Something for you non-Australians to understand how bad Australia has become...

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Comments

  • No Coder said:
    Very. I'm going to send an email to my local member of parliament to voice my concern. I know others doing the same.
    I wrote to my local member yesterday. First time I have ever felt required to contact a politician. What was going to be a short, eloquent email about this bill only, ended up being a really long email about a lot of my concerns from recent events, but the focal point was this bill. My local member is a Labor member, so no doubt if he does reply, it will be only to blame everything on the current government (which is correct for some things).
    I ranted about the pathetic response from our PM in relation to the fires and supporting our VFS and also the disgraceful lack of support for our farmers.

    For some background, I had attended a Pentacostal church for a number of years, until about 2-3 years ago. I'm not really a religious person, grew up a non practising Catholic that went to a Catholic school and hated Church. But after decades away, my wife had a major health issue and through that process was supported by some wonderful friends from our kids school, who were members of this church. My wife eventually felt she needed to try something lift her spirit as it had been crushed through a year long health battle. She had never been a religious person (I had to explain who was who when we watched Passion fo Christ movie :) ), but she found some hope when she first attended a service. After going for about 2 months, she asked if I would attend with her. So, to support her,  I went along. I never really committed to believing fully, but I did like the community and the work they did in the local and further abroad community.This was not a Hillsong affiliated church, but similar, without the huge budget. Our church did a lot of good in our local community and for the most part, the majority of the congregation was a very inclusive and supportive community. Now, I knew that the leaders and even some of our more religious friends had differing opinions on lots of issues (Same Sex Marriage etc), but that was fine, we don't have to agree on everything, as long as they weren't hurting anyone. It was only when the Same Sex marriage vote came up, that it became in issue, because the church started to make points about it "Whilst we are an inclusive church and gay people will always be welcomed, we do not support Same sex marriage, the bible says blah , blah blah.." This was the end of my going to church. I did voice my opinion to our friends there (who are still friends) and also the pastors and they fully understood why we left. I could never understand how places that preach love and acceptance, but it had to be under certain conditions. And I also found it hard to listen when other religions were questioned by them.  Now I will also say that I have seen in the media that there are some churches that are very inclusive and supportive of the LGBQTI community and welcome them with open arms, with no judgement or conditions, so not all churches should be tarred with the same brush.


    I have met this Local member a few times when I served in the Airforce, not that he would remember, it was only on base tours etc, but I did mention it to try and get a personal reply, and they are generally pretty respectful when you mention you have served in the Defence force. I will update if  I receive a reply

    Hopefully more people contact their members too. 
    Great post.  I applaud you on standing up for what is right and doing it with class.  Those are tough decisions to make..
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    No Coder said:
    Very. I'm going to send an email to my local member of parliament to voice my concern. I know others doing the same.
    I wrote to my local member yesterday. First time I have ever felt required to contact a politician. What was going to be a short, eloquent email about this bill only, ended up being a really long email about a lot of my concerns from recent events, but the focal point was this bill. My local member is a Labor member, so no doubt if he does reply, it will be only to blame everything on the current government (which is correct for some things).
    I ranted about the pathetic response from our PM in relation to the fires and supporting our VFS and also the disgraceful lack of support for our farmers.

    For some background, I had attended a Pentacostal church for a number of years, until about 2-3 years ago. I'm not really a religious person, grew up a non practising Catholic that went to a Catholic school and hated Church. But after decades away, my wife had a major health issue and through that process was supported by some wonderful friends from our kids school, who were members of this church. My wife eventually felt she needed to try something lift her spirit as it had been crushed through a year long health battle. She had never been a religious person (I had to explain who was who when we watched Passion fo Christ movie :) ), but she found some hope when she first attended a service. After going for about 2 months, she asked if I would attend with her. So, to support her,  I went along. I never really committed to believing fully, but I did like the community and the work they did in the local and further abroad community.This was not a Hillsong affiliated church, but similar, without the huge budget. Our church did a lot of good in our local community and for the most part, the majority of the congregation was a very inclusive and supportive community. Now, I knew that the leaders and even some of our more religious friends had differing opinions on lots of issues (Same Sex Marriage etc), but that was fine, we don't have to agree on everything, as long as they weren't hurting anyone. It was only when the Same Sex marriage vote came up, that it became in issue, because the church started to make points about it "Whilst we are an inclusive church and gay people will always be welcomed, we do not support Same sex marriage, the bible says blah , blah blah.." This was the end of my going to church. I did voice my opinion to our friends there (who are still friends) and also the pastors and they fully understood why we left. I could never understand how places that preach love and acceptance, but it had to be under certain conditions. And I also found it hard to listen when other religions were questioned by them.  Now I will also say that I have seen in the media that there are some churches that are very inclusive and supportive of the LGBQTI community and welcome them with open arms, with no judgement or conditions, so not all churches should be tarred with the same brush.


    I have met this Local member a few times when I served in the Airforce, not that he would remember, it was only on base tours etc, but I did mention it to try and get a personal reply, and they are generally pretty respectful when you mention you have served in the Defence force. I will update if  I receive a reply

    Hopefully more people contact their members too. 
    I typed up a draft yesterday. I am waiting to have it read by someone else before sending.
    I have never contacted a politician before.
    My local member is ALP.

    I could never bring myself to give a church a go.
    I was raised Catholic and always hated going to church which my mum forced me to.
    Only when I was over 18 did I have the ability to say no. 
    I am interested to know why people like your wife turn to religion to life their spirits. Did your wife try other things that were not successful?

    A guy I used to be friends with turned from a bad boy party boy to super religious. I saw him not long ago as his mum died. I was shocked that his entire book collection was religious books and bibles. He no longer listens to rock music as he says it is sinful, he only listens to religious music. He has hardly any friends so he turned to religion and joined a Presbyterian church. He is strongly against homosexuality and Islam. I cannot be friends with the guy, we are two totally different people. He said he wanted to tell me more about Jesus next time we catch up, I never went to his house again, fuck that.

    These religions that preach love and respect yet are against homosexuality and same sex marriage disgust me. Hypocrites.
    These are the same religions where child sex abuse is covered up and victims silenced.
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • No CoderNo Coder Brisbane Posts: 1,126
    No Coder said:



    For some background, I had attended a Pentacostal church for a number of years, until about 2-3 years ago. I'm not really a religious person, grew up a non practising Catholic that went to a Catholic school and hated Church. But after decades away, my wife had a major health issue and through that process was supported by some wonderful friends from our kids school, who were members of this church. My wife eventually felt she needed to try something lift her spirit as it had been crushed through a year long health battle. She had never been a religious person (I had to explain who was who when we watched Passion fo Christ movie :) ), but she found some hope when she first attended a service. After going for about 2 months, she asked if I would attend with her. So, to support her,  I went along. I never really committed to believing fully, but I did like the community and the work they did in the local and further abroad community.This was not a Hillsong affiliated church, but similar, without the huge budget. Our church did a lot of good in our local community and for the most part, the majority of the congregation was a very inclusive and supportive community. Now, I knew that the leaders and even some of our more religious friends had differing opinions on lots of issues (Same Sex Marriage etc), but that was fine, we don't have to agree on everything, as long as they weren't hurting anyone. It was only when the Same Sex marriage vote came up, that it became in issue, because the church started to make points about it "Whilst we are an inclusive church and gay people will always be welcomed, we do not support Same sex marriage, the bible says blah , blah blah.." This was the end of my going to church. I did voice my opinion to our friends there (who are still friends) and also the pastors and they fully understood why we left. I could never understand how places that preach love and acceptance, but it had to be under certain conditions. And I also found it hard to listen when other religions were questioned by them.  Now I will also say that I have seen in the media that there are some churches that are very inclusive and supportive of the LGBQTI community and welcome them with open arms, with no judgement or conditions, so not all churches should be tarred with the same brush.


    I have met this Local member a few times when I served in the Airforce, not that he would remember, it was only on base tours etc, but I did mention it to try and get a personal reply, and they are generally pretty respectful when you mention you have served in the Defence force. I will update if  I receive a reply

    Hopefully more people contact their members too. 
    I typed up a draft yesterday. I am waiting to have it read by someone else before sending.
    I have never contacted a politician before.
    My local member is ALP.

    I could never bring myself to give a church a go.
    I was raised Catholic and always hated going to church which my mum forced me to.
    Only when I was over 18 did I have the ability to say no. 
    I am interested to know why people like your wife turn to religion to life their spirits. Did your wife try other things that were not successful?

    A guy I used to be friends with turned from a bad boy party boy to super religious. I saw him not long ago as his mum died. I was shocked that his entire book collection was religious books and bibles. He no longer listens to rock music as he says it is sinful, he only listens to religious music. He has hardly any friends so he turned to religion and joined a Presbyterian church. He is strongly against homosexuality and Islam. I cannot be friends with the guy, we are two totally different people. He said he wanted to tell me more about Jesus next time we catch up, I never went to his house again, fuck that.

    These religions that preach love and respect yet are against homosexuality and same sex marriage disgust me. Hypocrites.
    These are the same religions where child sex abuse is covered up and victims silenced.
    She had tried the normal things that gave her comfort and joy previously, but she was struggling after her health battle  and really went through a shit time. It was extremely tough to watch my wife go through that, so I was suportive in anything she wanted to do. She found the spirit that these friends had really comforted her in her weakest moments. She has always been a compassionate person who liked to help others and found real comfort in seeing this group of people do so within a community. We barely knew these people before she became sick, they were just other parents at the kids school. They had heard about her and asked the school to contact us and if they could cook some meals for us. Once they contacted us, they formed a freindship and they were visiting a few times a week to be with her and have a chat. It was a real support, as we had 3 kids under 7 and I was still having to work outisde of her treatment times, so any heap was appreciated, although initially it was hard to take from essentially strangers.Once she had finished treatment and given a good outcome, she though she would just bounce back, but it is never that easy. So after a little while she though "why not go to church and see what it's about" and gave it a go. I don't think she went to church to find God, it was more about being amongst a group of people that thought of and supported each other.  The friends never pushed going to church on her, but they had asked if they could pray for her. She did find comfort in that when she was unwell. She had ZERO experience with religion, so went in with a pretty open mind. This church is nothing like a Catholic church service, they had passionate music (which she loved) and messages related to current times, humour was ever present and for the most part, where pretty accepting of everyone (initially - until the vote yeared it's head).
    Whilst there was certainly different levels of peoples religious beliefs at the church, none of the people we socialised with were pushy or hardlined in their beliefs. I often had discusions with them about the things I struggled with in believing, as they new I was only really there to be supportive. They encouraged qwuestions and listened to my sometimes opposition to things that were bought up in the bible. We continued to live in pretty much the same way we always had. We drank alchohol with some, and whilst others did not partake because of their beliefs, they were always accepting of others ability to choose how they lived. 

    I was very negative to religion prior to this more recent experience and most of that was based on what I had been exposed to in the media regarding Hillsong etc and my own experience at a Catholic school (no issues there, just bored sensless with church). I think that there are quite often a lot of good people involved with all of these churches, but unfortunately there are always the extremes and greedy ones and some non religious people want to tar all of these people with the same brush.

    We have a great friend who is very anti religion and bashes the Catholic chuch at every opportunity (and rightfully so sometimes). My children go to a Christian based high school (becuase its a great school not becuase of religion). She was ranting about Catholic education and it's pushing of beliefs onto children. But they had actually have never been exposed to that sort of schooling, so actually had no first hand experience. We explained that our boys in year 10 had to choose a  topic that in the eyes of the church could divide opinion (Abortion / Birth control / Same Sex Marriage etc) and do an assignment on it, showing their argument why they were for it or against it. Now, one of my boys did Same Sex Marriage and the other No female priests in the Catholic church and were both on the position that it should be allowed and we actively supported by the teachers and got great marks in the assignment.  She was very suprised that they were allowed to do this and didn't think they would support free thinking. Now I'm sure they may be some schools they may not support this, but this school does and it is not any different from a few other schools around our area that I know of.
    I'll ride the wave where it takes me

    *BEC, Brisbane, March 1995
    *BEC, Brisbane, March 1998
    *BEC, Brisbane, November 2006
    *QSAC, Brisbane November 2009
    *EV Solo, QPAC, Brisbane March 10 and 12 2011
    *Big Day Out, Gold Coast, 19 Jan 2014
    *EV Solo, QPAC, Brisbane, 22,23 & 25 Feb 2014
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    I'm glad your wife got support from this church group and your kids are at a school that allows free thinking.
    I wish there was no religion so I could date someone from another religion without causing a shitstorm in my family. I just saw a very attractive Turkish woman like one of my posts in a Facebook group. Too bad she's muslim. 

    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Kids can't even protest about climate change anymore. This is messed up.


    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • Looks like Mr. Morrison went on vacation while Australia was burning and the heat has turned on him. 
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Yep. He's a PM he needs to realise he needs to be here in times of crisis. If he wants to take family vacations then don't be PM.
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
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