What Disability Advocates are Saying about Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Written by Daniel Giles
As the debate on the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Victoria ramps up in the coming months, Daniel Giles discusses how fellow disability advocates feel about this important topic.
[Note on the accompanying photograph: Disability advocates in Adelaide last year for the parliamentary debate on euthanasia (source: http://gimpled.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/why-we-must-not-go-gently-into-night.html) Courtesy: Paul Russell]
Disability advocates in recent times have raised concerns about the impact the legalisation of euthanasia and/or assisted suicide will have on them. There are people within the disability community actively campaigning against both.
The Australian ‘Safe Schools’ Curriculum has been exposed as an insidious platform for delivering gender theory to impressionable children. The programme has its roots in Marxist ideology, but also in research based on the experience of pedophiles, as well as that of pedophilic academics. Even worse, the input from pedophiles into school curricula isn’t limited to Australia alone.
This talk was given by Cardinal George Pell at the Legatus Summit in Florida, in 2006. It appears on the Endeavour Forum website and is used here by permission. The Endeavour Forum is an Australian organisation, who describes itself thus:
Endeavour Forum started out as Women Who Want to be Women. That explains the four Ws on the ship Endeavour above. [ - on their emblem.] It was set up in response the militant feminism which first came around in the early 1970s and which became increasingly influential in the Whitlam and even Fraser Governments. While militant feminism did address some legitimate grievances it went too far getting into issues like abortion, equal opportunity and affirmative action. There was a need for women to defend the legitimate rights of traditional women in families and the rights of male breadwinners to get jobs. We believe that men and women are equal but different not equal and the same.
Addiction to pornography isn't just a problem for men; many women are finding they have the same problem, especially in this digital age where porn is so easy to access. This article was written by a woman ('Jacquie') who overcame her addiction and received God's healing into her life. Her faith should inspire each of us to seek His healing for addictions and other weaknesses in our own lives.
My story of freedom from pornography and much much more.
From the moment of conception to the time when we die there are expectations placed upon each one of us to look a certain way, to behave in a certain way or to be what others want us to be.
The world's idea of self worth is very different to God's idea.
The world says, "I am who others say I am - based on what I can do, how I look and how much I contribute to society - that equals my worth."
Whereas the Christian Creator God has a different set of rules: "What I am plus WHO I AM says I am, equals my worth."
This was most definitely the case with me. From a young age I was always trying to be loveable, to be noticed, trying to scramble for love. My parents tried but they were pretty screwed-up human beings who were desperate for love and acceptance themselves. Both my mother and father were angry, and so discord, violence and a sense of threat were also a part of my unravelling family life. Since my parents were not able to provide me with my basic needs, I decided I was going to get my attention and affection from outside sources.
I was sexually abused in some rather strange and sadistic ways by a family member and and as a result, started acting out sexually with my peers from a very young age. My sexuality was awakened way too early and I also masturbated chronically as a child. I felt afraid, unaccepted, unloved and like a plaything for adults. I was filled with shame and always so scared people would find out about my home life and my young sexual addictions.
To add insult to injury, I also had learning disabilities and acted out in class in frustration, annoying the teachers no end; I now think I was just desperately crying out for help.
At around the age of 12, I tried to start getting the attention of boys, as girls my own age were either jealous of my looks or just thought I was a plain dummy or a weirdo. In about year 7, I was exposed to pornography through the boys in my street. The boys were looking at pictures of Samantha Fox and they were virtually drooling on the page.
I think it was then I realised the power I could hold over young men with my sexuality. I started to think about what I looked like, how tan I was, how my hair looked, how my bottom and breasts and legs looked, and as soon as I started to become aware, even walked differently. I finally had the attention I had desired for so long. Although this went on from my teens into my early 20's, my nominally Christian background stopped me from sleeping around.
When I was 19, I moved in with a bloke as my flatmate. This bloke was very much into pornography; he was something of a voyeur. For me with my issues of loving to be watched, it was a perfect match. He was very shy and gentlemanly and after a few months of this I ended up seducing him. That 'bloke' and I have now been together for 21 years and married for almost 14 years.
Release from Bondage
Once the initial honeymoon was over his perving and porn used to drive me crazy; I was incredibly insecure and jealous. So in the end I became his porn star, dressing the way he wanted me to, having sex with him however he wanted to, adding sex toys and pornography to our sex life. I was extremely depressed, suicidal, unemployed and going nowhere.
That day, I was having my morning shower and I heard an almost audible voice say "Come back to church, I want to clean you up."
So I listened to that voice and told my counsellor, who recommended a church to me; since that day I have never looked back and the Lord has been 'cleaning me up' ever since.
The Holy Bonfire
One night at church we had a holy bonfire and I took in the pornography, clothing, sex toys etc and put them on the fire. I committed myself to God and I have never watched another pornographic movie or dressed up, or engaged in unsafe sex practices since.
My husband is not a Christian and still engages in all the old behaviours and it is a miracle of the Most High God that we are still together and even that I love him. I pray that he, too, will let the Lord clean him up one day.
For anyone reading this who is still in bondage to this kind of thing, I just want to say God can release you just as He did me.
I, too, was a very messed-up sex-addict who got my worth from how I looked and how much others appreciated that, but bit by bit God has set me free. I believe he can set you free and I believe that one day he will set my husband free and heal our marriage.
May the living God bless you on your journey out of sexual bondage.
In Jesus' name. Amen. "Jacquie." This story first appeared on my other website, Light up the Darkness, and is used here with the author's permission.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I know it’s International Women’s Day so first I must apologise for not being a woman. It’s particularly regrettable that I’m not a glamorous Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian woman who wears a hijab promoting a book about what it’s like being a glamorous Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian woman who wears a hijab. If I was, this wouldn’t be the only event I’ve got lined up on my non-government funded whirlwind Trigger Warning awareness-raising tour. When I met the great cartoonist Bill Mitchell about 34 years ago, he said, “Mate, a cartoonist only has to be funny once a day, but it’s a lot harder than you’d think.” He was right, but he had no idea how much harder it would be for me than it ever was for him.
Conservatives may laugh about the childish intolerance of Generation Snowflake, but in reality, we have much to fear if they are allowed to continue to wield their latest weapon:18C. In fact, it could be argued that cartoonist Bill Leak's untimely death was due, at least in part, to the stress brought about by accusations that he violated 18C. Legal battles and unwanted media attention are a very stressful form of 'humiliation and insult' - precisely the kind of activity that this law purports to eliminate. More about Bill Leak later.
A leading figure in the abortion wars – on both sides – has just passed away. Norma McCorvey was the “Jane Roe” of the 1973 American abortion decision, Roe v Wade. Later she became a Christian and worked tirelessly on behalf of the unborn. She died yesterday at age 69. Her famous story has been told countless times. Most would know her for the US abortion case that struck down the laws of all 50 states on abortion. But perhaps not as many know that she later (in 1995) became a Christian and a strong prolifer, and then converted to Catholicism in 1998. She wrote two books on her life and her amazing turnaround: I am Roe (with Andy Meisler – HarperCollins, 1995) Won by Love (with Gary Thomas – Thomas Nelson, 1997) The Roe v Wade case may be very well known, but many do not know how McCorvey was just a victim in all this. She did not want an abortion, and was simply used by the pro-abort crowd for their own mischievous ends.
