With Labor promising a review of protections for religious freedom, the Australian Christian Lobby today called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to rule out any changes if Labor wins Government.

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Federal Labor’s promised discrimination commissioner for gay and gender fluid ideology will only serve to escalate vexatious, farcical and divisive cases that run against Tasmanian Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous, the Australian Christian Lobby has warned.

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The Greens election promise to abolish protections for freedom of religion in federal anti-discrimination law was contrary to the principles of a free society and international law.

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The Queensland police force has been informed through a memo from senior management that it will be endorsing the rainbow political agenda.

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The Australian Christian Lobby welcomes news that a complaint against Hobart’s Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has been dropped today by the complainant, Greens candidate Martine Delaney.

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Protesters tried to bully, jostle and shout-down attendees to the Eric Metaxas event at Scots’ Church in Melbourne on 27 April 2016. The second video shows protesters turning on each other. Is this the kind of ‘tolerance’ to be expected by the rainbow movement?

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Calls to ban Christian prayer groups and chaplains from government schools in the wake the Islamist-inspired terrorist killing of Parramatta police finance worker Curtis Cheng are a knee-jerk reaction and risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.

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MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Monday 8 September 2014

Liberal Member for Longman Wyatt Roy’s call for a doubling of Australia’s humanitarian intake should be heeded, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.

Mr Roy’s call comes a week after the Coalition’s junior partner, The Nationals, voted unanimously in favour of an urgency motion seeking an increase at its Federal Council meeting in Canberra.

ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton said 19,500 people had signed ACL’s on-line petition calling for an increase in the wake of the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“The Government deserves credit for stopping people smuggling, halting the deaths at sea and removing children from detention,” Mr Shelton said.

“But the problem of 51 million displaced people in the world is massive and has been further exacerbated by the persecution of hundreds of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.

“While Australia’s refugee intake of 13,700 is generous on a per capita basis, much more needs to be done to help suffering people.

“Extraordinary brutality requires extraordinary generosity and Australia, as a relatively wealthy nation, is well-placed to do more.”

Mr Shelton said Mr Roy was right to point out the escalating persecution of Christians in north Africa and the Middle East.

While resettlement of refugees was necessary, the international community should also be ultimately seeking to establish safe havens for Christians and other persecuted religious minorities so that they could return to their homes in Syria and Iraq.

“The Islamists’ goal of purging Christians, Yazidis and other Muslim minorities should not be allowed to stand,” Mr Shelton said.

Last Saturday, ACL's managing director Lyle Shelton called for an increase to Australia’s humanitarian intake when he addressed a crowd of about 4,000 who rallied in Melbourne to condemn the persecution of Christians in Iraq.



The rally was organised by leaders from Australian churches with Middle Eastern roots as a show of solidarity with the hundreds and thousands of Christians who have been driven from their homes in northern Iraq under the threat of 'convert to Islam or die' by Islamic state militants.



Mr Shelton said he wants the government to increase its intake from the current 13,700 refugees a year it takes.  ACL has launched a campaign calling on the federal government to increase Australia's humanitarian migrant intake and to offer asylum to those fleeing persecution. You can add your voice by signing the petition at refugees.acl.org.au.



"The Australian Christian Lobby is calling upon the federal government to increase our humanitarian intake so that we can take some of these refugees and share some of the burden," Mr Shelton told the crowd.



Other speakers on the day included Bernie Finn MLC, Bishop Suriel of the Coptic Orthodox Church and Father Geoff Harvey of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, as well as other leaders from the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean churches.



ACL supporter Collin Nunis, who was also at the rally, said that "Though this rally was born out of very unfortunate circumstances, the rally was also a blessing as it brought Australian Christian churches together in solidarity and spirit; Christians from all walks of life professing one faith."



We continue to hear stories of persecution Christians are facing in Syria and Iraq.



An ACL supporter in Victoria said he has received a text message from a Syrian business associate based in Abu Dhabi about the continuing persecution of Christians in his homeland.



The text message he received from the associate said:

• Yesterday my relatives - a woman and child - were killed in Damascus and terrorists gunmen now occupy their home.



• The situation is very bad in the capital.



• I told you more than 120,000 Syrian Christians threatened with death in the coming days.



• It's really holocaust for the Christians in Syria and Iraq.



• I have no home to go back to it, but we trust in Christ to help us.

Last week, ACL's Katherine Spackman interviewed religious liberty analyst Elizabeth Kendal  about the plight of Iraqi Christians who have been ordered by ISIS militants to leave the city of Mosul or convert to Islam. You can listen to the interview here.

Melbourne rally in support of persecuted Iraqi Christians this Saturday, 1:30pm, Federation Square



We thought we had learned from the ethnic and religious purges of the Holocaust and the Balkans.



‘Never again’ was the vain refrain.



But this week hundreds of thousands of Christians have been driven from their homes in northern Iraq under the threat of convert to Islam or die by Islamic state militants.



Chilling images of decapitation, crucifixions and summary mass executions have filled news websites all week.



The images are hard to verify but the reports indicate that the killings include Shiites, former Iraqi army members and Christians.



Churches are being ransacked and destroyed.



In alarming echoes of the Holocaust where Jews were marked with the Star of David, Christian homes have been marked with the Arabic letter ‘N’ to signify that they are followers of the Nazarene, Jesus.



Christians have been in this region for 2000 years and now almost all have fled.



Many of my Facebook friends have changed their profile picture to the Arabic letter ‘N’ as a show of solidarity.



It was also good to see prominent global Muslim leaders condemn the violence.



With world leaders understandably paralysed by the other numbing tragic crises in Gaza and Ukraine, much of what is occurring in northern Iraq is going on under the radar.



However, it was also good to see the Australian government pledge $5 million in aid.



This week, religious liberty analyst Elizabeth Kendal spoke to ACL’s Katherine Spackman about the plight of Iraqi Christians who have been ordered by ISIS militants to leave the city of Mosul or convert to Islam.



Leaders of Australian churches with Middle Eastern roots are understandably very concerned. Many have loved ones in war-torn Syria and Iraq.



They have organised a rally at Melbourne’s Federation Square this Saturday at 1:30pm.



ACL’s Victorian Director Dan Flynn and I will be there. If you can, please join us as a sign of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering.