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Using our time, treasure and talent within Christian education David d’Lima - FamilyVoice Australia, August 2020 The leaders of Christian schools do well to wisely steward the available time, treasure and talent, as resources that may encourage staff, students and the entire school community to achieve their full potential, guided by the following biblical principles: g All of God’s people are to ... excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness (2 Corinthians 8:7); g “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48); g “... use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9); g “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ ” (Luke 19:17). While we constantly perceive a lack of time, treasure and talent, our challenge is to better use the available hours while increasing the quantity of treasure and coaching ourselves and our colleagues to improve our talents. May our endeavours, offered in faith, be blessed and enlarged by Almighty God....

THE MYTHS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA. By Dr John Whitehall. This paper is edited by permission from "The Comforting Myths of Medical Marijuana" (Wuadrant, October 2014, https://quadrant.org.au).           NSW Premier Mike Baird, supported by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has announced plans to begin clinical trials of medical marijuana. The move follows a vigorous media campaign, backed by Greens, Coalition and Labor MPs. Professor Whitehall raises key questions Australian governments need to consider before the trials begin.

In this issue: Heartbreaking loss of lives over 20 years ... Labor proposes free speech bans ... Greens attack freedom of belief ... WA doctors resist euthanasia push ... How to birth a pro-life culture ...  ‘Language madness’ restarts in Defence Force ... How to birth a pro-life culture ... Call for positive religious freedom protections ... Opt-out filters aren’t censorship ... Why the Lord’s Prayer matters ... Constitutional challenge to “safe access” speech ban

THE INTERNATIONAL BATTLE FOR FREEDOM:               The first decade of the Twenty-First Century concluded with severe unrest in Hong Kong. Protest can easily get out of hand and even be subverted by hired provocateurs however, the underlying message is clear: the people value their freedom and will put their personal safety at risk to protect it. Hong Kong is a weathervane of the contrary winds against freedom.

CHURCH AND STATE: WHAT THE PAST TELLS US ABOUT THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE:             The phrase ‘Church and State’ represents two thousand years of complex history across every continent and literally thousands of language and cultural groups and political national states. The effect of this relationship is evident in our language, our institutions and even the architecture of our cities and towns. It is fundamental to who we are as a people.

FAMILY: THE MORTAR THAT HOLDS THE NATION TOGETHER:         DEFINING FAMILY: Family has undergone a number of redefinitions recently. Surprisingly, the Oxford Dictionary still defines family as ‘a group of two parents and their children living together as a unit’ or, as ‘a group of people related by blood or marriage.’ The Macquarie Dictionary offers: ‘parents and their children, whether dwelling together or not, one’s children collectively, any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts and cousins.2 It differs from the Oxford in not requiring a family to be living together and it omits grandparents from the list of close relatives.

WHERE IS THE LONG MARCH THROUGH OUR INSTITUTIONS HEADING?:       Those of us who have lived long enough with our eyes open will remember the Cold War, the end of colonialism and the consequences of Marxist education and resourcing of the leaders of post- colonial states. We remember the student movements of the 1960s that were unmistakably Marxist. We observed the growth of influence of both Russian and Chinese Communism and that in the 1960s the future of the West and the world seemed perilous as the nuclear arms race gathered pace.

CHRISTIAN FAITH IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE. Humphrey Dobson, The Christian institute and Wayne Grudem, Phoenix Seminary.         In a 2003 media interview, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked about his faith. Mr Blair's strategy director Alastair Campbell, an atheist, immediately intervened. "We don't do God. I'm sorry/ We don't do God," he said. Why are Christian values sometimes viewed as incompatible with public service - and unwelcome in the public square?

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN A TIME OF DECLINING MORAL AUTHORITY:   Freedom is one of those words that conjures up mental pictures like eagles soaring high and wild horses galloping unrestrained. It is so much more than a verbal definition or even an ideal. It is visceral, beyond words even. To people who have always lived in a relatively free society it may be taken for granted but for those who have been oppressed and persecuted, it is sweet beyond words.

In this issue: Renewed push for exclusion zones in NSW... Anti-slavery bill introduced into NSW Parliament... 'Sanctity of life' motion defeated in Senate...Highlights from our religious freedom submission... Cultural Leadership Symposium UK - preparing for the next horizon... Deeper wisdom shapes generations... Transgender swim night 'devises'... Revitalised in Witness - lessons from the '59 Billy Graham Crusade.

REPARATIVE THERAPY: HARM OR HELP? By Roslyn Phillips (BSc DipEd), Nathan Keen (BEng, CertMin), Jasmine Yow (BJourn).         In recent times, homosexual activists in NSW and elsewhere have sought to ban any treatment or counselling by psychiatrists or others to help people who wish to change their sexual orientation.     There is evidence on the public record that properly conducted reparative therapy has helped many men and teens. They sought therapy because they wanted to marry a woman and have children naturally or becuase they did not want the significant physical and emotional health risks associated with the homosexual lifestyle. People have even sought theraphy in the Netherlands, wher ehomosexuality carries no stigma.

THE SIXTIES 'LIBERATION': WHAT HAPPENED? Based on False Promises: Sixties Philosophy Against the Church, Windrush Press, 2012. By Dr Lucy Sullivan, BA (Hons) BPsych (Hons) PhD. Edited by Jasmine Yow and Ros Phillips.         Forty years after he brought the rock musical Hair to Australia in the the late sixties, entrepreneur Harry M Miller was interviewed about the show - highly controversial at the time for its nude scene, profanity, illegal drug use and treatment of sexuality.     Mr Miller told Channel 7's Today Tonight in 2009 that fears expressed by "scaremongers" had been unfolded. "People thought there would be incest in the home and seduction in the streets," he said. "None of it ever happened."