Supporting a ‘yes’ vote on same-sex marriage
I AM disappointed, as a Christian, that it has reached the stage with the same-sex marriage debate that the Australian Christian Lobby and Australians for Traditional Marriage are using scaremongering techniques to discourage people from voting yes in the upcoming postal plebiscite.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Can I start by asking you all: What is a “normal” family these days?
We have solo parents, relatives looking after other family members’ children, nuclear and non-nuclear families as well as adoption and fostering.
I am both a New Zealand and Australian citizen and I have seen first-hand what same-sex marriage becoming legal has done to New Zealand.
Guess what? Nothing has changed.
Nobody’s religious freedoms have been wavered, ministers that don’t want to partake in same-sex marriages don’t have to marry a same-sex couple and the sun still rises and sets.
No apocalyptic event has occurred and people go about their daily lives because ultimately it’s nobody else’s business who marries whom.
It’s sad to think that churches who, after years of covering up sexual abuse scandals and paedophile priests hurting children stating it’s “God’s work” to sexually abuse their parishioners, are now the same organisations who are telling parishioners to vote “no” because they don’t want the sanctity of marriage destroyed.
This is, in my opinion, the pot calling the kettle black.
This postal vote is based on one thing: Should two people who love each other have the same rights as every other human being on the planet to get married.
The answer is yes.
So please, I encourage all of you to participate in this postal plebiscite and ultimately love will win.
Rhys Webb, Nhill
Consequences could follow law changes
A COMMON image in courts is the blindfolded woman holding scales. She does not see, but only hears.
Labels target the person and not the issue.
The claim that the issue of same-sex marriage is just voting yes or no ignores what consequences may follow, as Senator Eric Abetz asserted, via the ABC this month, on freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The following truths stand their ground:
Fact 1: It takes both a father and a mother as male and female to conceive a child.
Fact 2: Therefore every child born is also either male or female with the right to know both parents.
Fact 3: The responsibility to love, care, teach, train, protect, lead, and guide, lies with those who brought that child into the world. Each child lacks the basis for determining moral and other issues and needs a strong home to provide stability.
The word discipline is related to the word disciple, ie follower. Even small children look for a role model.
Fact 4: Marriage ensures that all who die, whatever age, can be replaced for the good of humanity.
Fact 5: Even animals follow this same principle. Two rams together or two ewes produce nothing but frustration.
Fact 6: By its very nature, same-sex relationships carry their own consequences They have to resort to surrogacy to fill the void.
They cannot maintain their “rights” to fatherhood or motherhood. The claim to two fathers or two mothers is therefore a biological impossibility.
Fact 7: Father’s Day is meant to tell fathers how loved and important they are.
It is hypocritical then to declare that a father has no right to teach and raise his children according to his standards. Yet the same-sex lobby demands it has the right to do so.
Children, for example, do not have the right to be what sex they want to be. It is biologically impossible. They are what they are.
Fact 8: Legally same-sex couples can live together right now, make their wills in favour of each other, care for each other, appoint the other with power of attorney, call their “partner” husband, wife, fiancée etc.
Such activity does not constitute marriage. So why is there a need to change the Marriage Act? They already have what they want. Is there a hidden agenda?
Geoff Noller, Ararat
Federation well serves its farmers
I WRITE to respond to Oliver Guthrie’s letter (Titled: Farmer meetings missing, Wimmera Mail-Times, September 13).
The Victorian Farmers Federation serves members across rural Victoria with a network of regional forums.
As VFF president, I spend much of my time traversing Victoria talking to farmers to ensure we deliver on the policy and advocacy that gets the job done.
David Jochinke, president, Victorian Farmers Federation and grain grower, Wimmera