Herald Sun by Malcolm Farr- September 06, 2012
Ms Gillard was to have given the keynote address to the Australian Christian Lobby next month but today cancelled her appearance.
She accused ACL managing director Jim Wallace of offensive comments Wednesday when he compared gay marriage with the health risks of smoking. Mr Wallace repeated his comments in a statement today.
The Prime Minister has said she opposes gay marriage but today took the significant step of defending those who are agitating for law changes to allow it. In political terms the Prime Minister was ensuring she did not lose the influential gay vote in inner city areas.
“There is a range of deeply held views in the community on the issue of same-sex marriage but it is the responsibility of all parties in this debate to be respectful and responsible in any public comments they make,” the Prime Minister said today in a statement.
“I believe yesterday’s comments by Jim Wallace were offensive. To compare the health effects of smoking cigarettes with the many struggles gay and lesbian Australians endure in contemporary society is heartless and wrong.
“Although everyone is entitled to their own view, these statements reiterated again today on behalf of ACL are totally unacceptable. In light of this, I believe my attendance at the conference would be inappropriate.”
Mr Wallace, who is also a former head of the SAS, made his comments during a debate on gay marriage with Greens Leader Christine Milne in Hobart yesterday.
“I think we’re going to owe smokers a big apology when the homosexual community’s own statistics for its health – which it presents when it wants more money for health – are that is has higher rates of drug-taking, of suicide, it has the life of a male reduced by up to 20 years,” Mr Wallace said.
“The life of smokers is reduced by something like seven to 10 years and yet we tell all our kids at school they shouldn’t smoke.
“But what I’m saying is we need to be aware that the homosexual lifestyle carries these problems and … normalising the lifestyle by the attribution of marriage, for instance, has to be considered in what it does encouraging people into it.”
In his statement today Mr Wallace attacked ‘gay activists’ he said had misrepresented his comments about smoking in a deliberate attempt to demonise and to shut down debate.
“I was not comparing homosexuality with smoking at all. What I was saying is that on one hand we are vocal on our discouragement of people to smoke and on the other we are suppressing public dialogue about the health risks associated with homosexuality,” he said.
“Instead of more free speech-suppressing vitriol and demonisation from the gay activists, there needs to be an open and honest debate before Parliament changes the definition of marriage.”
The ACL said the prime minister’s decision to pull out of the conference would be seen “as the abandonment of the Christian constituency”.
It said the Prime Minister’s decision was disappointing and based on inaccurate reporting “and misrepresentation by gay activists”. It had been a blow to free speech.
“This is a victory for the relentless campaign of demonization against anyone who would challenge the gay activists’ agenda in the public square,” said Mr Wallace.
“What I did say is that heterosexual sex and homosexual sex are different and have different health consequences. They should not be packaged the same way as marriage because, as just one of many reasons, they are different.
“If we warn against smoking because it carries health dangers, we should also be warning young people in particular about activity which clearly carries health risks.”
Mr Wallace also roused controversy on ANZAC Day last year when he Tweeted “Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for wasn’t gay marriage and Islamic!”
Ms Gillard was to have delivered the keynote address at the annual ACL conference in Canberra on October 5. The conference theme will be “Building a nation OF character: Religious freedom in a secular democracy.”
Other speakers will include Mr Wallace; Greg Craven, Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University; Liberal front bencher Kevin Andrews; lawyer Elizabeth Turnour; and Paul Henderson of Compass Australia.
The Greens Christine Milne today said the ACL was more a company than a lobby group and was not linked to any Christian church.
“The Prime Minister should not be going anywhere near the ACL,” said Senator Milne.
Australian Marriage Equality convenor Alex Greenwich praised Ms Gillard for taking a stand against the extremism of the Christian lobby.
Mr Greenwich called on Mr Wallace to apologise for the comments, saying they were based on fear rather than facts.
– with Phillip Hudson
There was another think that stood out and that was the female Baptist minister from a church in Collins St who was also supporting Homesexual marriage and also stated that most of the church do as well. She obviously doesn’t know what the Bible says on this.
Thanks for sending through
Tracie
Yes, wrote about it here: http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/09/06/hated-for-speaking-the-truth/
Bill
Dear Jason,
You can pray for Jim Wallace and ACL but please don’t support their agenda. He should never have invited Julia in the first plac – she is a founder of Emily’s List.
Babette
Thank you for the note to prayer for Jim Wallace my only question is why is it such a big deal that the PM Julia Gillard has cancelled speaking at a Christian Convention when she is an Athesis anyway.
Isn’t it compromise. I don’t need the PM’s permission or acknowledgement to be a child of Jesus. Jesus should be the centre not PM Julia Gillard.
Ivan & Lindsay
I think Jim must be related to William Wallace the famous Scots warrior and patriot..!
But why did Jim invite an atheist for the keynote address?? The fool has said in his\HER heart ‘there is no God’
I believe the Salvos gave her the same opportunity and their tick of approval, in Adelaide? — Shameful !
With this move towards Gay marriage homosexuals break the 5th commandment and disrespect their own parents!
Keep fighting Jim, political correctness a.k.a.cultural marxism is as sly and dangerous as the serpent in eden.
Like the E.D.L. No surrender.! Maybe Julia would be better suited as keynote speaker for the Gay mardi gras.
p.s. The female Baptist minister mentioned in response 1, another member of the’ gutless clergy association’.
Typical Australian media: ‘”Smoking healthier than gay marriage” slur’.
It’s not a slur, it’s a fact. Stating facts could make the media unpopular. People actually read their stuff?
I doubt that anyone has attempted to do the figures but we may rest assured that active and uncontrolled “abusing oneself with mankind’ is costing each one of us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, annually, and is a factor in the worldwide economic woes. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed and thousands of millions have their lives diminished or endangered every day.
Quoting the (online) JEREMIAH PROJECT.
AIDS Misinformation
AIDS is the most politicized disease mankind has ever known. Special interest groups have helped subvert the health care policies we have in place – good policies that should apply to all diseases. We need to return to traditional medical and public health procedures historically used to control other infectious diseases.. Dr. Day writes: “It took 14,000-16,000 victims ……………. .
Over 75 percent of AIDS infections result from homosexual activity or drug use and only two percent result from blood transfusions.
A study of 5,200 obituaries over five years, in 16 homosexual newspapers, plus dozens of other studies, show that homsexual conduct reduces life expectancy by 30 years.
The average age of homosexual men dying with AIDS is 39.
The average age of gays dying of all other causes is 41.
Only one percent of men who practice homosexual sex lives to be 65 or older.
Gay men are three times more likely to have alcohol or drug abuse problems. This leads to an increase in heart, lung and liver failure as well as an increase in accidental deaths.
Homosexuals are 14 times more likely to have had syphilis, and 23 times more likely to contract venereal diseases and thousands of times more likely to contract AIDS.
Lesbians are 19 times more likely than heterosexual women to have had syphilis; twice as likely to suffer from genital warts; and four times as likely to have scabies.
Sin isn’t amusing. I know — I suffer from it.
Beats me why ACL doesn’t invite CTFM to provide a speaker. But good on you Jim W. all the way.
Congratulations to Jim Wallace for his courage.
Prime Minister Gillard lied to Christians before the last election that she said she would protect the institution of marriage. She has failed on this issue as she has with the Carbon Tax. Her prime aim is to win power and maintain the gay vote at the next election so her refusal to attend an ACL Conference is not surprising. This is a leader who has very little integrity and is tossed like the wind. Australia is far better without her and I am praying for her removal from power. Ask any small business owner how they are travelling. Business is very very hard and all the government can do is waste hundreds of millions.
Mr Greenwich’s (Australian Marriage Equality convenor) comments are a laugh. Since when has Alex Greenwich argued on factual information on the health of Homosexuals in Australian society or on the essential rights of Children.
His modis operandi is to call anyone a homophobe who doesn’t agree with him.
He has done this, a number of times in the past.
WE Pray that Gay marriage will not be approved in the Country. It will be a sad day if it is, especially for innocent children whose choice will be eliminated by an immoral and unethical Labor Government who thinks lying to Australians is acceptable practice.
Phil – Sydney
When are the so-called “leaders” of this Church going to do what needs to be done… FIGHT and WIN WARS?
At the end of the day, it is all about battle victories, not appeasement. As St Ignatius says in his spiritual exercises, you cannot win a war by a defensive posture alone.
Robert
I just sent the following to the Age Editor ….
If homosexuality is as unhealthy as Jim Wallace stated in the Tasmanian debate, and we know it is, why does he and the ACL support legal same-sex relationship recognition (by Relationship Registers) and same-sex couple ‘rights’ in the name of justice?
Is he actually waking up to the truth, at last?
If he now really believes the facts that he stated in the debate, he should now admit he was wrong to support any legal recognition and ‘rights’.
Same-sex Relationship Registers are simply Civil Unions/marriage by another name, and have already been used to promote the normalisation of homosexuality to our school children.
Regards,
Peter
Dear Sen. Milne/Greens,
Thank you for replying to my marriage query. Quoting yourselves: ” Greens MPs are committed to equal rights for all Australians regardless of race, religion or gender.”
Would you be good enough to answer the following question, Yes or No. Please keep it simple. I will avoid quoting either the Bible, or the Australian Constitution It is not necessary to do so, because they are well known, and unambiguous. I will do so if requested. Both those authorities (backed by countless years of jurisprudence, personal experience, and expert advice) do not grant equality under Law to criminals. They both imply that it is criminal to unreasonably and with frivolous intent deny a child the right to a genetic mother and father. They both imply that Christianity cannot be the underlaying principle behind the denigration of the biblical concept of marriage. (Which, incidentally, has little to do with homosexuality. It has to do with marriage law and laws relating to human behavior). In short: by definition, if marriage is defined as something wide of the biblical mark, and this is passed into legislation, the legislators have theoretically banned Christianity. You are using the point of a gun to force all citizens to act contrary to the christian (and many other) faiths. If you demand that I own marriage to be non-binding, frivolous, and not tied to the future of children, then you are demanding that I publicly make Jesus Christ to be faithless and frivolous. Do the Greens support legislation which criminalizes Christianity?
I note that you are being honest enough to read correspondence and reply, which is healthy, and presumably marks a sea change from the attitude of Senator Brown.
Regards, P.B.H..
If people really wanted to embrace the truth they would find that the homosexual lifestyle is high risk for many diseases not only to the physical body but to the mind – many homosexuals suffer from depression. Why perpetuate the myth. This lifestyle is anything but gay!