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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Children & Family
Child abuse: Secluded hills that hid the darkest secret
Anne Davies – SMH
In July last year, locals in a quiet valley in south-western NSW were startled to see three police four-wheel drives, a police bus and an ambulance bouncing up an old stock route towards a remote timbered block, tucked away from the road. Police and child protection officers left with 12 children under the age of 16 in what is shaping as one of the most serious child abuse cases in Australia.
Environment
Labor under pressure to axe the carbon tax
Samatha Maiden – The Sunday Telegraph
Labor’s $6 billion carbon tax reduced Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by less than 0.1 per cent. As PM Tony Abbott ratchets up the pressure on Labor’s Bill Shorten to axe the carbon tax by Christmas, the new figures will be released this week by Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia in Belgium: Safegards and controls do not work
PR Newswire
At a press conference, Prof. Dr. Etienne Montero, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Namur, Belgium, gave an overview of 11 years of euthanasia in Belgium. The proponents of euthanasia in Belgium recognize that most requests for euthanasia are not rooted in physical pain, which can be controlled, but in psychological suffering. Examples include loss of meaning, loneliness, weariness of life, and need to master one’s death. In situations of suffering, a euthanasia request is understandable, but courts cannot give the right to euthanasia without endangering the lives and security of its citizens. All citizens are at risk of excesses and abuse.
Health
Gay youths 148% more likely to be physically abused in relationships: DOJ-funded report
Dustin Siggins – Life Site News
Homosexual and transgender young people are more likely to be abused by people they are dating than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a September report from the Urban Institute.
Marriage
Same-sex marriage in ACT will go down in history
Peter Jean – The Canberra Times
Regardless of how the High Court rules next week on the validity of the ACT’s same-sex marriage law, marriage equality advocates know they have had an historic victory. Pictures of same sex-couples getting married in Canberra will be seen around Australia and the world this weekend.
Gay marriages attract joy and criticism
Sky News
Australia’s first legally-recognised same-sex marriages have sparked mixed community reaction.
Opposition objects to same-sex marriages
Larissa Nicholson – The Canberra Times
Chief minister Katy Gallagher should not have allowed this weekends’ same-sex weddings to go ahead, the ACT opposition leader said. Canberra Liberals MLA Jeremy Hanson said while he was ambivalent to the idea of legalising same-sex marriage, he maintained it should be an issue to be dealt with at a federal level.
Uniting Church minister Roger Munson only religious celebrant able to perform same-sex marriages in ACT
Adrienne Francis – ABC
Uniting Church minister The Reverend Roger Munson is among the Canberra celebrants marrying same-sex couples this weekend. He is the only registered religious celebrant who can legally perform same-sex marriages in the Australian Capital Territory.
Rick Warren’s views on homosexuality
Piers Morgan – CNN
Rick Warren explains his views on homosexuality
US: Judge to baker: You must serve gay weddings
Associated Press
A baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs or face fines, a judge said today. The order from administrative law judge Robert N. Spencer said Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver discriminated against a couple “because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage.” The cake-maker must “cease and desist from discriminating” against gay couples.
Australian same-sex marriages attract mixed reaction
TV NZ
Australia’s first legally-recognised same-sex marriages have sparked mixed community reaction, with a religious group arguing the move breaks down family values. As couples from across Australia converge on Canberra on Saturday to take advantage of the ACT’s Marriage Equality Act, the Australian Christian Lobby spoke against the law, forecasting “big social consequences”. “We hear about equal love all the time but we don’t hear about what it means for children,” Lobby spokesman Lyle Shelton told Sky News.
Politics
Bernardi platform to ruffle feathers
Chris Kenny – The Australian
Islam is incompatible with our Western way of life; gay marriage will deliver children into potentially dysfunctional and dangerous environments; climate change is a distraction; and employers ought to be allowed to strike any deal they like with individual workers — this is the conservative revolution that Liberal senator Cory Bernardi is about to promote
Religious Freedom & Persecution
Nigeria’s Boko Haram strikes again in Cameroon
World Watch Monitor
A missionary has been killed and several churches set ablaze in attacks by Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram in neighbouring Cameroon. The Nigerian missionary, David Dina Mataware, with the Christian Missionary Foundation, was killed on November 13 by suspected Boko Haram militants in Ashigashia, a village which straddles the Nigeria-Cameroon border. He was murdered on the same day as the kidnapping of a French priest, Father Georges Vandenbeusch, but the death was not reported by the media, a church leader told World Watch Monitor, even though both incidents happened in the same area.
At least 280 killed in inter-communal clashes
Krista Larson – The Associated Press
Christian civilians fled by the thousands to the airport guarded by French forces in this chaotic capital Friday as the mostly Muslim armed fighters who have ruled the country since March hunted door-todoor for their enemies and the death toll from inter-communal violence rose to 280 people. “They are slaughtering us like chickens,” said Appolinaire Donoboy, a Christian whose family remained in hiding.
Sexualisation of Society
Twitter drags its feet on removing child sex images
Rania Spooner – SMH
Twitter is coming under increased pressure to eliminate explicit child sex abuse images uploaded on the popular social media service as child protection advocates complain the process is taking too long. Dozens of child sex abuse images are uploaded and shared on Twitter and in some cases have remained online for as long as a year. This is despite user reporting systems and the recent addition of tagging software.
Jarrod Bleijie announces review of dangerous prisoner laws
Brisbane Times
Queensland’s attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie might challenge the Court of Appeal’s rejection of his sex offender law amendments – which saw rapist Robert Fardon released – in Australia’s highest court. Jarrod Bleijie said government lawyers would decide within days whether to proceed, but in any case there would be a review of dangerous prisoner laws.
Other
Has the left abandoned its prophetic role?
Karl Faase – Eternity Newspaper
In 1974, a meeting of evangelical global leaders was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was convened by Dr Billy Graham in response to Church leaders who had been calling for a moratorium on mission. Dr Graham wanted to be sure that the global Church remained committed to Gospel ministry and called evangelical leaders across the world to this gathering.
The world mourns Nelson Mandela
Eternity Newspaper
Tributes are flowing as news of Nelson Mandela’s death makes its way around the world this morning. The civil rights leader, statesman, campaigner against poverty and advocate for children’s health and education died overnight in South Africa at the age of 94. South African President Jacob Zuma said, “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. Although we knew this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world.”
Why the Left takes joy in foul abuse
Miranda Devine – Daily Telegraph
So Joy Burch, the Education minister of the ACT, publishes a tweet describing her federal counterpart Christopher Pyne as a c**t – and gets away with it. Her excuse for retweeting the foul abuse is that she is inexperienced on Twitter, despite the fact she has been publishing her thoughts on the social media site for four years, during which time she has written 1161 tweets.
Vic protesters vow to hound Abbott
AAP
Protesters gathered at a hotel where Prime Minister Tony Abbott was due to speak have vowed to hold rallies every time the prime minister is in Melbourne. About 100 people stood outside the Melbourne Park Hyatt on Thursday night ahead of Mr Abbott’s address, shouting chants and waving signs to protest a raft of coalition government policies.