Waiting for God

Based on Acts 1:6-14

(Before reading this please read Acts 1:6-14)

One thing I really like doing is taking photos of unusual or beautiful things. In Burma, I took a series of photos of bees gathering pollen from Opium poppies in the early morning sun. I was always suspect of the line each bee flew after they left the opium poppy. 

Some of the most enjoyable photos I have taken are from Tassie, and on a couple of occasions, I have gone to the Tulip farm at Table Cape.  Table Cape is a beautiful spot at any time, but the Tulip Festival adds a splash of colour like no other time of year. 

After seeing these photos, I am sure you will agree that the splashes of colour here are amazing, but all is not as it seems to be.  As you get closer to the tulips you will see small anomalies, such as odd tulips of a different colour growing in an unexpected place.

This reminds me of the Scriptures, sometimes when we read the Bible and we think about what we are reading, we see in the ebb and flow of the story we are reading a certain word, phrase or verse and we wonder, why did the person use THAT word? Sometimes, when people in the New Testament quote the Old Testament, you go to the Scriptures that they are quoting, and you wonder how they got there. But all Scripture is inspired by God and God-breathed, so it is true, so it is never an issue of truth, it is an issue of sometimes I wonder, why.

 

I think that these scriptures that remind me of the out-of-place tulips at the tulip farm are often pointers for us to see what God is doing behind the scenes or is going to do in the future. Jesus told the Pharisees that,

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. John 5:39-40

You see the Pharisees searched the Scriptures so hard, that they overlooked what was there in plain sight, pointers in God’s Word that spoke of Jesus. 

20/20 Hindsight

From where we stand, we have the gift of 20/20 hindsight. Each Christmas we quote some of these pointers that we have recognised in retrospect. For example.

In a discourse with King Ahaz, In Isaiah chapter 7, God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, Ahaz refuses and God says He will give Ahaz a sign.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14

The event and circumstances of Jesus’ birth, which is the sign God gave to Ahaz, who lived in the time of Isaiah, took place 700 years later. So, it would be safe to say that King Ahaz never saw this sign eventuate in his lifetime, yet this pointer appears in His conversation with God!

Today, in retrospect, we see Psalm 22 as describing Jesus' crucifixion, however, prior to that event a reader of that Psalm would have seen it as a cry of anguish from a troubled soul. In verse 18 we read these words. 

They divide my garments among them,

And for my clothing they cast lots.   Psalms 22:18

However, we see this event actually happen at Calvary!

Pointers in the New Testament

Not only do we have these hidden pointers in the Old Testament, but Jesus Himself also planted some pointers in the NT Scriptures for His disciples to find but prior to the Resurrection, they did not understand them either.

Here are some pointers we see in the Gospel of John.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.  John 14:16-17

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.  John 14:26

“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.  John 15:26-27

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16 7:14

So, these pointers were there for the Disciples, but prior to Pentecost, when the Spirit of Truth made clear to them the things that Jesus had spoken, they too missed them, and in Luke 24:45 we read that just before the Ascension, Jesus, opened the disciples' minds to understand the scriptures.

But even though Jesus opened their minds to the Scriptures. The disciples had not fully grasped the importance of what was about to happen. We know this because of the reading in Acts 1. They ask about the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, not about the coming of the Helper who will lead them into all truth.

A message from Luke

One thing we need to consider here is the author. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts in the final verses of his Gospel, Luke touches on the events he uses to launch the Book of Acts.

And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

So, Jesus is telling them to wait, wait in the city until they are clothed with power from on high. In Acts 1:8, we read a little more detail that they are to wait, and they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit that will empower them to be Jesus’ witnesses.

So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8

I think it is at this point the disciples' thinking began to change. They now understand that something BIG was about to happen, and because they had faith in Jesus and believed the words, He had spoken expectations began to grow in their hearts and they began to wait with purpose. 

Waiting with purpose

So, how did the disciples wait with purpose? Well, firstly according to the Gospel of Luke, they spent time praising and worshipping God in the temple. 

And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God.  Luke 24:52-53

Secondly, the book of Acts tells us that they continually devoted themselves to prayer. (Acts 1:14) 

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. Acts 1:14

I would suggest that this did not mean endlessly reciting the Lord's Prayer, but that this was an interactive process of “PRAYERPARATION” and as they prayed God prepared them for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. 

We can only presuppose what happened as they waited for the Promise of the Father. But I think we can be sure that they were not waiting as if they were looking at the Bus timetable and tapping their foot with impatience. They were fully engaged in the process of PRAYERPARATION.

Expectations. 

                                 

Expectations of what was about to happen made them consider whether they were personally ready for what God was about to do. 

Let’s look at 4 ways that disciples could have prepared for Pentecost.

1. They settled their differences and forgave each other for their past offences and past sins. 

(If you are going to have unity, you have to have forgiveness.)

What makes me say this? Because without unity they could not effectively serve God with His whole blessing.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

For brothers to dwell together in unity!

It is like the precious oil upon the head,

Coming down upon the beard,

Even Aaron’s beard,

Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon

Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;

For there the LORD commanded the blessing—life forever.   Psalm 133.

Jesus himself said,

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. Mark 3:24-25

That is why I believe God would have been unifying them in their hearts.

2. They confessed long-forgotten or secret sins and asked God’s help to be clean and pure vessels. 

If there were secret sins that they had, perhaps this was the time when God addressed those sins. Perhaps there were those who had to deal with issues of lust, or envy. Who knows!

Jesus said,

For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.  Luke 8:17

The Apostle John, who was in that room at the time would later write,

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.       1 John 1:7

3. They had a revelation of their own inadequacy and were crying out to God for His help. 

To realise your inadequacy and your need for God to carry your load is to be humble.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

4. They thought about their time with Jesus or meditated on the Scriptures. 

What we think about affects the way we behave. In the not-too-distant future the Apostle Paul wrote; 

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.   Philippians 4:8

They would have thought about things that encouraged them and built up their faith. 

There is no more excellent, honourable and true document that we can access, than the Scriptures.

What we can learn from this.

No matter what we speculate, those in the upper room were being prepared empty vessels that would be ready to receive the Helper when he arrived. 

At a minimum, we can say that the disciples and the others who were gathered together were expectantly waiting on God

Yet those who wait for the LORD

Will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.   Isaiah 40:31

In the lead-up to Pentecost, there were a lot of things that were happening as people prepared themselves for the next thing that God was about to do.

Personal application

Perhaps we need to ask the question, what is the next thing that God has the agenda for me? 

How are you preparing for it? 

Are you at the Bus stop tapping your foot as you look at the timetable, or are you waiting with an expectant heart for the good things that are yet to come?

How are you praying for what is about to happen? 

How are you preparing your heart for what is about to happen? 

Are you moving together in unity with others? 

Are there hidden sins that you need to deal with or people, that you need to forgive?

We can learn a lot from the disciples as they prepared for Pentecost. So, let’s take what we have learned and let’s put it into action.

It is time to plan to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in!

It is time to plan to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in!

Post COVID 19 things will have changed. It will take a long time for Australia to get back to where we were at the beginning of 2020. There will be gaps in our economy. Increased unemployment, a lower ASX, a greater increase in people on social security, houses prices may fall, investment incomes could be lower. etc.

I accept that there will be changes that will affect me, my family, the community in which I live and for my nation; but what are we are going to do about those changes? Right now lots of people are watching lots of Netflix dressing up to take their bins out and hoping that in the end, everything will come out in the wash and that someone will come in at the last minute and save the day. (Some hope that James Bond and Superman really exist!) But are wasting our time?

I think that right now, we are in a good place to reassess and plan for a new future. We should turn off Netflix for a while, think, and pray about how we are going to move ahead. There will be new opportunities out there; new challenges will rise to meet us. How are we going to deal with them?

What will our post COVID communities look like and where exactly will we fit in? Will we have the same job, will we be able to support our community or will we need our community to support us whilst our family’s recover for the COVID emergency?

For me, my vision is a little wider than just my family, community and nation.  My concerns are also for refugees and poor communities in the developing world who will have been ravaged by COVID 19 and how we address that. For me, as I look forward, I see that it will be a time when we need to roll up our sleeves and get stuck into mopping up the mess that COVID leaves in its wake, not just in our nation but in the nations of others. It is not a time to focus on me and my needs but rather to look to those who are the least and work to somehow bring them out of the post COVID quagmire.

If ever we needed to love our neighbour, post COVID is it! Love is always practical and not esoteric! Love is giving even if it hurts. Love is saying yes even if it inconvenient. Love is long hours of focus just to see one person make it. At Easter, we talk about the cross being the practical outworking of God loving the world. Crucifixion was a torturous death. Yet Jesus endured that because He loved us. There were no esoteric warm fuzzies at Calvary! Our love for those near and far who are recovering from COVID 19 will not be easy, and the feel-good fuzzies may be few and far between, but love is practical and always comes at a cost.   

So the time I find myself in now is not so much a time to feast on Netflix but to plan and pray for the days that lie ahead. In my view, if we do not do this now, we lose an incredible opportunity to plan to roll up our sleeves and bring hope to the world. This could well be the “for such a time as this” moment for this generation.

So how are you planning to roll up your sleeves? If you don’t know, it’s time to turn off Netflix and begin the journey of finding out!     

Christmas thoughts of India

 Christmas thoughts of India

I have wanted to say more of about our activities in India but for security reasons, I thought it more prudent to wait until I was out of the country before putting up any posts that may be misunderstood. Getting into India was a little difficult this time.

We are on the home stretch to Christmas 2019 a time when we focus on family and look forward to the love and the fun and the giving and the blessings of Christmas.

In India, I was there to help Vanitashray celebrate 20 years of ministry. It was a joy to do that and go to some of the ministry sites to see firsthand some of the challenges that they are experiencing as a ministry.

As we toured these sites and spoke to staff and clients, one issue stood out more than any others that were highlighted repeatedly; and that was the value of the girl child.

Many of you will already know that I have strong views about this issue. I am a husband and a father and a grandfather and a son a brother and a friend. Many of my associates and work colleagues are women. I respect women and want to see them move ahead without the raw deals that are so often handed out to them that would deny them their value and “equalness” with men. No, our genders are not the same but we are equal in value and should be able to collaborate without all the angst. Life is simple if work on the principle that the man is not the king and the woman is not the slave! Nuff said!

In India, there are complications to gender equality. One is that there is religious teaching that women are not to be trusted and are lower in value that some of the animals, and then there is abject poverty.

Hinduism teaches that women cannot be trusted and must never be independent.

Women are liars, corrupt, greedy, and unvirtuous. Manu II 1

Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in her old age; a woman is never fit for independence. Manuasmriti 9:3

No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women, apart from their husbands. If a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven. (Manu V. 155)

All women are born of sinful wombs. Bhagavad-Gita IX 32

Sacrifices performed by women are inauspicious and not acceptable to god. They should, therefore, be avoided. Manu IV. 206

When creating them, Manu allotted to women (a love of their) bed, (of heart) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct. Manu IX.17

There are many more than what I have mentioned here. I make this point not to make people angry but to show that in India the religious status quo is highly biased against women having any value, that the devaluing and bias sees girl children and women treated badly as a matter of religious practice. The things you believe to be true will shape your actions and every action has a consequence.   

Vanitashray, the project we were visiting specializes in caring for orphans and abandoned children and widows. India has 46 million widows more than any other country in the world! It also has 30 million abandoned children.

Whilst at the 20^th year celebrations I met a young girl who was 23 years old and she had a cute baby. This girl came to Vanitashray at 3 years of age. When she arrived, she had been so badly sexually assaulted that she could not walk, or talk. Her father was trying to sell her for 2,000 rupees. She was of no value to him.

This little girl grew up in Vanitashray in a loving environment where she was loved, valued and treated with dignity.  She now has a much better life. However, if you think cases like hers are a rare find, unfortunately, they are not. Because girl children are not valued, they are disposable. After meeting this young lady and her baby, I came back to my hotel and read this article in the local paper.

Families with too many girl children are known to sell them into brothels because they are of no value. Widows are often sold into the sex trade by family or neighbours. Selling any girl/woman to a brothel, or any other form of slavery because they are perceived to be otherwise valueless is wrong there are no excuses that can justify it. Raping a young girl because her life does not otherwise matter is wrong, inexcusable and reprehensible. The man is not the king and the woman is not the slave.

We can complain about corruption that sees only a few of these cases ever get prosecuted or even investigated, but the reality is that the problem lies fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the men who run the brothels and finance the trafficking of women and children into the sex trade. Of men who kidnap children and women to make a profit. Of men who use the brothels. (If there were no demand, there would be no sex trade.) Of men cast off their wives or desert their families and leave them to fend for themselves whilst they take all the family assets with them and seek a new relationship. 

I stand with Christian projects like Vanitashray because they make a difference in the lives of those who have been cast aside and abandoned to a fate of indescribable horror, solely based on their gender.

Vanitashray has many cases of horror like these that have turned ok because the child/woman was able to be placed into a loving, caring, environment that treated them with respect, and by doing that gave them a future and a hope.

In refugee camps, we also hear sad tales of women being mistreated.

This Christmas I will be celebrating with my family and enjoying the love and excitement that this season brings to the children in our family. But in the back of my mind will also be thoughts and prayers for the girl children who whilst I celebrate the love of Christmas with my family, are perhaps experiencing the worst day of their lives.

I do not go in for New Year’s resolutions, but in 2020, I am going to try to do better as a man and make more of a stand for the world’s women. What about you?

It's about ME

Over the past months we have seen a host of women and in some cases men out sexual predators in the entertainment industry. There have been stories about producers actors and now sports medicos who have crossed lines that should have never been crossed. There is no excuse for sexual harassment or sexual assault. Whether you are a film star or the local pizza delivery man, working on a road or a supermarket check out; you need and you deserve a safe work place. Women especially need to be safe at work, at recreation and even walking down the street. Sexual misconduct needs to be given more than a slap on the wrist. Offenders need to be punished so that they learn that it is unacceptable to behave in these ways. Some victims have to live with life long consequences perpetrators need to cop penalties that reflect the seriousness of the crime.

So we have educated people with messages of entitlement, we have told them that it is OK for them to focus on them and to build a world view that empowers them to put their desires in front of the desires or even rights of others. Bzzzzzt - thank you for playing

So how did we get here? How did we get to the place where rich and powerful men feel entitled to force themselves on women and young boys without fear of repercussions?

I think the answer lies in the cultural nuances we have embraced over the past few decades. Here are a few.

It's all about you.
You are the most important person in the world. 
You deserve it. 
Live for the minute. 
If it feels good, do it!
Strike while the iron is hot!


We live in a world that has other people living it and those people's right to safety and protection from danger. Our personal desires and fantasies do not override another person's right to live without suffering physical, psychological, or spiritual abuse at the hands of selfish others.

Jesus we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the basis of respect. In 2018 it is time for lay some new nuances in our culture - ones that say I got your back, your safety is my priority, you deserve to live in a more secure world.

A few words about climate change.

In recent days I have taken a hammering on my Facebook page when  I made comments about Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate pact.

I have made the point several times, that for me, climate change is a difficult issue to resolve because the politicized science. I do not know if I can agree with the existence of a phenomenon called Climate Change but I can see very clearly that whether or not Climate Change exists being ecologically responsible is not a bad thing. The less toxic gas we put we put in the atmosphere the better that is for all of the planet. 

I have flown into Bangkok, Mumbai, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, London and Singapore enough times to see the brown clouds of pollution the hover those cities and other mega cities like them waiting to be blown out to sea or inland to become someone else's problem.

Climate change aside brown clouds are not good for human kind. This is God's earth, he has entrusted it to us - if we trash it we are showing gross disrespect to Him who deserves the most respect. 

The radical deforestation of parts of our planet is not being equally replaced by an equal amount trees being planted by concerned greenies, and the trees that are being planted are they in the right place to help clean the dirtiest of the smog that is blown about the planet?

I am not a greenie but I try to be responsible. My wife and I for years rented houses our plan was to leave every house we lived in better shape for having us as tenants rather than leaving it worse for wear when we moved on. Is it not the same for the planet, shouldn't one generation try to leave things better for the following generations? 

Much has been made about the unfairness of the Paris accord and how it just another opportunity for people to pick on America. 

I love America - it is the No 2 country in my heart next to Australia. I love Americans they are kind, funny, generous and love God with a passion, and even though America gets it wrong from time to time when they do, they are drawn back to their roots, to the foundational belief that  "in God we trust" are not simply words that have been stamped onto the face of a coin or printed on the back of a bank note - they are the foundations of the heart and soul of the nation in which they live.

This world needs leadership, for decades America has provided that leadership and being a leader can be expensive - but America has done us proud and led and been generous helped us to get a glimpse of what one nation under God actually looks like. 

When you are the tallest poppy there will be doubters and nay-sayers  but they all come running home when they need a powerful friend who is not afraid to stand up for what is right.

It concerned me that Donald Trump campaigned with the slogan "Make America great again" I was not aware that America had lost its greatness. I was not aware that the great friendly, leader of the world's democracies had departed from the path, lost its way, or had slipped in the rankings somehow. America is a great nation, a good leader and an inspiration. It needs to stand tall and come back to front of the line where it belongs. 

So what has this got to do with climate change. Much of  America is passionately against climate change and the rest either believe in it or are making up their minds. Meanwhile brown clouds still greet passengers visiting the worlds mega cities.  


Presently 1 in 9 people living on earth do not have access to clean drinking water and every year 842,000 people (mainly children) are estimated to die from the effects of the lack of unclean drinking water. Yet in the West  we pay about as much for designer bottled water as we do for petrol.


Forget the climate change argument for the minute - is it  too much for all of us to live cleaner and more ecologically responsibly and to improve our planet one generation at a time?! 

We need to put a stake in the ground and say that climate change or no climate change I will try to leave less of a foot print to impact the following generations.

Let's agree to change the things that we don't argue about. Basic things like;

* clean and safe drinking water for every child on the face of the planet

* reduce the brown clouds that hover over the world's mega cities

* clean air for all to breathe

Let the West be an inspiration to the rest of the world when it comes to managing this planet

Let our world leader set the standards that can transform our communities and provide clean air and clean water and safe living standards for every member.

People can argue about climate change, and may it not be true, but whether or not is lets agree to live cleanly and responsibly for the sake of future generations. WWJD?

Asylum Seeking - a reasonable perspective

Asylum Seeking – A Reasonable Perspective

Our beloved recycled PM and the Leader of the Opposition are racing each other to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to policy on asylum seekers.

We will use the military, we will use the rule of law, and we will use anything we can find lying around except good old compassionate common sense.

Refugees and boat people

In writing this I must admit that I am not a fan of boat people, not because I am a racist, but because I work with those in the refugee camps who live in squalid conditions and who until recently had their places taken by boat people. Recent changes to the regulations means that the boat people have no advantage over those in refugee camps in that everyone has a number and you are processed once your number comes up.

However, unlike our detention centres, refugee camps have diseases such as malaria and TB raging through them. Health and dental checks are few and far between, malnutrition is not uncommon as is rape, and the spread of HIV. So to say the the new regulations will give no advantage to those arriving by boat is really not altogether true. They should be substantially better off in a detention centre than a refugee camps. (Oh and for the uninitiated, refugee camps have barbed wire and guards too!)

Recently the newspapers carried a story about a pack rape of a young man in an Australian detention centre. This incident is reprehensible and the culprits need to be brought to justice! Detainees need to be safe. You might see that behaviour in a refugee camp but it should never happen in a detention centre. Today one of our papers said our detention centres were Gulags, but please let me take you on a tour of a real refugee camp and then compare that to Manus Island and you will see that there is quite a difference.  In detention centres people should be secure, and they should be safe, and they should be well fed and they should be healthy and they should have access to health services counselling services and education. If you think a detention centre has a bad effect on children just visit a refugee camp. Detention centres are basic but they are a lot better than camps!

People complain about the time people spend in detention but there are good reasons, one they have to wait their turn (remember the refugees in the camps) and two people smugglers tell them to destroy their passports and other forms of ID and many of them do, so how is it that you can prove someone is the person they say they are; but a few years in a detention centre is much better than a few years in camp, and those who complain about the length of time taken to process asylum seekers should at the very least take these points into consideration.

Money talks loudly

So, let’s talk about money asylum seekers are paying $10,000 in gold to come across on a leaky boat, so where did that money come from. Yes some of them are dying in the process, but they are paying good money to have a chance to get to Australia! Their choice to get on a leaky boat should not be used as emotional blackmail in the political debate, any more than we should blame ourselves that a young person tragically dies when they drink drive, it was their choice!  Yes asylum seekers are desperate to get to Australia, but those they are seeking to replace in the immigration queue, (those who live in the camps) are even more desperate, they just do not have the funds with which they can try to change their circumstances.

People living in refugee camps are not allowed to work, not allowed to accumulate wealth whilst living in the camps they can be deported for doing so. So they cannot compete with those who are cash rich, who can afford boat passages, satellite phones and other such luxuries!  In one camp I was in just last week I was told that that people who have been on the waiting list 30 years or more are now being pushed down on the list by newly arrived cash rich refugees who are bribing authorities to put their names at the top of the list. Who speaks for those who are missing out, why it is that the presence of money is allowed to cause such injustice!

So I am not a fan of boat people, and my reasons are based on compassion not racism; however let us now turn our attention to the race to the bottom of the policy barrel.

Setting the attack dogs on them,

Even though asylum seekers arriving by boat are well funded and desperate to come to Australia are we going to set the attack dogs on them? Are we really going to get our Navy to act like a police force, or like bouncers at a disco to rid us of all the undesirables approaching the rim of our shores? Are we going to not allow every asylum seeker who comes by boat to settle here; if their lawyers find one exception you will soon have two then three and soon your policy is in tatters.

Despite the UNHCR having problems with the Rudd plan, which is a worry in itself, if PNG pull out of the deal, how many islands off the coast of Australia and in the Pacific are we going to fill with asylum seekers before we wake up to the fact that the policy is unsustainable?

Yes I believe detention centres maybe a necessary evil and they in themselves could be deterrent enough for people wanting to attempt the journey, especially if they understand that they will have to wait in a controlled environment much like a refugee camp, until they are processed and that processing times will be longer if they destroy their identity papers.

What about tweaking our aid program to try and make it more inviting for people to stay in their own countries. What about increasing our aid budget instead of the size of our navy?

And for those who are genuine asylum seekers who have proved their identity, waited their turn and ticked all the right boxes, and who fit into the annual refugee quota why don’t we find a place for them, after all we are the Lucky Country and we have enough to go around.

A Confusion of wrongs

A Confusion of Wrongs

The revelation in the US that three teenagers could be abducted and kept prisoner for 10 years is horrendous. What is more worrying is that they were kept captive within a short distance from where they were abducted!

The fact that these young women were systematically tortured and raped for that period is equally horrifying. According to police one man is the lead suspect and among other things he has been accused of is starving at least one of the girls and systematically punching her in the stomach to abort children that were conceived in this den of horrors. The prosecutors of the case say that they may seek the death penalty for the murder of the unborn children.

Here I am confused. The man who did these things needs to face a just penalty for his crimes, they are inexcusable! But how can a state legislature that allows abortion (which devalues the life of the child), try a man for a capital crime of murder (which values the life of the child and demands retribution for the life lost) for a crime that involves the death of an unborn child? 

By allowing the unborn to be killed in the womb by doctors you have to render the child to be a non person, something that has no value. Terminating the life of a child life then is removing something that is of no value and holds no moral guilt. The pro-abortion lobby have spent years pushing the point of view that a fetus is a collection of excess cells nothing more, so if you believe their argument, an abortion is about as morally wrong as clipping your toe nails.

If an unborn child has no value under the Ohio state law then how can a government seek the death penalty for killing an unborn child? The wrongness of what happened to these young women must be exposed and culprit(s) bought to justice. 

Perhaps one positive that night come out of it is that the horror of what happened to these girls might instill in the minds of many the horrors of abortion. Perhaps people will rethink the value of of the unborn and perhaps abortion laws will change because of it.