ACL compiles a daily media monitoring service of stories of interest to the Christian constituency relating to children, family, drugs and alcohol, marriage, human rights, religious freedom etc.
Visit the ACL’s website each day to see what’s of interest in the news. Please note that selection of the articles does not represent ACL endorsement of the content.
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Abortion
Gloria Steinem: Women “need” abortion and abortion is a “sacrament”
Rob Schwarzwalder – Life News
Among those who have just received the Medal of Freedom from President Obama is Gloria Steinem, who has done as much for advancing abortion-on-demand as any single person in the last half century. In an interview with The Washington Post, she said, “Approximately one in three women in this country needs an abortion at some time in her life”. Aside from the dubiousness of this statistic, note that she uses the term “needs.”
Classification
Ja’mie: Private School Girl savaged by US critics: ‘Transphobic drag’
Michael Idato – SMH
How much of a “foul-mouthed mean girl” can a TV audience take? It’s taken several weeks for the ABC’s broadcast of Chris Lilley’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl in Australia to shed half its audience.
Drugs & Alcohol
Will Australia ever sober up?
Gabrielle Jackson – The Hoopla
Is Australia finally waking up to its alcohol problem? Something seems to have gelled this week with a combination of news stories that brought home one of our culture’s most pressing issues.
Doctors concerned about flesh-eating disease among fentanyl addicts
Aisha Dow – The Age
A case of flesh-eating disease in regional Australia has sparked new concerns about the risks of tampering with fentanyl painkiller patches. In the past three years several drug users have died after soaking the prescription patch in household products, to extract a stronger dose of the drug before injecting it.
Education
Is the dream of free online university education fading?
Jason Lodge – Mercator Net
The head of the biggest online education provider now says that it is a “lousy product”.
Back to drawing board for Gonski, says Christopher Pyne
Lauren Wilson – The Australian
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has declared the new Coalition government will go “back to the drawing board” on the administration of billions of dollars in school funding, claiming Labor’s so-called Gonski reforms are a “shambles” and impossible to implement.
Euthanasia
Belgium: Euthanasia doctor Wim Distelmans has a license to kill anyone
Wesley J. Smith – Life News
Euthanasia is only as limited as the consciences of doctors willing to kill. In other words, given that the supposed limits are wholly unenforced–and mostly depend on self-reporting–the only limits to euthanasia and assisted suicides are those doctors impose on themselves.
Gambling
Overseas students gambling with their future
Erica Cervini – SMH
Two weeks ago, Third Degree highlighted a study in which it was concluded that gambling is a problem among university students. Now research in the latest edition of the Journal of Gambling Studies compares gambling rates among local and international students. Some of the results are worrying.
Financial adviser used Crown Casino account to launder drug money
Steve Butcher – The Age
A financial adviser who used a Melbourne Crown casino bank account to launder $682,000 in drug money has been categorised by a prosecutor as a “cog in the wheels of organised crime”. Whye Wah Moo, 59, was an authorised representative of the Ang Junket Group – which helped Asian visitors to Crown – and who conducted financial transactions using a Crown Patrons Identity.
Health
Australian Vaccination Network loses appeal against name change order
ABC
The Australian Vaccination Network has again been ordered to change its name, after losing an appeal against a ruling that its current name is misleading. The New South Wales Administrative Decisions Tribunal has upheld a ruling by the state’s Fair Trading department that the anti-vaccination group’s current name could mislead the public.
Indigenous
Re-thinking Aboriginal history
Joe Lane – On Line Opinion
The formal study of Indigenous History has relied on second- and third-hand sources, on hearsay and oral history. Without attention to primary sources, this will remain a very serious defect. My wife and I made the first Aboriginal flags, back in 1972, more than a hundred of them up to 1981 or so, and sent them all around Australia. We were ardent supporters of land rights and self-determination and used to devour any new book on the subject. Invariably they were based on secondary and tertiary sources but they fitted in with our way of thinking at the time.
Marriage
GG for gay marriage: Did she say too much?
Network Ten
Governor-General Quentin Bryce has expressed her support for same-sex marriage as a part her vision for the future of Australia.
Commonwealth ‘doesn’t prohibit’ gay marriage, ACT argues
Peter Jean – The Canberra Times
The federal parliament has failed to outlaw same-sex marriages, the ACT government has argued in a submission to the High Court of Australia. The ACT Legislative Assembly passed Australia’s first same-sex marriage law in October, prompting a High Court challenge by the federal government.
US: Christians file ballot initiative to protect businesses that decline to service same-sex ‘weddings’
Christian News
A Christian organization in Oregon has filed a ballot initiative that would protect business owners against lawsuits and other penalties in the event that they decline to directly or indirectly participate in a same-sex “wedding.” The Oregon Family Council filed the proposal, entitled the Protect Religious Freedom Initiative, on Thursday in light of the lawsuits and complaints lodged in recent months against several bakers, florists and photographers in the nation.
Religious Freedom & Persecution
Nigerian Islamists force Christian women to convert
Benjamin Weinthal – Jerusalem Post
Al-Qaida-linked Islamic group Boko Haram unleashed a new tactic in its war to obliterate Christianity in northern Nigeria: convert or die.
Sexualisation of Society
Former commando charged over Jedi Council sex ring
Noel Towell – SMH
The alleged ringleader of the Australian Defence Force’s “knights of the Jedi Council” has been charged over sex emails sent between Defence workers. Former army commando Hastings Fredrickson is accused of being part of a group of up to 17 men who allegedly shared videos and photos of naked, unsuspecting women and sometimes challenged fellow members of the council to bed the women too.
Other
Ambos say violence won’t be tolerated after attack on paramedic
ABC
The Ambulance Service says violent behaviour towards paramedics will not be tolerated after a female officer was kicked in the face by a woman who was being taken to hospital in Newcastle.
I swear this is a bloke’s issue
Ken Lay – The Hoopla
On White Ribbon Day we bring you this powerful call by Victorian police chief Ken Lay who says men’s silence about violence against women must stop. Now. White Ribbon Day calls on everyone to swear – to take an oath to keep talking about this urgent issue.
I have lost count of how many women have told me they have been raped
Abigail Bray – Melinda Tankard Reist blog
Living in a rape culture means adjusting to being hyper-vigilant about male violence to the point where risk management becomes second nature.