In addition to being an author, speaker, and blogger at The Bridgehead and other websites, Jonathon van Maren is part of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, an organisation best known for their pioneering use of abortion victim imagery. A few months ago, Jonathon approached me to give him a rundown of the Australian pro-life scene for his website, (you can read that here) so it seemed like a good opportunity to ask him to use the same questions to describe the landscape in Canada. I also asked Jonathan to elaborate on something that stuck with me from his book, The Culture War: in it, Jonathan wrote that addiction to pornography was holding men back from involvement in pro-life work.
On November 6 America had its mid-term elections, As the name implies, it comes between the presidential election cycle (in this case, between 2016 and 2020). This year all 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for grabs, 33 of the 50 Senate seats, and 36 of the 50 governorships. Republicans held sway everywhere before the election: a Republican President plus a Republican-controlled House and Senate, and a majority of state governors. While we do not have the final numbers yet, it appears that the Republicans have kept three of the four, with the Democrats winning back the House.
Artificial reproduction causing new attacks on the dignity of children
Written by Kathy Clubb
Artificial reproductive technologies (ART) are leading to more and more degradation of the dignity of human life as embryos are being completely devalued and new techniques are being developed. Last year, I reported on an Australian midwife who was creating jewellery from thawed, frozen embryos, so that couples could have a lasting memory of the excess children they created via IVF. [read Killing for a Keepsake] I've also written about apps for finding donors, males seeking fertility treatment and more about the manufacturing of human beings here. [read Same-Sex Marriage: Good for the IVF Industry] Now things have devolved to the point where embryos are being swapped on Facebook and Craigslist, and lesbians can share a pregnancy.
ACT Bill Removing Religious Freedom from Religious Schools Introduced
Written by Neil Foster
As foreshadowed in the press reports noted in my previous post, the ACT Government has now introduced a Bill designed to curtail the current religious freedom enjoyed by religious schools in the Territory to operate in accordance with their beliefs. The Discrimination Amendment Bill 2018 (ACT) is an unwise proposal and it is likely that it would be invalid as contrary to Commonwealth law. I will assume the reader is familiar with the background to the Bill as noted in my previous post. Here I will just briefly indicate how it achieves its goals. The central provision is cl 6, which simply repeals s 33 of the Discrimination Act 1991.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2: 3-4) How has our society arrived the point where wide-spread abortion is not only tolerated but promoted, and a beneficial view of euthanasia is endorsed in parliamentary bills? Why was a romantic view of same-sex marriage given media endorsement and such a prominent focus in the marriage plebiscite and in politics? Why is sexual experimentation promoted, often in the context of unwittingly promoting violence against women through the implicit endorsement of pornography?
Perhaps America needs some friendly Pacific Islands to 'store' refugees. The news - now that the Kavanaugh bizzo is over and the fake bombs bizzo is over - is of a 'caravan' (odd term when there are no camels in sight) of 'refugees walking through Mexico en route to the USA. It is a bit like the experience of Europe with thousands of odd-bods (mostly young men) walking past or through Italian and Greek villages going to Germany and Britain. Oz made a lucrative deal (listen up the Donald) with Nauru and stopped further traffic of such 'human Trafficker assisted' faux refugees to Oz. The political fall-out may last a while of course, but perhaps it is worth it. Instead of 'Sanctuary Cities', perhaps the US could have some Sanctuary Islands. Heck, they could even be purpose built, like the Chinese are doing.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) yesterday dropped its disgraceful investigation into social media activity of Toowoomba based GP, Dr David van Gend. Dr van Gend posted on Facebook that,
“the Board got back to me today and (of course) threw out that worthless complaint unconditionally. Not with the profuse apology that good manners would have expected after this vexatious waste of a fellow citizen’s time… Thanks to massive pushback from many doctors and thousands of citizens, I doubt the Board will be expanding their censorship powers in the new Doctors’ Code of Conduct. And that is a small but necessary win.”
