A Greater Freedom of Expression
The Albanese government has had to let go its misinformation bill because of the strong opposition in the Senate from the Coalition, Greens, and crossbench. There was no way that this proposal could be turned into law. This Bill had been a centrepiece of Labor’s policy and had already been passed in the House of Representatives by 78 votes to 57. But Senators outside of the Labor Party failed to support the Bill. They labelled it as “anti-free speech”, “extreme” and “state-sanctioned censorship”. The Bill was vague about what content, published by any organisation or individual, would cause “serious harm” and need to be removed. Because the legal provisions in the bill had been extremely broad it seemed to have the potential to stifle free speech and relate to things said or written by Australians every day. The Bill was labelled as “a totally the wrong approach” because it threatened our freedom of expression and did not “deal with the real issues” Representative consultants described it as one of the “most extreme” pieces of legislation that gave the government extraordinary powers to make illegal any content which they deemed misleading.
It was called an attempt to “control the narrative” of public discourse. We are aware that much information flowing around the world does include a lot of misinformation. But how are we to distinguish what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report ? Paul gives us a clue. It depends what we focus on because “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Phil 4:8). It is so easy to think about what is false, dishonest, unjust, impure, ugly, of bad report, without virtue or praise. The failure of this Bill enables Australians to start to think more clearly and speak more freely. The concerns raised about the Bill’s sweeping censorship powers have resonated across a raft of national and international publications. The NSW Law Reform Commission has wisely preserved the threshold for criminal hate speech laws and quoted the ACL’s submissions extensively in their final report, acknowledging their concerns about protecting legitimate expression and religious freedom. Conservative activists like Robby Starbuck in America are pressuring businesses such as Walmart to transform their so-called progressive policies which promoted diversity, equity and inclusion to ones which ensured a respectful and supportive environment.
Let’s pray:
* Praise the name of God for making known the errors hidden in this Bill. He changes times and seasons. He deposes laws and raises up other ones. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him. We thank and praise you, God of our nation. You have given us wisdom and power. You have made known to us what we asked of you. (Dan 2: 20-23)
* That more of us Australians will exercise the freedom to discern and declare the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report and think about these things.
*That it will become possible for more Australians to come to love and value people who hold views that are very different from their own without their necessarily agreeing with them.
The Effect of Alcohol on the Unborn.
Children of mothers who drank during pregnancy are driving the increase in learning difficulties in schools as well as youth crime according to experts. They have warned that too many children were dropping out of school because of dysfunctional home lives and undiagnosed disabilities. Experts claim life is tough for them and that we have to get those first years of a child’s life right, and that is from conception. “It’s got to be about supporting mums not to drink during pregnancy. Across Australia, 25% of school students have been diagnosed with a disability – up from 18% in 2015 – and nearly a million children require extra support in the classroom. Some teenage criminals had struggled to learn at school because of alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which damages an unborn baby’s brain when a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. In the youth justice system, there are a number of kids who suffer with foetal alcohol syndrome.
Please pray:
* That the message that any consumption of alcohol by pregnant women is unsafe for their babies will be strongly promoted and heard by all women of childbearing age.
* That Governments across Australia will pick up on this message and there will be a nationwide move for change.
* For those children suffering from alcohol spectrum disorder that they would be able to receive treatment that will reduce the impact of their disorder on their young lives.
Regional LGBTQ+ Festivals in Trouble as Sponsors Pull Support
Sponsors of some regional LGBTQ+ festivals, including Coles and Charles Sturt University, have pulled their financial support citing economic factors. For example, Coles said it withdrew support for Wagga Mardi Gras “to ensure that we are sharing the support that we can provide to other communities”.
Organisers of the LGBTQ+ festivals claim they need the financial contributions so that they can maintain the visibility of LGBTQ+ culture, celebrate the culture of this different group and provide information for the community to learn what was on offer to help them.
Please pray:
“Now I… praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything He does is right and all His ways are just.” Daniel 4:37 MSG
* Pray that the LGBTQ+ influence does not increase and that ‘their visibility’ does indeed diminish, especially among young and vulnerable people.
* Pray that more sponsors such as Coles withdraw support for LGBTQ+ festivals. Pray that help is directed to the many genuine needs in our society.
* May we Christians become ever more confident and bolder in our prayer for our country, knowing that everything our God does and says is right and just and that His kingdom never declines and falls.
Praying for Issues in the News
* The Federal Government seems to be taking an increasingly new direction in its foreign policy towards the situation in the Middle East. Recent votes in the United Nations appear to indicate that Australia is now favouring pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel positions on all matters that come before the United Nations. Not only are such positions pro-Palestinian but they also are in direct opposition to the votes of most of our western allies thus widening the impact of such votes. Whilst many observers believe the change in our policy towards the situation in the middle east is to appease Muslim voters in Labor held seats in Sydney and Melbourne ahead of next year’s Federal election it would not appear to be in our own national interest to align ourselves with other pro-Muslim nations against our closest western allies such as USA. Please pray that motives and reasons for such policy change will become abundantly clear so that voters will be able to fully understand the direction in which our current Government intends to take Australia in the future and vote accordingly.
* A return to old-school teaching methods known as “direct instruction” by a Catholic School cluster in the ACT and Goulburn has sent NAPLAN results for those schools through the roof in what has been described as the nation’s biggest experiment in the science of learning. Just a quarter of schools in the ACT are Catholic yet they make up two-thirds of the list of Schools that outperformed others with a similar background of parental occupation and education. Please pray that the results achieved will be thoroughly assessed by education authorities and form the basis for a reversion to more traditional teaching methods to replace the woke trends that have resulted in the steady decline of teaching standards and results across the nation in recent years.
Praying for our Nation
In an age of no absolutes, we as a nation have allowed moral values to be undermined. Other gods and their values have replaced the living God and His values. This has led to the breakdown of the family, the backbone of our nation. Let us pray that our next government will understand the value of the family as the foundation of our society and its moral code and will under gird and protect the family unit.
Judges 17:1-13, Jeremiah 2:9-13, Romans 1:18-32
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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