News

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Senay Boztas reported for the Dutchnews.nl that there were more euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands than ever before. According to the Netherlands euthanasia report there were 6938 reported euthanasia deaths in 2020 up by 9% from 6361 in 2019. Boztas reported:
 
All but two of these were judged to have met the six legal requirements...

The number of euthanasia cases exceeds the previous peak of 2017, when there were 6585 deaths. Numbers fell after a doctor was prosecuted but eventually found not guilty of manslaugher for a controversial procedure involving a woman with advanced dementia.This confirms my comments in previous years when I stated that the drop in Netherlands euthanasia deaths was based on the controversial court cases. Doctors simply don't want to be brought before a tribunal or court to justify why they lethally injected a patient.
 
It is possible that there are many unreported euthanasia deaths. According to research 20% - 23% of the euthanasia deaths are not reported in the Netherlands. 

Boztas reported that Jeroen Recourt, the chairman of the euthanasia commission was not surprised by this growth.

The data indicated that four euthanasia deaths were connected to the Coronavirus. Boztas also reported that:
 
As in previous years, dementia was a factor in 2% of the deaths, and psychiatric disorders represented just over 1%. The vast majority of people had terminal cancer, and just two people had advanced dementia.

The Expertisecentrum Euthanasie, formerly called the End of Life Clinic, did however deal with 221 fewer requests than in the previous year, according to its annual report. The body is an option for people whose GP cannot or will not grant a request, or to support complex cases, and last year it was involved with 899 euthanasia procedures.
 
The Netherlands government announced last year that they intend to extend a form of euthanasia to children under the age of 12 and that they are considering expanding the law to include people who have no medical issues but are "tired of living."
 
Alex Schadenberg is Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

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I was inspired to write this week’s email by an article in the Eternity newspaper by David Furse-Roberts.

The article was headed: Thomas the Tank Engine’s creator: Teaching children to laugh and see God.

Few people realise that the popular children’s stories about Thomas and his friends were created by a Church of England vicar from the south of England – whose three abiding loves were God, children and railways.

That “puff puff pastor” was Wilbert Awdry – named after his uncles William and Hubert – who was born in Hampshire in 1911.

After graduating with a BA, Wilbert trained for the Christian ministry in Oxford’s evangelical Wycliffe Hall. He then spent three years teaching in Jerusalem, where the land of the Bible came vividly alive.

He was ordained in the Winchester Cathedral 1936 and married Margaret, whom he had met in Jerusalem, in 1938. They went on to have three children – Christopher, Veronica and Hilary.

As a boy, Wilbert had lived near a railway line, beginning his lifelong fascination with steam trains. So when two-year-old Christopher was ill in bed with the measles, his father soothed him by telling stories about humanised steam engines.

Young Christopher loved the stories but was a stickler for detail. He complained that the tales were a little different each time Wilbert told them. So Wilbert wrote them down. His wife, noting the scarcity of children’s books at the time, urged him to seek a publisher.

“Despite several rejections the doughty clergyman persevered and his book was eventually accepted,” said David Furse-Roberts.   

The moral themes of the Bible came to life on “Sodor“– the fictional island created by Wilbert off the English coast.

“Life there was not all rosy… The engines often exhibited the familiar human traits of pride, envy and contempt for ‘outsiders’ such as Bertie the Bus and Terrance the Tractor,” David said.

It was not long before the vicar’s stories about Thomas and his friends, along with the Fat Controller, became a runaway success. They sold more than 50 million copies in Britain and abroad, before enjoying a new lease of life on TV from the early 1980s.

“Awdry envisioned a universe that remained fashioned by a good and loving creator,” David said. “While the ‘Fat Controller’ was often a figure of fun, the portly gentleman of Sodor represented a firm yet kindly father-figure that had the power to reward and punish his engines.

“In the world of Sodor, there was always redemption and forgiveness. Offending engines were disciplined for wrongdoing but never scrapped. With the Bible replete with stories of God always giving his people another chance – from Yahweh’s forgiveness of King David to Jesus’ restoration of the Apostle Peter – the grace of the gospel was never lost on Awdry and his railway tales."

Like Phil Vischer’s Vegie Tales and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia classics, the Thomas stories communicate Christian moral themes while captivating children of all backgrounds.

Towards the end of Awdry’s life, his biographer asked how he hoped to be remembered.

The old vicar replied that he “helped people to see God in the ordinary things of life, and made children laugh”.

Amen!

And please pray that Thomas and his friends will escape today’s “cancel culture” that has even targeted the delightful Dr Seuss…

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia

Greg Bondar radio promo pic

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As WA endures increased COVID-related restrictions, two meetings this week on:

LGBTQ Ideology and WA Anti-Conversion Law

Are now happening online via Zoom webinar, tonight or Thursday night,

Meet James Parker, former gay activist and others young West Australians who have left behind their LGBT identity and found new life in Jesus Christ.  Hear their stories of Hope, Vision and Dignity.   LGBTI activists want the WA Labor Government to enact legislation that denies these people’s very existence, and criminalises those who helped them on their journey.

Such laws have been passed in Queensland, ACT and Victoria.  The freedom destroying provisions of the Victorian Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 will be explained.   This will help you understand why even the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance strongly opposed this legislation.   

Be informed!  Don’t let this happen in WA!  Have your say!

We will email a Fact Sheet after the meeting to all who attend.

Two times are available: – pre-registration is essential:

Tuesday 27th April   7pm, finish by 9 pm

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/3316194181567/WN_O3nftQiASLmdrq7E9QyfVQ

Thursday 29th April   7pm, finish by 9 pm

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/9016194199904/WN_pH7umRihQZiQq26Y47teqQ

Upon registration you will be sent a reminder email with the Zoom webinar link, directly from me, Darryl Budge.

This event is organised as a cooperative effort by the Family Voice Australia, Australian Christian Lobby, National Civic Council,  Australian Christians and True Identity.

I hope you can join us!

Warm regards,

Darryl Budge

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A few years ago, a survey asked about the biggest influence on Australian National Identity.

“Many people throughout Australia’s history have influenced the way Australians see themselves in terms of their identity as Australians,” the question began. “If you had to choose among [a list of groups], which would be your first choice as the most influential?”

The answer was overwhelming: 47% said The Anzacs.  The second most chosen group was Free Settlers at 17%, and third came Postwar Immigrants 14%.

Crowds clapped for old and modern-day soldiers at the Anzac Day march in Albury in 2013

Billy Hughes, Australia’s Prime Minister during the First World War, said in 1918: “We are fighting a life-and-death struggle. We are fighting for our country, for our liberty, and for economic independence.”  After the war, when unveiling The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, he said: “They died that we might live as free men. They left us the legacy of liberty and a united Empire.”

Dr Bella d'Abrera, Director, Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs, reflected on this fight for freedom after Anzac Day 2018:

The thousands of Australians who enlisted to fight in the First World War did so because they believed that their liberties were under threat. They fought for freedom and democracy...

The Australians who fought in World War I knew what was at stake and they knew that it was worth fighting for.

They knew that the defeat of Great Britain and France by Imperial Germany could carry serious consequences for Australia.

They knew that the values of liberty, inquiry, toleration, religious plurality and economic freedom were under threat. They were fighting to keep the rule of law, that broad set of principles vital to the order and stability of society and which is one of the most effective guards against the wielding of arbitrary power.

They were fighting for the notion of a liberal democracy and the right to vote. Prime Minister Hughes was unequivocal in his contrast of German militarism and Australian democracy. “We fight not for material wealth, not for aggrandisement of Empire, but for the right of every nation, small as well as large, to live its own life in its own way. We fight for those free institutions upon which democratic government rests."

Schoolchildren lay a wreath during Warnambool's Anzac Day parade in 2013

Today, in Australia and much of the Western World, we find ourselves in the midst of a different kind of war – a cultural war.

Woke activists are trying to divide us in every conceivable way – by race, sex, gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity…  People are being vilified and sacked for exercising what should be their right of freedom of speech.  Think of Margaret Court, Israel Folau, Peter Ridd and others.

We need to remember the words of Jesus: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” FamilyVoice is committed to uphold the fundamental freedoms for which our forebears fought.

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia