Weekly Update #3 - 7 Jan

A belated 'Happy New Year'., to you all. Apologies that our planned weekly update turned 'fortnightly' due to us having 'quality time' with our grandson last week. It is largely the thought of what sort of future our grandchildren, and your children and grandchildren, will have to face if we don't 'stand in the gap', that keeps us going.

The Queen's Christmas Message
The Queen of Great Britain, Australia, and the Commonwealth gave a surprisingly 'Christian' Christmas speech two weeks ago. It is worth listening to.
Steve Addison, a Baptist blogger who is the Director of Church Resource Ministries (CRM) Australia, summed it up along with some interesting comments on the Media coverage it received... Click here to read the Queen's message. Click here to listen to the speech.
Click here to read Steve's comments.

Australia - same-sex 'marriage' debate
There is division in the ranks of those pushing for 'sexual equality' by gaining s-s 'marriage', and that is a good thing. Remember, "united we stand, divided we fall" which is one reason we have been losing this debate to date, because the 'church' has been far more divided than the so-called 'progressives'.

Well, now they are divided too - not on wanting s-s 'equality' but on when they should make the push for 'marriage' in the Federal Parliament. The stumbling block, praise God, is Tony Abbott's refusal to give a conscience vote to Liberal/National MPs and Senators. There are also accusations that some Labor MPs want to rush the vote so it will fail. There are some Labor MPs who will use their conscience vote to say 'No' to changing the Marriage Act, so those supporting change know they need some Coalition MPs to also vote for the change to get the Act changed. Small 'l' liberals like Malcolm Turnbull, given a chance, will vote with Labor and the Greens on this issue. Some of the so-called 'Independents' also support it so we already know it is a close race. The division is 'when', not 'if', to bring on the vote. Pro-homosexual group 'Australian Marriage Equality' chairman, Alex Greenwich, believes that, given time, Tony Abbott will be persuaded to accept a conscience vote, therefore virtually guaranteeing a win in the Parliament. WE must make sure we continue to appeal to Tony Abbott to uphold the Coalition election pledge to support the Marriage Act. Send him an email - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Please also write to the leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss - click here for contact form. Links to Media Articles: Bill to fuel same-sex marriage squabble / Call for Patience / MP takes vow of consensus on same-sex marriage bill

American Presidential elections
Iowa, USA, was the first place that voted in America's rather strange voting system to find the Republican candidate to oppose President Obama in the National Election later this year.

There are 5 main contenders, and the result in Iowa is an indication of who that person might be... Brian S. Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage reported on the outcome stating that, the winner was Gov. Mitt Romney, but the big surprise was Sen. Rick Santorum who surged forward into second place, with just eight votes less than Romney. T

he main thing about this result is that they are both strong marriage supporters - meaning they oppose same-sex 'marriage'. This race to the White House in very important, even to Australians, because if the USA continues with Obama, marriage will likely become 'gender neutral' very soon. Obama continues to placate the homosexual activists and refuses to support DOMA, the national 'Defence of [heterosexual] Marriage Act' passed by the US Congress and supported by both Parties.

Bill Muehlenberg says "the man to now watch as the most consistently Christian and conservative candidate is Rick Santorum". Read Bill's analysis of the current situation - click here.