News

prostitution

Workers at a brothel in Melbourne have been charged with employing a child as a prostitute.

Police visited the premises in September 2019, located in Heidelberg West, and discovered that a minor was allegedly being paid as a prostitute.

The Daily Mail reported:

Two male workers, aged 32 and 60, and a woman, 50, from the brothel were arrested in October last year by the Victoria Police Sex Industry Coordination Unit.

The trio face a string of charges, including having a child over 18 months in a brothel, obtaining payment for sexual services provided by a child and allowing a child to take part in sex work.

The case will be next before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on April 22. 

williambarr

US Attorney-General Bill Barr has warned state and local governments about unjustly burdening churches during the coronavirus crisis.

“The United States Department of Justice will continue to ensure that religious freedom remains protected if any state or local government, in their response to COVID-19, singles out, targets, or discriminates against any house of worship for special restrictions,” said Barr.

“Even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers.

“Government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity.

“For example, if a government allows movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and other comparable places of assembly to remain open and unrestricted, it may not order houses of worship to close, limit their congregation size, or otherwise impede religious gatherings.  Religious institutions must not be singled out for special burdens,” he added.

Barr said that the Department of Justice has filed a Statement of Interest in support of a church in Mississippi that held parking lot worship services. 

“The City of Greenville fined congregants $500 per person for attending these parking lot services – while permitting citizens to attend nearby drive-in restaurants, even with their windows open. The City appears to have thereby singled churches out as the only essential service (as designated by the state of Mississippi) that may not operate despite following all CDC and state recommendations regarding social distancing,” said Barr.

“As we explain in the Statement of Interest, where a state has not acted even-handedly, it must have a compelling reason to impose restrictions on places of worship and must ensure that those restrictions are narrowly tailored to advance its compelling interest.  While we believe that during this period there is a sufficient basis for the social distancing rules that have been put in place, the scope and justification of restrictions beyond that will have to be assessed based on the circumstances as they evolve.”

Barr said that religion and religious worship continue to be central to the lives of millions of Americans. 

“Religious communities have rallied to the critical need to protect the community from the spread of this disease by making services available online and in ways that otherwise comply with social distancing guidelines.”

abortion tools 1

A doctor in Korea has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for killing a baby who survived an abortion procedure.

“Medical staff who participated in the operation have consistently said they heard the baby crying,” judges wrote in their decision.

“It is clear that the doctor killed the baby, who was born alive,” they added.

The doctor aged 65 years was convicted last Friday by the Seoul District Court for killing a 34 week old baby.

He reportedly placed the live baby in a bucket of water.

In Australia, a question on notice put by pro-life MP Mark Robinson revealed that 27 babies in Queensland had survived abortions in 2015 and were left to die.

In Western Australia, pro-life MPs have directed questions to the WA Minister of Health, the Ombudsman and the Coroner, revealing that at least 27 babies have survived abortions and were left to die between July 1999 and December 2016.

This means that at least one baby survives an abortion in Western Australia every year. In WA, The neglect of any human who is born alive is a crime according to the WA Criminal Code s290.

Answers to parliamentary questions have revealed that late-term abortions in WA are performed in two different ways.

Firstly, if there is expectation that the baby will survive the abortion, an injection of potassium chloride is administered into the foetal blood stream which causes the unborn baby to die from a heart attack prior to induced labour.

Secondly, if the baby is not expected to survive birth, potassium chloride is not administered and instead labour is induced through prostaglandin administered to the mother.

In 2017, FamilyVoice WA supported a 7000-strong petition calling on the WA Government to instruct the WA coroner to investigate these deaths. The WA Department of Health was not reporting these deaths to the WA Coroner, which resulted in the Ombudsman reporting he had no jurisdiction to investigate, and the Department of Child Protection was not alerted about these children

jack aug 18 paint work

A Christian baker who had a legal victory in the Supreme Court is being targeted with a third lawsuit over his refusal to bake cakes which push LGBT ideology.

Jack Phillips, a baker in the US state of Colorado, is being sued for refusing to bake a “gender transition” cake. 

Phillips rose to prominence when in 2012 he refused to bake a “same-sex wedding” cake.

The first legal action went all way to the Supreme Court which, in 2018, handed down a 7-2 decision in his favour.

The Christian Post reported:

The Supreme Court ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission has been seen as one of the more important modern religious liberty cases to reach the high court. Though a decisive majority of justices sided with Phillips, the scope of the ruling was narrow in that it focused on the Colorado Commission's lack of neutrality. The high court did not weigh in on the deeper conflict between anti-discrimination statutes and the free exercise of religion and free speech.

A later second action against Phillips, for refusing to bake a “gender transition cake” – blue on the outside, pink on the inside – was not pursued by the state after the baker countersued.

However, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Phillips:

The same attorney who filed the second complaint has filed another lawsuit against Jack in state court. This latest lawsuit seeks monetary damages and attorney’s fees from Jack. If successful, it could bring about financial ruin for Jack and his family.

But that shouldn’t happen because Jack serves all people—he just can’t express every message or celebrate every event that’s asked of him.

And he shouldn’t be forced to.

No American should be bullied or banished from the marketplace simply for living and working consistently with their faith. But this new lawsuit threatens to do just that.

The state court heard oral arguments in the current (third) case last Thursday.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion for it to be dismissed.

last supper
 
By David d'Lima

Ahead of the forthcoming Easter commemoration, please allow me to share the following often overlooked civic and political implications of the Last Supper.​
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Appreciation of the profound civic implication of the Last Supper requires a recognition of the meal's basis in the Passover. That commemoration from the time of Moses recollects God's judgement on a pagan nation whose leaders resisted the divine plan and persecuted Israel. 

In part the meal should remind us that God is angry with rebellious nations and will bring judgement to them.
Strange that our civic and church leaders are unwilling to at least raise the possibility of divine chastisement in relation to the current corona virus.
 
But if the leaders and people of the nations would repent and respond in faith, sinceChrist, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed(1 Corinthians 5:7), the judgement applicable to personal and national sins would be relieved.​
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The civic dimension to the Last Supper is further appreciated as we recognise Jesus speaking about civic authority and servant-leadership directly after the Passover meal, by referring to the Roman emperor in four ways, noted in the Gospel of Luke:​
  • Jesus highlightedthe kings of the Gentileswholord it over them(22:25); (some Roman coins have fire on the emperor's head to assert his divinity).​​

  • Jesus referred to those whoexercise authority over the people(22:25).​​

  • He used the termBenefactors(22:25) - a title of emperors as noted by Philo (Flaccus10) who wrote aboutour saviour and benefactor Augustus.

  • Jesus referred tothe one who rules, and required him to be like himself -one who serves(22:26); (hence a cross on the crown of monarchs in our inherited Westminster tradition and other Christian-based systems).​
His call for servant-leadership has greatly influenced nations that uphold the Christian worldview. Heeding that call, the builders of the Westminster system gave Britain and her daughter nations, including many in the Commonwealth, the ambition towards civic service - provided by ministers (servants) of State who administer departments that facilitate ministry, not bureaucracy.​
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Their vocation is refreshed as parliaments in the Westminster ethos open each daily sitting with prayer that God's kingdom come and his name be hallowed.​