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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."

IDENTITY POLITICS: THE SEXUALISATION OF SOCIETY AND ITS IMPACT ON CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE.   Identity politics is a movement reshaping society’s standards of education, politics, freedom, morals and family based on the idea that human identity and worth are primarily instinctual and evolutionary rather than innate or endowed. This has compromised our capacity for free civil discussion, for understanding human fulfilment, the role of government in education as well as the design of sex and biological gender. The current construction of sex and gender has resulted in a sanctioned exposure of children to sexualised material and experiences, which they lack the maturity to process objectively.Recommendations are necessary to ensure school programs have greater transparency and parental collaboration, focusing on education (not indoctrination), ensuring true freedom of speech and academia, promoting a holistic view of identity and sexuality and relating how this impacts on relationships, character development and wider society.Christians affirm that identity and full humanity derive from Christ through whom we may receive a deeper and more secure identity than that imposed by radical political and social agendas. Christians consider it a matter of faith and duty to promote the Christian identity ethic and its benefits to society at large.

In this issue: Queensland review into abortion laws... Introducing our new Queensland State Director!... '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 'divisive'... Revitalised in Witness - lessons from the '59 Billy Graham Crusade.

In this issue: SA election: the issues that matter... '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 'divisive'... Revitalised in Witness - lessons from the '59 Billy Graham Crusade.

DOES THE BIBLE REALLY SAY HOMOSEXUALITY IS OK? By Dr Barry Chant, DipEd, BA (Hons), BD, DMin, PhD.         On 8 March 2012, an earnest 22-year-old American named Matthew Vines delivered an address entitled The Bible and Homosexuality.     He claimed his research into the biblical texts on homosexuality had led him to conclude that the Bible does not condemn loving homosexual relationships.

THE NEW DRUGS WAR. By Roslyn Phillips, BSc, DipEd. National Research Officer, FamilyVoice Australia.         Henry Kwan, 17, was a model student and dux of his class when he took a drug that led to a psychotic breakdown and caused him to jump to his death off a balcony at his family's suburban Sydney home on 5 June 2013.    The synthetic drug he took was perfectly legal. Drugs just like it - chemical variations of LSD, cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines, marketed with names such as Kronic, Bliss, TranQuality and Northern Lights - have been readily available from the internet, sex shops, tobacconists and even sports stores.