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Two years ago, in 2019, teacher Rachel Colvin sued the Ballarat Christian College for discrimination because she did not agree with its view that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Parents send their children to this Bible-based school because they expect Christian schools and their staff to uphold the Christian view of marriage.

But Colvin resigned, because she supported same-sex marriage and wanted to teach her view. She sued the school under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

The case was eventually settled in March last year. The school retains its Statement of Faith defining marriage as a union between a man and woman, but had to pay an undisclosed amount to Rachel Colvin and give her a positive employment reference.

The legal battle was stressful. College principal Ken Nuridin said: “Our college provides high-quality Christian education in accordance with our beliefs. The claim has taken an enormous cost in time and resources already – detracting from the ability of a small school like ours to focus on what is important, the education of our students.”

New case

But now there is a new case of religious freedom under attack, this time in a UK Christian school. And the boot is on the other foot.

In June 2018 Trent College in Nottingham invited the leader of LGBT activist group Educate and Celebrate, to conduct staff training. The college – founded to educate children according to “the Protestant and Evangelical principles of the Church of England” – wanted to “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of their school” from the earliest preschool years.

During the training session, staff were encouraged to chant “smash heteronormativity!” – that is, to reject any idea that heterosexuality is the norm.

A number of pupils were concerned about the school’s new teaching. They asked the chaplain, Rev Dr Bernard Randall, whether they had to agree with it.

Dr Randall’s job description states he is to be “the particular voice and embodiment of … Christian values which are at the heart of Trent’s ethos”.

So, among other things in his next sermon, he said that “when ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree”. He added: “No one should be told they must accept an ideology. Love the person, even where you profoundly dislike the ideas”.

He said same-sex attracted people and those struggling with gender dysphoria should not be discriminated against. They are made in the image of God. But he also said: “You do not have to accept the ideas and ideologies of LGBT activists” where they are in conflict with Christian values.

Would you believe? For this sermon the college board suspended him, referred him to a counter-terrorist organisation as a potential violent extremist, and to the local child protection authority as a danger to children.

I kid you not!

Dr Randall was reinstated after appealing to the school’s governors, but was ultimately made redundant five months ago after his hours were drastically reduced. He has no income to support his family. He is now suing the college for unfair dismissal, supported by Christian Concern UK.

This case is a sad reminder that the religious freedom we once took for granted is now being trampled across the Western world.

Please pray for Dr Randall, that he may receive justice. And for us at FamilyVoice, as we campaign for religious freedom – including the right of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions. We greatly value your ongoing financial support as we work to uphold religious freedom here in Australia.

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia

family

FamilyVoice Australia welcomes National Families Week 2021 (15-21 May) - Australia’s annual celebration of the importance of families which is supported by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.

National Families Week will be held between 15 - 21 May 2021 (coinciding with the United Nations International Day of Families on 15 May)

The aim of National Families Week is to celebrate the vital role that families play in Australian society. The enduring theme 'Stronger families, stronger communities' highlights the important role that families play as the central building block of our communities and that community wellbeing is enhanced by family wellbeing.

The natural family is under assault these days. Watch a primetime television program about the family and you'll soon discover that fathers are presented as idiotic, mothers as overbearing, and children as wise beyond their years. That's assuming you can find a program portraying a "natural" family with a husband and a wife. We acknowledge that single parents, married couples without children, grandparents rearing their grandchildren, and empty-nesters—just to mention a few—make up a considerable percentage of ‘Christian’ families.

National Families Week is a time to celebrate with your family, make contact with your extended family and friends, and share in the enjoyment of family activities within the wider community. It is a time to celebrate the meaning of the ‘natural’ family and to make the most of family life at church and home.

“The challenges of the past year have underlined the fundamental importance of families to society, communities and to us as individuals. The natural family is the foundation of western civilisation which is constituted by marriage and is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption,” said Greg Bondar, national spokesman for FamilyVoice Australia.

During National Families Week, the family as the fundamental institution of human society, is a great time to reflect on and take action to further strengthen our families.

Greg Bondar radio promo pic

Click here to listen to the interview.

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Just when you thought it was safe to assume that breastfeeding mums are real women – and not part of the “cancel culture” craze – they too seem to be going “woke”!

Well, some of them.

Activists in the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), working with an LGBTQ group called “Rainbow Families” have produced a new booklet called Breastfeeding, Chestfeeding and Human Milk Feeding.

The booklet is designed to be “transgender inclusive”. Activists claim that the term “breastfeeding” can trigger bodily discomfort in biological females who identify as men.

But one of the ABA’s traditional counsellors – a breastfeeding mum herself – is not happy. She has told The Australian about her concerns on condition of anonymity.

Incredibly, our society is getting to the stage where using time-honoured words like “mother” instead of “gestational parent” could land you in big trouble if you are a nurse or breastfeeding counsellor in a “perinatal” (formerly “maternity”) hospital ward.

This year, midwives in Sussex, UK were told to stop using terms including “breastfeeding” and “breastmilk” when working with transgender patients.

Nursing staff were told to avoid using the word “mother” on its own. They were given a list of alternative terms, including “mother or birthing parent”, “breast/chestfeeding” and “maternal and parental”.

But the Australian breastfeeding counsellor said she and most of her ABA colleagues “identify very strongly as mothers, … the mother-to-mother space that the association has always provided”.

She said the new ABA booklet for transgender parents “undermines breastfeeding and mothers, and science and female biology, and mother-to-mother support… It opens the door to biological males to participate in ‘human milk feeding’ with babies, and babies deserve better than that.”

And that is the especially disturbing part. Biological men who identify as women are now seeking to breastfeed babies born to female partners.

Three years ago a medical journal reported a case study, where a doctor and a nurse at a clinic used a cocktail of medications to enable a “transwoman” to fulfill his goal to breastfeed his adopted infant.

The female-identified male patient, referred to as a “she” throughout the study, explained that “her” partner was pregnant but not interested in breastfeeding. The transwoman, who had not had reassignment surgery, hoped to take on the role of being the primary food source for the infant.

The transwoman had a male body but was taking female hormones to achieve enlarged breasts. The transwoman was also taking anti-anxiety drugs and an androgen-blocker that was ineffective and allowed testosterone (male hormone) levels to remain high.

The transgender woman was then given domperidone, a drug banned in the US due to heart risks, to induce milk production.

A doctor commenting on the case was concerned that babies fed milk from an artificially stimulated man would be at risk of various physical and mental disorders later on.

There is no evidence that the mother knew about these risks. We do not know what happened to her baby later on.

But the case is an eerie reminder of what happened to UK teenager Keira Bell. She was given puberty blocker drugs, quickly moved on to male hormones and surgery, and now deeply regrets her treatment. No one had explained all the risks to her – even if she had been capable of giving informed consent.

In the very first chapter of the Bible – Genesis 1:27 – we read that God created us male and female.

When will we learn that we meddle with His design at our peril?  We would greatly appreciate your prayer and financial support as we work to uphold reality: men and women, mothers and fathers, and women who breastfeed their babies.

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia

Leila Abdallah mother of the year Ben

Click here to see Channel 7's story which has had 1.4 million views.

Click here to listen to Leila Abdallah's interview with Ben Fordham on 2GB.

Click here to watch Leila Abdallah's interview on the Today show with Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon.