Advice For Those Entering Into Battle

We often speak about the culture wars. You would have to have been living on Mars for the past half century if you do know what this means and what it entails. All around the West there are major battles raging over a whole host of social, cultural and moral issues, be it abortion or marriage or religious freedom.

Let me point out an obvious truth here: these battles are upon us whether we like it or not. There really is no option for people to try to sit on the fence here. We do not have the luxury of just sitting these battles out. We are in a war right now, and we must decide where we will stand.

I am reminded of this short bit of dialogue from Tolkien’s The Two Towers:

Theoden: I will not risk open war.
Aragorn: Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.

Pretending these battles are not taking place, or that we can simply go missing in action just does not cut it. There really is no place for deserters in these important battles. At the moment in Australia the most important fight is over the issue of legalising “homosexual marriage”.

This is a hugely important battle, and it is one that anyone who identifies as a Christian must be engaged in. Indeed, I will go so far as to say this with complete conviction: If you claim to be a Christian but think you can somehow just sit out this battle and not say a word, you may have good reason to check your Christian bona fides.

The words of Bonhoeffer of course come to mind here: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Yes it really is that serious, and your refusal to speak up when it is so very vital, whether because of cowardice or whatever, is that serious as well.

This is without doubt one of the most important battles we are now involved in, and everyone must play a role. There can be no conscientious objection here. There can be no fence sitting here. On such a crucial issue, you are either for God’s institutions of marriage and family or you are against. There is no neutral ground here.

Yet incredibly I know of far too many Christian leaders either refusing to speak out on this, or worse yet, actually siding with the “Yes” case! As but one shocking example, I know of one pastor who actually says that he refuses to tell his people how they should vote on this! He said he knows people with differing political views in his congregation, so he would not speak on what to do! Staggering!

He went on to talk about how he does not want to “ostracise” and “polarise” people – so he has deliberately chosen not to tell people how he will vote. Oh good grief. To paraphrase what Aragorn said, polarisation is upon you whether you want it or not.

The other side has started the polarisation by declaring war on marriage and family. To simply affirm and defend what marriage has always been will polarise people. Um, that is the nature of truth: truth always will polarise and ostracise those who do not believe it and reject it.

One might as well have been a pastor in Germany in the 30s and claim that you cannot speak out on this, since there are Nazis in the congregation, and we sure do not want to offend them or ostracise anyone. Just imagine what Bonhoeffer would say to such false shepherds!

And we had “Christian” pastors refusing to speak out on slavery two centuries ago because they had slave owners in their congregations? But I digress. Let me offer some pointers here for those who wish to engage and stand for truth.

Some Practical Advice

Let me begin by saying that it is great to see folks starting to engage in the culture wars in general, and the homosexual marriage debate in particular. Many of you are for the first time wading into these waters, as you see the importance of speaking up for traditional marriage. Well done!

But let me offer a few bits of advice on how we can engage in some of these battles. And much of this is in relation to the social media, and how we can use it to share truth and refute error. Something like Facebook can be a great tool for this, if used rightly.

One point I need to emphasise here is this: please do not allow trolls and haters to take over your posts. If you are unable or unwilling to debate them and refute them, then at least learn how to delete or block the worst offenders. If you do not know how to do this on FB, ask your kids or grandkids (or see below).

The truth is, not everyone who comes to your page is a real friend. There are such things as trolls – those who just argue for the sake of arguing. And there are ideological opponents who roam throughout the social media, looking for who they can gang up on and bully. You do not need to allow this!

If you think a person is open to truth and might be persuaded, fine, then spend time engaging with them. But if it becomes clear they are just haters and trolls, get rid of them! There is no need whatsoever to allow them to take over your page and your posts and drown out the truth.

Again, if you do not know how to do any of this, ask your children! But we must start getting wise here – otherwise we are like those going into battle, knowing nothing about how to load and use a rifle. You will just get picked off real quick if that is the case!

So we need to be smart and savvy in these debates. As I say, it is terrific to see folks finally getting involved in these debates, but they need some wisdom and courage here. Allowing trolls to go unchecked on your posts as they spread lies is not the way to go. Either engage with them, or block the obvious trolls who have just come to cause trouble.

And here is how you can do the latter: Just click on the top right of any offending comment with your cursor and a “remove this” option will appear which you can click on. When you do that, you will also get an option to block the person if you want.

Use this if need be! Do not allow your posts to be swamped by lies and hate from the other side – especially if you are not game to answer them! And you may need to change your general posting settings as well. If you are getting all sorts of strangers showing up on your posts attacking you, then change your settings from ‘public’ to ‘friends’. Again, our kids know how to do this if you don’t!

And please make use of all the great resources that are out there on these issues. I am still shocked to be honest when people come to me and say, “Bill, have you got anything on homosexual marriage?” That becomes a real facepalm moment for me alas!

Um, with three books on this, 500 articles on marriage and 800 articles on homosexuality, well yes – I do have resources on this. Please avail yourselves of them! Why do you think I spent the past 30 years working on all this!? A number of us have written books and articles and set up websites to arm you with information for these debates. Please use them!

And be aware that some of us cannot fight everyone else’s battles. We each have to learn how to do our own work in this regard, and not just hope someone else will come and bail us out when we get in a debate. I try to help if and when I can, but I cannot fight the battles of hundreds of other people!

Thus we all have to learn how to be good soldiers for the Kingdom! We all have to learn how to make our case, to be well read on the issues, and learn how to engage. Sure, we are not all professional lobbyists, but every concerned Christian should try to get a modicum of understanding on these vital issues, and then interact with others.

Another bit of advice is this: at the end of the day this is not just an intellectual or social debate – it is an all-out spiritual war. It is a very real war, so cowards, men-pleasers and spineless wonders will get nowhere fast. We need soldiers and warriors for Christ here who will enter into the battle with truth and love and Holy Ghost boldness. Nothing less will suffice.

Speaking of which, I keep getting people contacting me who are shocked and hurt by all the hate and abuse they are getting as they enter into these debates. I just had another person call me a few hours ago on this. I say to them: “Welcome to my world”! I have faced this for decades now.

I will of course pray for these folks and try to help them when I can, but they need to heed some of the advice I have given above. Get a bit smarter here in how you do intellectual and spiritual battle. Get some prayer cover. Get some others to support you.

And remember, every single one of us has a role to play. No war will ever be won if the majority of troops just sit back in the barracks and avoid the various key battle fronts. They might hope that a few battle-hardened soldiers can save the day, but they are just kidding themselves.

Every single person has a role to play, and when everyone is not playing their role, then the entire side suffers greatly. So please engage, and please start standing up for what matters most. In a war we need to get real smart and real resilient real fast!

Bless all of you who are now entering into some of these battles – many of you for the very first time. You are heroes! God bless you! Do not give up! Keep standing strong! With your engagement and involvement we can make a real difference.

Let me repeat something that I said above, as it is the one main takeaway from this that I want you to get:

If you claim to be a Christian but think you can somehow just sit out this homosexual marriage debate and not say a word, you may have good reason to check your Christian bona fides. It really is that serious, and your refusal to speak up when it is so very vital, whether because of cowardice or whatever, is that serious as well.

[1847 words]

28 Replies to “Advice For Those Entering Into Battle”

  1. Dear Bill, you are right, this war involves all of us whether we like it or not.

    But I have a question for your wisdom. If we lose the ssm vote as all the polls are still predicting, what is our fallback strategy? And, very important, what strategy do you suggest to rediscover true morality within our churches and drive out the sin of immoral (anything but intercourse) dating and contraception use, while keeping out the homosexuals?

  2. Internet and social media provide a protection for some from looking into their opponents’ eyes and seeing the body language of those they choose to violently disagree with…

    The “culture wars” expose us otherwise hitherto ideologically “cloistered”, “dogmatic” people to others who dare to challenge everything we hitherto have taken as “gospel”.

    For example, when faced with a classic, dialectical materialist Marxist critique of the institution of marriage and family such as that offered without stint by Israeli MK and radical feminist, Merab Michaeli, one has to ask what in the analysis of the history of marriage offered by Marx and Engels has merit and support from the facts of history and what is, on the other hand, inherently wrong with the materialist foundations of Marxist thought. Has marriage, indeed historically often been more about power struggle and the quest for control of human and economic capital than about elucidating the somewhat nebulous proposition that “love is love”?

    Even from a biblical perspective, the evolution of marriage is a story of “Paradise Lost” – squandered in exchange for a thistle farm where both men and women too often would rather play God, where “blood and soil” get tragically embroiled in the equation and the love and oneness of our first parents’ honeymoon can nowhere be found.

    I doubt that, when it comes to marriage and family, godless men and women can ever, by their attempts to out-think Heaven, build a Paradise-on-Earth. Marriage, twisted by millennia of human good intentions and evil inclinations, will only be made right at length at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Till then, the love of Christ must constrain husbands and wives to serve one another with the same attitude that saw the Lord of glory stoop to bear a cross on their behalf.

  3. It’s also worth noting that anyone entering debates on social media should take sensible precautions to protect their security and privacy. Whenever using social media in general you should turn all the privacy and security setting of your accounts up to the highest settings, and regularly revisit these settings since Facebook and other sites like them update these without notice.

    The reason I say this is some cowards that cannot handle those those with an opposing opinion to theirs may take screenshots of your profile picture and cover page, as well as any featured photos, and use these in the comment thread as a point of personal attack. They could even publish a hate page using this and other information you have not made private on your page as happened to me over the most trivial thing.

    Everything should be visible only to your friends or friends of friends (if you’re wise with who you keep on your friend list), with those things such as profile pic / cover page / featured photos that are always visible to the public not being anything that could be used to compromise your privacy such as your current likeness. I have seen Bill use a very early photo of himself, others just use a completely different avatar. It’s easy enough to Google some of your favourite Scriptures with some nice art to use instead.

  4. Sorry Bill I should have been more specific with my question.

    My question is in two parts:-

    While I pray we will win we must have contingencies. As a solider in this war I was wanting to know if our generals have a plan for what to do if we lose the vote. Its okay if they don’t, but I was just asking if they do.

    Is it to demand religious protections in return for allowing the legislation to pass Parliament? Are we going to demand anything or if we lose the plebiscite we just accept law gets changed with no input from us?

    The second part of my question relates to our churches.

    I care about the world but I care more about the body of Christ. This debate has split our congregations. Campbell Markham wrote beautifully about this. I don’t know a single church where there has not been at least one person or couples who have surprised their fellow church members by expressing sympathies with the sodomites in this debate. In our case we have been able to suppress the dissent. In others they have left or taken a break.

    After this is over, how do we heal the damage to the body of Christ? Or should we not try and instead be thankful that God has exposed the ones of weak faith and strengthened our churches by removing them from our congregations?

  5. With the argument for same sex marriage to be made law-we are confronted with life changing issues here-for adults-but significantly for our children; now and future generations. Same sex unions are not Marriage as our God and Creator intended. Marriage creates family of a mother and a father, and their offspring; their biological children. This is the Truth. You can ignore-dispute it-fight it-or vehemtly abuse those who uphold it-BUT-the TRUTH will always remain-THE TRUTH.

  6. Thanks again Peter.

    Part 1. It is non-binding, so in one sense a bit inconsequential. If the ‘No’ case wins, it just gives us a few more weeks of breathing space, that is all. The other side of course already has their Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E etc in place. They think long term and big picture – our side does not. We already have had 22 bills to change marriage in the last 13 years. If ‘Yes’ wins, a bill still has to be brought forward and voted on once again. So the battle continues.

    As to demanding religious protections, they are a waste and never work. They are a smoke screen, and wherever special rights for homosexuals are granted – including homosexual marriage – religious freedoms shrink drastically. They are never worth the paper they are printed on.

    As to what the church should do if fake marriage is legalised, that is a good question. Some, like the NSW Presbyterians have said they will get out of the civil marriage game altogether, and just conduct church weddings. That is one option, but not one I am fully happy with. It sort of puts up the white flag of surrender, and concedes that we now have at least two types of marriage in Australia. But at least they are thinking ahead on these matters. Most churches are not thinking ahead.

    And sadly again, so many churches are so carnal and compromised anyway that homosexual marriage will not change them a bit. They have long ago watered down the gospel and compromised on key biblical teachings.

    Part 2. Of course it has split our churches. Good! I believe it is a major means by which God is sifting the wheat from the tares – the sheep from the goats. Truth is always divisive. So what else would we expect here on an issue so vital as this?

    Sadly many of the pro-homosexual marriage campaigners in our churches are not even genuine Christians. Many are apostates and false shepherds. They only way they can be won back is if they repent, start agreeing with God, and turn from their wicked ways.

    Unity is important, but never at the expense of truth. I like how John Stott once put it: “The purity of the church (ethical and doctrinal) is as much a proper Christian quest as its unity. Indeed we should be seeking its unity and purity simultaneously.”

  7. I would strongly recommend that anyone entering debates on social media do so under an alias if possible. Obviously if you’re a politician, a celebrity, or a businessman, and posting as such, that’s not possible. Those who do communicate under their real identity risk doxxing, police complaints, swatting etc. If you want to up the paranoia level you could consider using a VPN and taking other such measures.

  8. You are spot-on Bill. Yes every individual Christian counts.
    What Christians also need to be clear in a black and white way is to declare what God’s says in a “thus safe the Lord” manner.
    Debate about these matters can continue, but ultimately it will come down to God’s law says… no discussion, repent or face the consequences of sin. In the same way as a true judge in a court rules on matters of law or a police officer applies it. The same principle applies to God’s law and the way a Christian handles God’s law. He must know it, understand it, and apply it to himself and declare it to others.
    Sin is an offence against God first.
    As Christians we will be put in a black and white or subtle scenarios when it will be obey God or satanic ideology.
    The only inoculation for this ideologically diseased world is God’s word. Reading the Old Testament will challenge and sharpen the mind and focus particularly on sin and God’s expectation of obedience to his eternal laws. It will help the Christian understand the New Testament and the application to 21 C crisis issues.
    The only other advice in this battle is the cleansing of our mind and desires from evil thoughts. We must be clean in our thoughts, and confess and repent form our sin before the Lord.
    The stress and pressure will be seismic in this battle as the judgements predicted in scripture start to be distilled into reality. We must be faithful unto death.

  9. One possible response should a ssm law pass Parliament could be a High Court challenge to its validity, on the grounds that marriage under Section 51(xxi) of the Constitution means marriage as defined and accepted when the Constitution was passed, and therefore the Parliament has no authority to pass a bill which relates to marriage of a different meaning. I would contribute financially if such a challenge were to be mounted, as I am sure would many others.

  10. Good morning Bill and God Bless.

    Thank you for a truly inspired and informative reply. My point of view had been towards seeking protections — because of what John Howard and other people have said — but now I feel you’re right. No religious protections can be sufficient so why waste our time.

    You also must be right that our opponents plan better than we do. And that’s unfortunate. Once legalised sodomite marriage will never be outlawed. So what about creating a covenant marriage for Christians — protected by law but not regulated by the state — so that we can differentiate our marriages from the secular and sodomite fake marriages?

  11. Thanks again Peter. As mentioned, one way to proceed is the NSW Presbyterian option, which effectively gives us a two-tiered marriage situation in Australia. That is one way to proceed. Whether it is the best or not remains to be seen. But yes we need to think and pray a lot more as to which way forward if and when fake marriage is legalised here.

  12. The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst NSW, Bishop Michael McKenna, has issued a further statement on the matter of changing the legal definition of Marriage. In my view it is an excellent message and I quote one paragraph: “There are many kinds of human relationships, in which people may find the deep commitment of unselfish love. But Marriage is unique, and it does no honour or service to other partnerships to dress them in the clothes of something they are not.” The whole article is worth reading and can be found on the Diocesan web site. I admire the bishop’s courage and I hope the rest of the Catholic bishops (and priests) can give the same sort of leadership. Has the bishop joined the battle?

  13. This is not so much a response to this post but a message to Bill and anyone else on this blog presently.
    Lyle Shelton is giving the National Press Club address at 12.30 today. The case against SSM.
    Please be praying for him.

  14. Thank you Bill for your wisdom and inspiration.

    Here is an example of an argument (purely on logical legal grounds) that has worked many times for me as well:

    “The Law insists if a person has not been trained in medicine and trained as a surgeon, the Law then (rightly) DISCRIMINATES in that he does not have permission to practice as a surgeon. Similarly, unless a person has a degree in Law, then the Law (rightly) DISCRIMINATES against him practicing as a Lawyer.

    And it is necessarily so also in Marriage. There is no such thing as a “right” to marry. Civilised cultures have for millennia seen a need to DISCRIMINATE (being mindful of the “common good” of the community) – against certain persons from marrying and precipitating obvious future societal problems , eg: siblings, first cousins, father and daughter, multiple spouses, etc etc.

    Cultures have for millennia (rightly) DISCRIMINATED in giving PERMISSION to the PRIVILEGE of marriage between a man and a woman who wished to build a life-long relationship – to the exclusion of all others – and to build a family, protecting the natural children of that family. This PRIVILEGE was always granted by society ONLY to couples who proved to be RESPONSIBLE ADULTS who were willing to sacrifice their own interests to bring up children and educate them for the long-term “common good” of their culture / society.

    Cultures have for millenia, recognised that CHILDREN have the BASIC HUMAN RIGHT to a FATHER and a MOTHER (each bringing their special talents/strengths as male and female) to the Marriage and to the education of their children. Who are we to terminate their BASIC HUMAN RIGHT which has also proved to be the ‘GOLD STANDARD” of the most conducive of all environments where children thrive best?

    Therefore – even today – Marriage can ONLY be considered as a PRIVILEGE and CANNOT be considered as a “right.” ***

    Therefore in a Democracy, a genuine and serious debate MUST be held to air the problems that could potentially be caused to society for any law passed. Therefore, Same-sex marriage debate OUGHT to actually be about CHILDREN’s rights (especially now that LGBT’s are demanding some imagined “right” to IVF, surrogate wombs, adoption, etc)

    The activists for “same-sex-marriage” CANNOT LOGICALLY insist that there is “no recognition for them in FAIRNESS, EQUALITY or LOVE” … because:
    – Same sex couples CAN ALREADY obtain a legal Civil Partnership and ALREADY HAVE the exact SAME RIGHTS as any DE-FACTO couple. They CAN ALREADY make arrangements for eg. inheritance, tax, etc etc Therefore …
    – It is NOT a problem with FAIRNESS or EQUALITY … and …
    – It is NOT a problem about LOVE … because the state has no interest on the emotional/romantic motivation of people to marry.

    So, on the basis of what the Law ALREADY provides to ALL citizens under EXISTING LAWS and on the basis of logic and commonsense – there is absolutely NO need for RE-DEFINITION of MARRIAGE
    So for the sake of your own children and following generations, please VOTE NO to Same-Sex-Marriage

    NOTE *** For the “strategy connection” between SSM and “Safe-Schools” programme for the hijacking and indoctrination of our children in “cultural Marxism” see how they plan to appropriate the LABEL of “Marriage” in order to hold it to ransom and so eventually destroy it by reducing it to a farce and also to indoctrinate and corrupt children via the “Safe-Schools” programme (DISGUISED as “anti-bullying” and health information) … see
    Dumb, Sodomy and the Cash — Quadrant Online
    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/03/dumb-sodomy-cash/
    Mar 2, 2016 – roz ward mug The founder and coordinator of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA) is an avowed Marxist who… AND
    Your Kids, Their Lab Rats — Quadrant Online
    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/03/kids-lab-rats/ Mar 17, 2016

    Yes, the fact is “No war will ever be won if the majority of troops just sit back in the barracks and avoid the various key battle fronts” It really is “an all-out spiritual war” and “Silence is complicity”.

    Thank you Bill, for exposing evil under whichever guise it hides.

  15. • The teaching in the New Testament on Homosexuality is very clearly for humanity’s own benefit. .. It tells us in Corinthians 1:6-10 “… the unrighteous shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God. Do NOT be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, NOR NOMOSEXUALS, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
    This teaching then confirmed by Romans 1:26-28 and Timothy 1:9-11.
    • 1 Corinthians 6:13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. But the body is NOT for fornication NOR for lewdness nor for sexual immorality…”
    • … so we must treat the body with respect, because:
    • 1 Corinthians 6:19 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;
    • Gen. 19:24-28 – the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for the sin of homosexuality. Homosexuality perverts God’s covenant with humanity.
    • 2 Pet 2:6-10: Peter also proves that the Sodomites were guilty of homosexuality. He says God condemned them for “licentiousness” and “lust of defiling passion,” Jude 7: Jude also confirms the Sodomites’ sin is homosexuality. Jude says they “indulged in unnatural lust” (Greek, ekporneusasai) and went after “strange flesh” (Greek, sarkos heteras) in reference to their homosexual sins.
    • 2 Peter 2:4-6: Peter also reveals that the Sodomites are suffering in hell for their sins by comparing the Sodomites’ punishment to the eternal punishment of the evil angels. Just as God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell, so He did the same with the Sodomites when He “condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly.”
    • We must keep in mind that cultures who accepted a MORAL VACUUM and accepted SODOMY as “normal” have thus voted for their own SELF-DESTRUCTION — eg, Rome, Greece, Persia, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt, Sodom and Gomorrah etc. So just like these mega-cultures of the past that “collapsed into a screaming heap”, it appears that cultures like the USA, Canada, Ireland, etc are hurtling headlong towards the same fate.

    WHY? because Democracy, Free Speech and even Civilisation itself is now crumbling – at hands of those insisting on their “right” to live in a “MORAL VACUUM” where they are free to “make their own rules;” making demands for protection and “tolerance” while at the same time assaulting us with their “tolerance” placards… But worse – also at the hands of people who fail to challenge such outrages.
    • Even our childrens’ EDUCATION is NOT SAFE from manipulation under such evil: See how Roz Ward, an avowed Marxist Communist (La Trobe Univ., Melbourne), smuggled into the national school curriculum, her destructive ideological juggernaut and packaged her “Safe Schools Programme” as an anti-bullying campaign (rather than what it REALLY is: a crash course in the gay lifestyle… AND the BULLYING of any student who dares to disagree.
    • – see https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/03/dumb-sodomy-cash/
    This is already an epic battle. We need to pray for all the courage that only God can provide.

  16. Dear Bill, I like what they do in Israel where marriage is decided by the religious leaders and confirmed by the State of Israel. Who can marry and who can divorce — in our case no one except in cases of adultery — is left to the rabbis, the priests, the ministers and the clerics, and the State of Israel just records and confirms the marriages done by the religions.

    This sounds like the best option. We decide our rules for marriage within our churches and the state records what we decide and our rights are then enshrined in law. The secularists and the sodomites can have their sham “marriages” recorded by the state too, but we get ours recorded also by the state as marriages but in the sight of God.

    If Israel can do it why can’t Australia?

  17. We would also really appreciate your guidance about the laws being made in parliament right now to limit what we can say in this debate and what you suggest Christians should do — obey, disobey or something else?

  18. In my earlier comment I asked if the Bishop of Bathurst, Michael McKenna, had joined the battle. My answer is NO! In all this debate the Bishop has never addressed the issue of biblical morality in relation to same sex marriage. Why? They keep crowing about the holy secrecy of sacramental confession and the issue of freedom of religion but never mention SIN in relation to this matter. It seems that on the issue of same sex marriage, as far as the Bishop of Bathurst is concerned, sin seems to be irrelevant. I thought homosexual sex brought a curse on humanity. God it’s terrible to be so old fashioned and out of touch. Heavenly Father please bring me into the modern world.

  19. To make a decision (Yes or No) on homosexual marriage without knowing and taking account of God’s word on the issue, is, in my view, to make an ill-informed decision; or at least a less than fully informed decision. Whether we like it or not, this is a moral issue. It might be other things as well but central to the issue is the question of morality. The people who traditionally talk about morality are priests and bishops. Bishop Michael McKenna writes nice stuff about christian marriage but always manages to avoid any comments in relation to homosexual marriage which is, after all, what the survey is about. If he believes that committed love between people of the same sex can lawfully, in the eyes of God, be expressed sexually, then let him say so. If he thinks it does not represent God’s word then let him say that. As of last Tuesday the clock started ticking and thus far, all we have is a kind of ‘Who am I to judge?’

  20. Behind the Ballot question lies a more fundamental one on which we asked (indirectly) to vote: “SHOULD MARRIAGE BE REDEFINED?”. ALL who support ‘legal change’ don’t necessarily support ‘re-definition’.
    Deception is ‘alive & well’, aided & abetted by Parliament.

  21. Bill and others who are taking up his call need backup right? It surprises me that by-and-large both sides are clueless to the long standing intellectual tradition of Christianity, specifically Catholicism.

    One book I’ve found provides a good overview of that intellectual tradition: “The Elements of Philosophy: A Compendium for Philosophers and Theologians by William Wallace, OP.”
    It is a basic, introductory, in-depth, systematic account of Aristotlean-Thomist philosophy. It’s structure is in three parts. Part 1 looks at Logic (Formal Logic, Material Logic), Natural Philosophy, Psychology, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Natural Theology, and Ethics. Part 2 is on Special Disciplines e.g. Philosophy of Humanities, Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of the Natural Sciences, Philosophy of the Behavioral Sciences, Social Philosophy, and Political Philosophy. Part 3 is on History of Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, and Contemporary Philosophy.

    The book was written for those with a philosophy major, or a seminarian who needs philosophical knowledge for their work in theology. It was written as this knowledge used to be taught in Catholic colleges and seminaries, but is now no longer the case, thus a need for it.

    It is specific to an exposition of Thomism, however I love that it is a complete summary and overview of philosophy and its disciplines and how the parts work together as a whole.

    I’ve found out the author is a decorated WW2 Navy vet. He has an undergrad degree in electrical engineering, masters in physics, a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, and has a Ph.D. (Philosophy) and Th.D. (Theology). So he is well qualified, to say the least.

    Publisher link: http://wipfandstock.com/the-elements-of-philosophy.html

    Interview: http://www.innerexplorations.com/philtext/ww.htm

    Obit: http://philosophy.cua.edu/res/docs/Wallace-obit.pdf

    Peace,

    B.

  22. Thank you Bill for your wisdom! I was away for on holiday for a while and couldn’t follow it all as I’d like to, also sometimes I’m just getting too annoyed with both sides (the language so often used is just ugly…from both sides) But jumping into the battle again I must say I’m shocked of how deceived some Christians are… either it’s total ignorance or foolishness, I don’t know. I’m grieved for all those baby Christians who are being raised with wrong progressive teachings. Can they actually be blamed for their biblically twisted ideas? Even though it’s bad but I’m just over reading ‘love is all that matters’ or ‘respect and tolerance for everyone’… Have people actually any idea of what they are talking about!? (And this is from someone who’s been a Christian for not fully 6 years, who formerly was totally pro SSM) Anyway. Bless you & keep standing strong!

  23. Cowards who betray their own side have no place in Christ’s army. In the military, there’s no way a deserter can elude court-martial. And a soldier’s abandonment of duty will even result in his immediate execution if the incident occurs in the battle field, because he has put the lives of his companions on the line. In warring against our adversaries such as the pro-sodomite militants, all spineless apostates and renegades that emerge within the Church are the religious equivalent of military deserters, so the same rigorous punishment must apply to them, no mercy deserved on them, end of story.

  24. Thanks for posting this article Bill, as the battle is becoming more heated.
    In 2017, before the Plebiscite, I wrote an article on this very subject; besides my Biblical understanding on the topic, I started with a legal argument, as Mark Stewart cited above, that homosexual couples already had the same legal & inheritance rights as heterosexual de facto couples, which the Rudd Government brought into law in 2008, which had come a long way.
    Why twist semantics, and try to redefine marriage?
    I do have gay friends, many are in long-term committed relationships; I draw my line in the sand by refusing to call these relationships “marriage”. I love them anyway, but not what they do, or believe in.
    I circulated my article to interested friends who wanted more clarity on the issues; to have posted it publicly on Facebook, would have attracted a torrent of vitriol from the other side.
    I also refer to Paul Au’s comment just above – in the battle, soldiers will show their true colours.
    The renegade and apostate deserters may never have belonged to us in the first place, & the consequences of their desertion are eternal! 🙁

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