Arnold Jago, Mildura Vic., letter in New Life, 21 Jul. 2005:

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, said, ‘I’m against condoms in schools. I have grown-up children. My policy was to frighten them out of undisciplined sex.’ Despite conventional condom-peddler theories, putting the fear of God into young people’s heads works best …

[Meanwhile, back in the 21st century ...]

Barney Zwartz, ‘Catholic guest angers Presbyterians’, Melbourne Age, 9 Aug. 2005:

A Presbyterian minister who invited a Catholic bishop to preach in his church has run into trouble with his presbytery. Douglas Robertson, senior minister at the Scots Church in Melbourne, invited auxiliary bishop Mark Coleridge to give a service in May …A senior Presbyterian who did not want to be named said the incident had caused ‘quite a stir’ and that Mr Robertson had ‘overstepped the mark’. ‘We are Protestant, we are protesting against the Roman Catholics, and what is a man of Catholic heritage doing in our pulpit?’

[Meanwhile, back in the 16th century ...]

Dr Peter Jensen, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Melbourne Age, 13 July 2005, regarding the possibility of female bishops:

I do think men are still men and women are still women and I want that reflected in … family life and in church life.

[Or, translated into the vernacular, 'Back to the kitchen, sister. Shut up and do as you're told.']

Alan Barron, Memucan Institute of Men’s Studies Newsletter, July 2005, 8:

Feminist polices [sic] are what’s wrong with this country. These failed polices [sic] are a disaster for family life and the economy …The modern woman is a failure as a woman because our fertility rates have fallen well below replacement levels and polices [sic] announced by Ms Goward yesterday will only further exasperate the problem.

[Such a sweet guy. And what a way with words!]

Jesus Gift to the Nation, ‘Come and See the Unbelievable’, via Australian Christian Lobby website -www.acl.org.au - 7 July 2005:

‘Unlocking the Mystery of Life’ … a scientific DVD on which evolutionists tell of their search for truth and admit that, after many years of research, they no longer hold evolution as credible. You will be fascinated by some contemporary scientists who are advancing a powerful but controversial idea … the theory of intelligent design … The next step is to realise that Genesis 1 verse 1 ‘In the beginning God created’ might be true after all.

['Intelligent Design' authors claim that their ideas do not identify any particular designer, but fundamentalists and Pentecostals can take a broad hint when they see one.]

Ed Vaughan, Proserpine, Qld., letter in Good Report, Jul.-Aug. 2005, 8:

Contrary to [Fred] Nile’s statement that Benedict XVI represents all Christians, I beg he have me excused … If Mr Nile (who Christians should vote for) needs the Catholic vote, he doesn’t have to make a concerted effort to promote their pagan religion.

[Another example of continuing Catholic/Protestant strains within the Religious Right. A lot of people think just like Ed does, and note the 'pagan religion'!]

Australian Family Association (AFA) - www.family.org.au - 17 July 2005:

Big Brother: Hit the Sponsors - While chennel [sic] 10 is making money, Big Brother can do no wrong. Now is the time to strile [sic] on censorship …

[AFA, before you hit the sponsors, how about hitting the spell-check?]

Peter Stokes, Salt Shakers, email, 15 July 2005:

Big Brother Uncut, 11 July 2005. Write to your local Brothel managers … [This is Stokes' affectionate term for Channel Ten TV stations.]

[Last week, Channel Seven aired the first episodes of a new series of 24. This program was screened more than an hour earlier than 'Big Brother Uncut' and warned viewers to expect 'frequent violence'. Reaction by pro-censorship groups? Not a peep. No 'sex', you see.]

Dr A. W. Hartwig, Auchenflower, Qld., letter in News Weekly, 16 July 2005:

Is it conscience which drives the pro-abortion lobby? Experience indicates that those who break the moral code, and especially those who commit evil, are troubled by pangs of conscience.

[Just the one moral code, eh, Dr Hartwig? Catholic, Protestant, or one of the other thousands of moral codes, many of which permit abortion?]

Bill Muehlenberg, Australian Family Association, News Weekly, 16 July 2005, 20:

… [T]here are two main competing visions for the future of Europe … One vision follows a 200-year history of humanism, secularism and atheism. The other follows the 2,000-year history of the Christian church.

[Writers like Muehlenberg make a great deal of Christianity's 2,000-year history, but atheism as a philosophy has existed for a far longer period. Indeed, everyone begins life as an atheist, but unfortunately many of us are rapidly seduced or browbeaten into acceptance of some variation of theism. Luckily, Europe - and Australia - seem to be moving away from superstition.]

Peter Stokes, Salt Shakers, email, 27 June 2005:

Even the early [evening programs of 'Big Brother'] continue to have sexual innuendos, lots of bleeped-out foul language as though that is normal talk for teenagers but we can’t let the kids hear it. The intimidation of the slave/master concept continues.

[Still thinking about this one, Pete. Are you trying for a Master's in gibberish?]

Frank Bellet, Petrie, Qld., letter in News Weekly, 2 July 2005:

Following the furore over the telecasting of the porno show ‘Big Brother’, it was totally predictable what arguments defenders of this rubbish would peddle:

• ‘If you don’t like it switch to something else’;
• ‘Channel 10 warned viewers in advance what was in the show’; or
• ‘Don’t try pushing your beliefs on us’.

[Quite correct, Frank. All of these are valid arguments against television censorship. So your point is ...?]

Bill Muehlenberg, Australian Family Association, News Weekly, 2 July 2005:

Of course, any marriage that includes with it the right to sexually roam outside of marriage is no marriage at all.

[I'm sure Bill believes this, but legally he's quite wrong. Every marriage contracted in Australia during the past 30 years incorporates this right. If this were not so, adultery per se would still be a ground for divorce. I rather suspect that Bill would like to see a new 'biblically-based' Family Law Act containing severe penalties for adulterous wives. Of course, standard fundamentalist advice to wives with straying husbands is: 'God hates divorce. It says so in Malachi. You must be doing something wrong. Can't you just forgive your husband and try harder to please him?' There are a number of books on this fundamentalist double standard, among them James and Phyllis Alsdurf (1989) Battered into Submission: The Tragedy of Wife Abuse in the Christian Home. Catherine Clark Kroeger and James R. Beck (eds.) (1996) Women, Abuse and the Bible is also helpful.]

Bill James, book reviewer, New Life, 7 July 2005:

… [F]ollow-up research showed that the high-profile evangelical program ‘True Love Waits’ [TLW] resulted in only 12% of its participants abstaining from sexual activity before marriage.

[TLW gets you to sign a pledge by which you vow to remain a virgin (or, if it's a bit late for that, a kind of recycled virgin) until you're safely married. An 88% failure rate is obviously catastrophic. Indeed, to the extent that you can guesstimate these things, it looks worse than what you'd expect from the general population. Far from wanting to Wait, True Love seems to be in a bit of a rush.]

Filed in: Their Own Mouths