts!
Guy Sebastian sang on Saturday evening and the Governor General spoke at the Sunday afternoon meeting.

The full text of the Governor General's speech is available online.
Click here .

Media reports:

The prophet motive
The Age, by Religion editor Barney Zwartz, 17 March 2005.
An EXCELLENT full page feature article about the Festival, the Billy Graham festival of 1959, stories about people who became Christians in 1959, and ending with Franklin telling the message of the gospel in John 3:16.
Keeping the faith
The Age, Barney Zwartz, 17 March 2005.
Encouraging stories of four people who became Christians at the Billy Graham crusades in 1959 - including Archbishop Peter Jensen.
Father, son and holy turf
Herald Sun, 21 March 2005.
Report on the meeting - attendances, conversions, features.

Check out the Festival Victoria website. Click here.

4 March 2005: mardi gras parade on Saturday 5 March
The annual Sydney mardi gras parade will be held on Saturday 5 March. The leader of the parade is Brenna, along with her 'two mums'. They achieved notoriety when the three of them appeared on a controversial Playschool segment last year. Click here for media report on this.
Inflated crowd figures: The organisers are again predicting inflated crowd figures of 400,000 to 500,000 - as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. Click here for article.
The TRUTH is that there are NOT this many people. In previous years the estimates rose to 700,000 but were set at 250,000 in 2003 and 200,000 in 2004.
How many are there?
MEDIA RELEASE: Our media release (4/3/2005) shows that there are definitely LESS than 100,000 people and probably closer to 50,000, watching the parade. Includes calculations. Click here.
Also see our report AND photos of the crowd from 2002. Click here .

1 March 2005: Campaign to remove Victoria's religious vilification laws
Many groups and individuals are concerned about the religious vilification law in Victoria. The cases that have been brought so far in Victoria show that the law has NOT brought harmony to the State - in fact it encourages DISHARMONY.
Truth is not a defence, motive is irrelevant and one has to 'establish' that an exception applies!

1. A petition has been launched, calling on the Victorian government to remove religious vilification laws...
2. Further action is then required!
3. Articles explaining why vilification laws are undesirable - scroll down..
Click here for ALL the details, the petition, other documents and articles on vilification laws.

14 Feb 2004: "Religion, Cultural Diversity and safeguarding Australia"
The latest 149 page publication promoting multi-faith and inter-faith activity is a report titled "Religion, Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding Australia".

It profiles religious activity in Australia and makes recommendations for the future and has been produced by the Living in Harmony project, funded by the DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS.

Many of the recommendations are concerning and if implemented would see mandated 'multi-faith' activities. Recommendations about the training of religious staff, employment by religious organisations, 'rotating' prayers by various faiths to open Parliament, the establishment of a and the teaching of world religions in schools are all promoted in this wide-ranging report.

This is an indication of where the interfaith community would like 'religion' to go in Australia. The Report is essential reading for those who are concerned about these directions in our nation.

The Report
The full document is available at this website, along with a description of the project.
Click here.
Click here for the actual pdf document of the Report.

For a full description of the Report and suggested action, click here.

2 February 2005: Vilification case - Penalty hearing . . .
The penalty hearing for Catch the Fire Ministries, Pastor Danny Nalliah and Pastor Daniel Scot will be held on 2 May 2005.

Judge Higgins handed down his decision on 17 December 2004, finding that they had vilified Muslims.

The full decision handed down by Judge Higgins is now available. Click here .

Full Report...
For media articles, responses and assessments of the decision please click here.

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