Federal Member for Mildura, John Forrest, has told the media he will vote against homosexual “marriage” because his electorate is “very conservative” and “not ready for it”.

If the local paper’s poll (accessible only to people with the internet) manages to come up with a majority in favour of it, what will he say then?

He will have to say that he is going to vote against it because it is wrong and unnatural.

Which is what he should have said in the first place.

* * *

Very little clear thinking seems to go on about homosexuality.

It may help to compare it with alcohol abuse.

Both are traits that can cause powerful desires.

Both are bad for both individual health and for the health of the community.

Both can be resisted by means of will power plus support from friends, family or professional helpers.

Just as we have programs for rehabilitation of drunks, we might consider setting up rehab programs for those given to unhealthy sexual practices.

* * *

The two disorders are not exactly parallel, of course.

Homosexual practice is obviously worse from a moral point of view.

You can get drunk on your own.

To practice homosexuality, one must groom/seduce/recruit somebody to do it with.

This other person is harmed in a way that may well prove irreversible.

Greens Party MP, Colleen Heartland, is again pushing a resolution to legalise euthanasia in Victoria.

It recommends that the Attorney General “refer the matter of end of life medical treatment and patient choices in aid in dying to the Victorian Law Reform Commission for inquiry, consideration and report by September 2012”.

Those familiar with the Victorian Law Reform Commission know how committed that body is to undermining the sanctity of human life.

Only 3 years ago, Victorian Parliament rejected a similar attempt by this same MP to legalise “assisted suicide”.

The Greens Party endlessly keeps pushing its culture of death.

So far, every time MPs in Victoria and other states have debated this issue, they have rejected it.

A while back, after NSW Parliament rejected a bill to legalise euthanasia, Concord Hospital Palliative Care Specialist, Dr Ghauri Aggarwal, commented that, at that time, only one third of dying patients in NSW had access to Palliative Care.

About the same time, a Roy Morgan Poll found that 80 percent of Australians don’t know what euthanasia is.

They think euthanasia means letting people die.

Unfortunately the euthanasia lobby has SOMETHING ELSE in mind for them.

* * *

P.S.  Today’s online Channel Ten “Can of Worms” Poll is asking: “Do you believe euthanasia should be legalised?”

At 6.20am today (31-8-2011), the scorecard was running at Yes 25.5, No 74.5.

The other day, an Austrian court granted a car-driver permission to wear a strainer — the kind used in preparing pasta– on his head for his licence photo.

Niko Alm said he must wear the strainer because he belongs to the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM)”.

His gesture was a protest against letting Muslim women be licence-photoed wearing a hijab on religious grounds.

The FSM movement, founded in 2005, now has members in several countries – all committed to undermining religion by mocking it.

* * *

Various people, atheists, scientologists, satanists etc., want to be recognised as religions, despite common sense suggesting that they are no such thing.

The question arises as to what is “religion”.

Would a fair definition of religion be acceptance of there being a God . . . plus willingness to conform to a God-imposed moral code . . . ?

Whatever your definition, somebody will disagree with it.

* * *

Many of us want to be Christians, recognising it as the human race’s best (only?) serious attempt to confront every question that life throws up – including the hard ones about pain, sin and evil.

Yet we experience trouble believing some Church doctrines.

For example, that Jesus, the historical human being, was/is actually God . . . and his having resurrected from the dead.

Others dislike the teachings about purity, marriage, sexuality etc. . . .

* * *

The secret is to remember that, although active doubt is disobedience and therefore a sin – having difficulties of belief is not a sin. It is simply being human.

What God wants above all is our goodwill.

We must try to believe as much as we can of what he has revealed.

The rest may come later, if/when he gives us the grace.

Meanwhile, remember Our Lord’s words in St John’s Gospel, ‘Any man who is willing to do the will of God; he shall know the doctrine, whether it be from God . . . .”

Obedience is the key.

“As fans around the globe mourn the death of one of the most influential and impressive music artists in Michael Jackson, the iconic singer’s tragic passing two years ago today in his Los Angeles home still resonates in the hearts of many etc.” (RapFix)

Yes, people are making money out of Mr Jackson’s memory. Selling his gear. Tribute concerts etc.

But Michael Jackson left the world more than just musical influence and a profitable ongoing industry – he left yet another nail in the coffin of what good there may have been in human nature.

Jackson died, a middle aged man of 51, his name linked with accusations of molesting little boys. Perhaps these allegations were untrue. But his contempt for goodness certainly showed up in his songs.

MJ became famous partly on the strength of “Billie Jean”, whose lyrics were, it seems, about fathering a child and not wanting to take further responsibility.

His album titles, “Bad” and “Dangerous” were cash-ins on the hankerings of bored westerners for anything to break the monotony without bringing God or goodness into it.

* * *

This weekend also marks legislation in New York recognising same-sex “marriage”.

The Western Australian Labor Party chose the same time to vote its support for the same thing.

Australian Labor is painting itself into a corner.

Let’s hope they listen to Joe Bullock, Secretary of the WA Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association:

“Ask yourself, would society ever afford special status to marriage if it had nothing to do with reproduction?

“Marriage is special because it provides a stable, balanced environment for child-rearing. Homosexual relationships are naturally infertile — it’s not marriage.”

* * *             

And the words of Jesus Christ:

“God created male and female and as the scripture says, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Let no man, therefore, separate what God has joined together.’”

A Western Australian Parliamentary committee yesterday recommended raising the legal alcohol drinking age to 21.

Plus fixing a minimum price for alcohol.

Plus phasing out alcohol company sponsorship of sport.

Sounds good.

WA set a good example recently in being the first state to ban Kronic and similar synthetic-cannabis products. The other states are starting to do the same.

Let’s hope all states will also adopt WA-type alcohol-curbing laws.

* * *

There is no doubt that the measures recommended are right — and overdue.

The scientific evidence is beyond doubt.

* A 2007 Melbourne study revealed a 5-fold increase in numbers of 16-to-25 year olds with alcohol-related brain damage in the previous decade. 16-to-25 year olds? How tragic! St Vincent’s Hospital’s Professor Jon Currie comments that laws re alcohol must inevitably change – as did laws re seatbelts and under-age tobacco sales.

* Deakin University professor of Health Psychology, Dr John Toumbourou, says he is a “very strong supporter” of raising drinking ages: “In countries where it (higher drinking age) has been introduced there has been about a 15 percent reduction in deaths and harm related to alcohol”.

* Flinders University Professor of Public Health, Dr Ann Roche, has said that “even smallish amounts” of alcohol can harm the developing brain, suggesting there are arguments for delaying drinking age to 25.

Yes, 25.

* * *

Our bodies are a gift from God.

If we respect God, we will respect his gifts.

The Bible says: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.”

Of all our body organs, we should value most our brain — that part which permits us to think about God — and about his love – and about our duties to him.

A federal parliamentary committee reports that young Aboriginal boys are 28 times more often detained by police than young whites.

What to do?

The committee has made 40 suggestions — better police training, programs to get children attending school, detecting indigenous children with impaired hearing, mentoring programs etc.

These have all been tried before.                                                                  

Will we have any better luck now than in the past?

* * *

In 2007, the Howard government introduced the so-called “Northern Territory Intervention”, hoping to overcome Aboriginal community social problems.

The policy included “dry areas”, quarantining welfare payments, compulsory residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation, banning pornography — plus more police.

$1.36 billion was earmarked to be spent over three years.

$3 million per day.

* * *

The Intervention was torpedoed by the media, by and large, condemning it . . . .

Which encouraged some indigenous leaders to stir up indignation against it – with talk about “genocide” etc.

Others were more constructive, pointing out that, while the Intervention was not perfect, it’s worth persevering with – and improving as we go along.

Warlpiri elder, Bess Price, for example, had supported the introduction of the Intervention, saying: “My people don’t use money the way white people do. They don’t save . . . they can’t say no to relatives even when they are drunks and addicted . . . They need help in spending their money wisely.”

Recently she has defended the results of the Intervention: “I’ve seen progress . . . children being fed and young people more or less know how to manage their lives.”

* * *

The chief handicap to the Intervention doing more good has been. . . .

Guess what?

Youth workers, like Blair McFarlane, point out repeatedly that things won’t really improve unless ALCOHOL consumption is reduced.

Our governments, however, have displayed consistent lack of political will to take on the Territory’s alcohol retailers.