The good Christians of south eastern US

Melbourne's Burke Road stretches from Caulfield to Ivanhoe, and in the 1970s our then Prime Minister called it the longest street of bible bashing bastards in Australia. No one in the road voted for him, so he had nothing to lose by the statement. 

Step forward to the mid 2020s and many huge houses that contained a family have been demolished for pairs of upmarket townhouses, containing a downsizing elderly couple, widow or widower. This has done nothing for the shortage of housing in our country. 

While I doubt there are too many are church goers now, the residents are still wealthy and will still vote for the conservative party. It's all about the share market and their tax beneficial self managed superannuation funds.  

But for the better, the good burghers of Burke Road would have possibly supported gay marriage, are probably not anti abortion, and truth be told, many would have a social conscience, and like to see their taxes helping the less fortunate in life.

Ok, I am comparing apples to oranges, I think. But could the US bible belt with its social attitudes move on as the demographic residents of Burke Road did?

Could I add to this map the anti abortion protesters too? Is there anything else US citizens could add to this MAGA stronghold? Is this the area of Hillary's 'basket of deplorables'? 

Apologies if I stole this from you, and to whoever you stole it from.

Browsers

I updated the desktop from Windows 10 to 11. It was quite painless, but there are some changes that I will adjust to in time. The first evening as I moved the cursor to shut the computer down, the button had gone. How do I turn it off, safely without just pressing the physical on/off button? 

I found its very discreet placement, but I wonder what was the point of changing its placement.

I was at my pharmacy today to buy my drugs. I used my last Covid test kit when I came down with this cold. My goodness, the kits now test for RSV and flu types A and B as well. The wonders of medical science. I don't have to test to know I have a common cold. 

The news today from Hungary was joyous to hear. The extreme far right leader Orban has been voted out of office. Restoring Hungary to its former progressive status will take some time, and I don't know enough about the new leader to offer an opinion beyond what I have said. Graphs indicate it has in many ways performed poorly against its comparative counterparts.

Can you believe about two months after my car had a punctured tyre that was a slow leak, I now have the same tyre punctured with a slow leak. This time I can see a piece of wire protruding from the tyre. If I pull it out, I am sure the tyre will quickly deflate. I have to fix that today. I am sure Phyllis picked up the metal somewhere in the outer areas when I allow him to take the car one day a week for work. He was prepared to take the car to get the tyre repaired, but the tyre repair place said they could not fit that in. When I had the last puncture fixed, I wasn't charged. I wonder if Phyllis would have been charged, although they probably have the record of my car stored in a database. So, yes, I wonder if young dark guy would have been charged when the old white guy wasn't. Believe me, if the job was the same and he was charged, I would make it rather uncomfortable for the Australia wide chain. 

While I didn't think doing anything physical today was a good idea, I did manage to wash my doona cover and put it back on the bed. My doubled over summer sheet that I use instead of the doona from about October to April was washed, dried and put away. I washed it with the doona cover and it balled up inside the doona cover and did not dry properly, needing another half an hour of the washing machine drying cycle. 

Photos improve blog posts.

Sunday night chicken soup for dinner, guaranteed to cure a cold. It didn't but it was rather nice and did no harm.  

Kosov is trying to make Jass into a lap cat. I don't think she ever will be, but she does love him.

Lacking energy on Sunday while I was dying from a common cold, I still managed to have a wander at the Sikh festival at Federation Square. Ah, the mysteries of southern Asian men wearing turbans. There was even a display showing how to put one on and wind hair into the scarf. 

 

Ignore the subject line. I never got around to talking about web browsers. However, I put yesterday's mural post into AI and I am informed it is a Banksy work, in Park Street, Bristol. Yeah, nah. 

Kindness failure

The post I wrote for today bored me, and it would bore you too. Instead, this Friday evening. 

One of our residents bumped into our carpark gate, in fact hit it so hard it will be out of service for a week. The last time our carpark gate stayed open, thieves entered the carpark and broke into some cars and stole a bicycle worth $4000. We now have a permanent guard stationed at the car park entrance until the gate is fixed.

Sister will park here today in my car parking space and beforehand I will give the guard a note with her car identification and registration plate.

The poor guards, with sitting for hours without anything to do but scroll on their phones. I guessed the guard this evening would be Indian, and I was correct. Hindu, Moslem or Christian, they can all eat chicken, so I heated a leftover cut of spicy chicken, with some spicy green beans and kale, not heating the latter, to give to the guard, with a serviette of course. 

Thank you so much, he proclaimed, but I am vegetarian. Sometimes I think I get nothing right in life. I give up on kindness to strangers.

Later today I look forward to eating some spicy chicken, cooked, chilled, reheated, chilled and reheated. 

Relief and rant

Ray's relatives left yesterday morning. As lovely as the couple are, it is a bit of a relief, but also very sad as it is unlikely I will ever see them again. I had three dinners out with them and took them out on two long day trips, and they were very appreciative, and I heard about all the people I know in Ray's northern English city. They have flown to Bali, and four days later supposed to fly via Bahrain to England. Their flight has been cancelled, and alternative arrangements will be made.

A huge security guard company recently collapsed and the owner has fled overseas. We are told they underpaid security immigrant and student workers, insisting the students work more hours than they are allowed. There were many who were not paid. Superannuation was not paid, the responsibility of our tax department, and a huge amount was owed in unpaid taxes. There was sexual harassment of staff and eyes turned blind by the companies that used the security company. 

"Has collapsed owing tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands/millions in tax payments to the government", is a phrase we almost hear daily, well maybe weekly. This is an absolute disgrace. It is money lost that will have to made up by all taxpayers. There is really something seriously wrong in our tax department when it lets go unpaid tax and unpaid workers' superannuation for long periods. Never mind that the owner of the company should have had his passport blocked. He won't return to face the music.

I will shop on Thursday before a dental appointment in the afternoon. Otherwise, nothing more this week until Sunday when it will be a great niece's 12th birthday celebration. Ray's and Mother's used to be celebrated at the same time. 

A friend is just about to clear from a Covid infection. It is ages since I've heard of anyone having Covid, but the beast is still with us. She was well vaccinated and so her symptoms were mild.

Why does one Yarra Trams tram driver ring the gong seven different times when passing by (to warn flying bats I guess) and the next driver does not ring the gong at all? Yarra Trams provided an excellent service for attendees at the Grand Prix, but bugger the locals. It was awful to try to get anywhere by tram. Thank goodness for the new Metro tunnel train. 

The Chinese cult 'religion' Falun Gong has a performance called Shen Yun happening around Australia, in Melbourne at a place I didn't know, but what we call Jeff's Shed. I am bombarded by advertising for the show on YouTube. But let me tell you the organisers, if you want to advertise in Australia, at the very least use Australian voices to promote the show, and not American. I can wear American car advertisements with the steering wheel on the wrong side as the cars travel along beautiful coastal roads, because there is an Australian voice over, and I know the the ads cost a lot to make.  It may be an urban myth, but I remember a remark from Germany. 'If you want to buy something from us, we speak perfect English. If you want to sell us something, sorry, we don't understand English'. Not using an Australian voice over for Shen Yun really pisses me off.                                                                               

Hopefully something less whiny tomorrow.

The Brethren Cult

There are so many wrongs in the world and there always have been. We'll just ignore # 47, as the world is learning to do. Sadly the despot can't be ignored in his own country as the actions of a crazy man continue, and sadly his actions are affecting the world. 

Each day I wake to listen to the radio news with dread at #47 news and it just keeps coming, such as portraying the Obamas as apes. If he didn't do it himself, he employs people who have such an astonishing mindset. that they would even think such a thought. I am not keen on insulting women by calling them bitches, but that is clearly what his press secretary is, one Karoline Leavitt, and a stupid bitch for that matter. If it was a man, I'd call him a bastard.

I'd better get to the point, that's the Plymouth Brethren cult, as our right honourable Prime Minister has called it. But he has done nothing about removing the cult's faux status as a religion, and hence it is able to receive tax exemptions for its various large income streams.

You can do your own research about the evils of this 'church', but let me assure you, I've followed the reporting about this cult for many years in great detail, and it is a baddun. 

The members of the cult were called to arms to support the conservative party at the last election, whereby they aggressively harassed people at polling booths, as I experienced myself when I voted. Normally the interaction between opposing party supporters who hand out how to vote cards is friendly banter. It was not so this time. Tension sat over the queue of those lining up to vote. 

So, you get what the Brethren is about, and don't underestimate its power. 

But hey, it has charity arm, the Rapid Relief Team, that turns up at national disasters to help, in what manner I am not sure that is not already done by locals, governments and fantastic Sikhs who just feed people, and yes perhaps attempting to ingratiate themselves into Australian society. They are going the right way about it. 

From The Age:

The Exclusive Brethren’s Australian-based charity, the Rapid Relief Team, is suing a former member who escaped the church aged 17 after what she says was years of childhood sexual abuse.

has complained to police in her home town in Canada that she was sexually abused between the ages of about three and 12 by an elder of what’s now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

produced a podcast on YouTube called Get a Life: Ex-Cult Conversations. The podcast focuses on what they say is widespread abuse and mistreatment within the church, which is run out of Sydney by so-called “Man of God” Bruce Hales.

Now the Rapid Relief Team (RRT), the church’s public-facing charity, alleges Bawtinheimer infringed its copyright in some of those videos. The Brethren charity is demanding a jury trial in California, unspecified financial damages, and that a number of Bawtinheimer’s videos be taken down.

A terrible crime

I feel compelled to say something. I consider myself to be a decent person who is horrified by the death of many people at a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach. Did I read somewhere that Muslims are not a good fit in Australia? Perhaps someone analysed  crimes committed in Australia by race. Hmm...I think Jews would be quite low on the scale...Muslims, maybe not so much.

We need to remind ourselves that the majority of Muslims in Australia are peaceful people and are pleased to live in Australia, and become Australian citizens.

It only took hours for our conservative opposition party to start to pile on to our ruling Labor Party for not doing enough to protect Jews. I am not sure whether Australia has done enough. It has done plenty to protect Jewish Australians, but was it enough? I don't know, but it is way too early for the so called Liberal Party to attempt to take political advantage. Fuck off Opposition Leader, Ley. 

But what about that fucking cunt arsehole, the corrupt Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands, lecture Australia about protecting our Jewish citizens. How dare he!

The week that is was

Monday was the usual hanging around for my meals on wheels delivery. Each three course meal costs $11, but I never sit down to a three course meal. I can choose three main meals, three sandwiches or soups and three deserts. Of sandwiches, I choose two, and one soup, potato, leek and bacon. Of deserts I normally choose two fresh fruit, which gives me four days of fruit for my cereal, and one naughty and very sweet bread and butter pudding. 

Before my meals arrive, I cross the road to sit and have coffee. That was after I had gone down a paper rabbit hole after my Dead in Bed neighbour HH asked me question about my council rates. I didn't go out until late, just to Prahran for something I can't remember.

Tuesday I was back in Prahran, to see my doctor. I requested new scripts for medications, asked him to look at my hernia surgery scar and his opinion, he reassured me that my recent MRI indicated no further action needed to be taken about a suspicious mass within my pancreas, prescribed an ointment for some dermatitis looking spots on my ankle. The ointment is Kenacomb, one I'd never heard of. 

Some time after four, a man came to check before quoting to supply and install a new air conditioner. His tan tradie boots had a velcro siding to remove them easily. He began to take one off when I said, no need. Just as I was letting him out the door, Phyllis and Kosov arrived home. 

Ondrewwww, your special friend has just left. 

Don't be silly. 

Ondrewwww, why are you blushing? We don't judge you. 

I'm not, and why do you think I would be interested in an older man like him?

Ondrewwww, your breath smells of something! 

Can you both just piss orf. 

When our car used to need servicing, Ray would book it in for 8.00am. I once asked him why so early? He replied, so that it is finished early. I found that 8.00am car delivery very unsettling. I booked my car in for its annual service at 10.30. It would be ready by 4pm. I changed the name of the business's account to my my name. I had to catch a tram to the city and then one from the city to get home, and reverse to pick it up. There were complications because I changed the day from Friday to Wednesday, but not a big problem. I then said, damn it, I will pick the car up tomorrow morning. 

Back in the city, I bought some new socks at Big Trouble You (Big W) at QV and some milk. I was struggling with walking by then. I don't walk well in the mornings. I stayed home for the rest of the day and paid out a horrendous amount of money, $2,200 for the quarterly body corporate fee, $1,200 plus for council rates, $370 for my October train trip, and about the same for my October air flight. 

I don't know why, but who handles my Centrelink dealings with our social security government department, wanted all my bank statements back to when I began receiving my government pension, that took me about forty minutes to do online. My government pension has dropped from about $860 a fortnight to $300. The maximum government old age pension here is about $1,200 a fortnight, a bit higher if you are a home renter rather than a homeowner. If I inform Centrelink of all my expenditure this week and my bank account balance, adding about $700 for the car service, I should see my pension rise for a time.

It may rise further, because after collecting my car this Thursday, I drove it to do my weekly shopping. I was home before noon. The early bird does catch the worm, but generally I have little desire for worms. I went back to the city for a haircut. Phyllis rearranged my delivered corned beef with mustard sauce and salad to something a bit more palatable. Some of the meals I receive are great, some are not, and the corned beef was very tough.

On the way home from town, the quote came in for new air con, $3,500 or a better unit, $3,700. I will take the latter as it has a feature of self mould cleaning. My old unit does have a little visible mould inside. So, that will be installed in a week or so. 

Phyllis gets it when I said we are going pussy hunting on Friday, Kosov, hates it. No Ondrewww, don't say that. 

I can't decide if we will tram and train it to the Lost Dogs Home to find a homeless cat to adopt, or Phyllis should drive us in the newly serviced Pearl. We may choose a cat tomorrow, but we won't bring it home until next week, when we have all that is necessary things to home a cat.

Cat problem is; my age nearly 68. A cat may live for twenty years. I will be 88. I think it is unlikely I will live to that age That's ameliorated somewhat by we won't be buying a kitten but an adult cat. What if Phyllis and Kosov can't stay in Australia? It will then be my cat. What if I die? Well, Sister or Oldest Niece would take it on. 

Kosov told me of when his family got a cat when he was young, and it was quickly established that his sister wae allergic to cats, and within one day, it was decided the cat had to go. He cried for three days afterwards. He told me he doesn't want any more heartbreak like that. I understand. In the 80s Ray and I took on a dog from the Lost Dog's Home, and she was totally unsuitable for us, and we made the hard decision to return her to the home. She was a lovely dog, but not right for us and our existing dog and cats. I had tears in my eyes as I took Tess back, and the staff understood. 

Something is kicking off at 'The 'Gog' tonight. Barriers have been erected, all leaking water. When I first saw these barriers in Melbourne, perhaps in the 1990s, they were called New Jersey Barriers. Does Boud know why?  They are no longer called that. 

The cults within

I learnt this evening from a friend who I dined with that Pancake Parlour is a Scientology business, its founders all being of the faith.

I already knew that the happy clappers, the born agains, the Hillsong Church, is behind the coffee shop chain, Gloria Jean. Who would drink their crap coffee anyway? 

The Plymouth Brethrens is no more than oppressive cult, dressed up as religion.  

Yet, our government judges them as proper religions, as they receive tax exemptions etc. 

Will such benefits be handed out to Sovereign Citizens?  It is another cult, made up of people who don't believe in the organisation of modern society, and don't recognise the laws of Australia, nor its governments. It is odd that the word sovereign is used, since they clearly don't swear allegiance to our king.

The organisation's views are extreme, with a couple of police officers being killed a few years ago by a 'sovereign citizen', and now close to home, two more cops have sadly been allegedly killed by a 'sovereign', the murderer as I write, not yet being caught.  

In both cases, the police were doing their duties. It is just too awful. Ingrid, note, one of the police killed was Belgian born. Cops are not perfect, as older and more recent media shows. But generally they do a very difficult job, mostly quite well.  

It seems that for police to safely deal with these sovereign state nutters, is they need to go in with all guns blazing, in a metaphorical sense, or maybe not metaphorical.

My life experience has taught me to have little respect for 'organised' religion, but they are now mild compared to those I've mentioned above. Should I connect the cult religions to those sovereign state types? For sure I should. They are all fucking nutters. 

Just focus on building a better society. 

Later edit: Hels has written some detail and background about the Sovereign Citizen movement.

Icelandic architecture

What do you know about Iceland? I don't know much. It's cold but not as cold as Greenland. It has volcanoes. Over the years, I have learnt a little about Iceland from bloggers. 

Yorkshire blogger Tasker walked in Iceland in his younger years. https://taskerdunham.blogspot.com/2021/07/walking-in-iceland-1-to-reykjavik.html

Travel Penguin in Washington has visited twice, and would like to revisit. https://travelpenguin.blogspot.com/2025/07/foodie-friday-what-i-learned-in-iceland.html

Most recently the country was visited by Jackie and John from Toronto, and while Jackie's account of the trip and photos were marvellous, this photo really grabbed me. 

Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik is an absolutely stunning piece of modern architecture. You can see more of Jackie's inside and outside photos at https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2025/06/iceland-day-3-reykjavik.html I urge you to take a look. 

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is due to finished in 2026, 100 years after the death of its designer Antoni Gaudi. Construction began, would you believe, in 1882. I am a person who thinks public transport is good but sadly Gaudi was killed when he was hit by a tram, at his age of 73. 

The first photo is from the Sagrada foundation and the rest are mine. 

This was the view from the balcony of our apartment in 2017. We wondered what on earth we were looking at when we first entered the apartment.

Of course we wanted to visit and I looked online. We should have booked days ahead. Entrance was booked out, as were all tours. 

I really wonder what Gaudi was thinking. 

It's Complicated

Remember my post about the Hazara Moslem refugees? It was sad to realise how they have suffered around the world. I am sure many of you expressed sympathy for their plight. 

Then you read this about Hazara in Victoria's own town of Shepparton. There wasn't too much mother love coming from Jan. 

I don't want this crap in my Australia. 

The court was told on Tuesday this was not the first time Jan had forced Haidari into marriage.

When she was aged 15, her mother forced her to marry a different man, which ended in divorce.

After the divorce, Haidari was considered as “bewa” by the Hazara community in Shepparton, meaning she had lost her value.

“That brought a level of shame both to Ms Haidari and the family,” Renton said.

“[Jan] was motivated at least in part to restore that reputation.”

Jan held a position of trust in Haidari’s life as her only living parent, and the offending represented a “significant breach” of that, he said.

However, Renton accepted Jan could not have known Halimi was going to murder her daughter.

“It’s a tragic case, no one anticipated the outcome,” he said. “All the evidence was that he was being promoted as ‘a good boy’; sadly, he wasn’t.”

Ban the Musk Rat creature

Elon Musk is a rather ugly character. I can't bear him...however.

A few weeks ago an Australian priest was stabbed as he was hectoring mid a sermon. He was also not a very pleasant man, but didn't deserve to be stabbed. The service was being live streamed and a number of people saw the crime happen live and saved the video. The clip of his stabbing spread world wide. 

I can't be bothered with the stupid X. I'll just call it Twitter and Twitter was the clip's main distribution channel. At the request of the Australian government, the footage was geoblocked to Australians. You can get around geoblocking if you want, but it is a faff. Now the Australian government is trying to force Twitter to remove the content entirely from Twitter and I find myself out of step with with our government. 

It is not up to the Australian government to tell Twitter, a US based world wide company, what people can see or can't see world wide. It's arguably ok to geoblock it to Australia, but the Australian government don't and shouldn't have a say on what is published world wide. If Twitter behaves badly, it should be dealt with in the country where it is headquartered. 

There is now a war of words and court action by both parties and the matter has become somewhat personal.  Later edit: Australia lost the case against Musk. 

A Musk Rat is a creature isn't it? Oh, I see Musk Rat has found male hair dye.

The revolting kiddies

Teen age children have been out on the streets protesting against the invasion of Gaza by Israel. Once I was an ignorant young teenage supporter of Mao Tse Tung and the communist party in China. Naïve idealism, at best.

Most of my schoolmates were uninterested in such things as world politics but for some reason a few of us were. I was influenced by a fellow student, one Morag Mason whose older brother was studying at Monash University, which was probably the most politically active Melbourne university back then. I was given a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. I didn't read it. I was too busy sitting on top of my wardrobe chanting Hari Krishna.  We loved the Ford Cortina with the peace sign tail lights.

I don't have a problem with you if you are moderately religious, religion is just not my thing. Australia was riven by the Protestant and Catholic divide and even in my young years, I remember being at the 'mixed' Trafalgar swimming pool, hearing my older school mates chant Catholic dogs, sitting on logs, eating maggots out of frogs. The Catholics had a verse to chant to call back. Children are led by adults and there weren't Catholics in our family. Nothing was ever said, but we were just different to them. Even so, my parents were good neighbours with the Catholics on the farm next door to us, just not quite friends. Young people would simply not understand the Protestant/Catholic divide of my childhood. I think after the election of God Gough Whitlam, the divide just disappeared. Catholic or Protestant became of no interest to anyone. 

What we all wanted was world peace. Isn't that what the ignorant Australian children are protesting for. They seem to be unaware of the murder of innocents in Israel, the rapes and the abductions by Hamas. But by golly, isn't Israel having revenge against the innocent people of Gaza, dead person score way in Israel's favour. Israel has oppressed the people of Gaza for so long. 

The ignorant children here are not protesting against Israel. They are protesting against the killing and the injuring of children of their own age. Even as I was so ignorant, as they are, we all hate war and the killing of humans, especially if we feel empathy.

Religion causes so many problems in the world and this graph is interesting, stolen from Bob perhaps. I take a little pride in Australia being red on both counts. Let's keep it that way. 

Inside The 'Gog

Steve wondered about the internal stained glass of the synagogue. I think R took these photos when he visited The 'Gog during an Open House day. I too have taken photos but I can't immediately find them. 

So these windows are what are on the inside the externally brightly lit but opaque windows. Some are not great photos. 

The 'Gog is lit

It seems appropriate to publish this on a Saturday. 

When we moved here I thing the Melbourne Synagogue very visible to us across the road had its windows externally illuminated by halogen lamps. Not only does the lighting look good from the outside, it lights the beautiful stained leadlight glass internal windows behind the opaque windows. Over time the halogen lights would fail and were individually replaced and it became awful lighting with so many different shades of white, so me warm, some cold etc.

In time the halogen lights were all replaced by LED lighting but in time that turned out to be a hotchpotch of lighting. 

Earlier this year an effort to make the lighting consistent was made. It took some time and was almost perfect aside from one lamp not correctly directed. This was fixed too and the lighting was as perfect as it could be. 

I looked at the 'Gog's website and found a contact form and so I sent a complimentary thank you message for a job well done. The message would not lodge at my first attempt nor my second. I gave up. But hey, I really appreciate the lighting so much. Thank you Melbourne Synagogue. Please use the full lighting more often.

Note, the scaffolding has now been removed. 

Melbourne's loss

Some charities divide people into deserving and non deserving and treat each as judged accordingly. This is one reason why I have big issues with human charities. 

Yesterday Melbourne lost a good soul, Father Bob Maguire at the age of 88. He was a Catholic Priest who was forcibly retired by The Church when he reached a certain age, but that never stopped his care for the poor, the disadvantaged, the drug users, those down on their luck...anyone really. He simply helped without judgement or discrimination. Of course the church hierarchy did not like his modus operandi of non judgemental care but his popularity was so great, it dare not interfere.

He set up a respected foundation after retirement, https://www.fatherbobs.com/  

Bob also had a good sense of humour, was a bit of a larrikin, never took himself too seriously and was a wonderful raconteur. 

I understand his family has accepted the offer of State Government Funeral.

#176 Why I dislike religious institutions

I don't know how it is in other parts of the world. I don't care to follow religion but I seem to remember that in the 1960s in Australia the Presbyterian and Methodist churches combined to form the United Church. But apparently some old vestigatives of Presbyterian Church survived 

In a submission to a government enquiry into discrimination in schools, the Presbyterian church submitted that a gay student would not be an appropriate person to be a school captain. Of course most other religious schools held similar hateful views. No gay or dyke teachers at our school! Must be of our religion. No living in sin. It went on. 

The church owns five schools in Melbourne. Its schools are run by boards of governors and the most prestigious school, Scotch College, 'almost' immediately disassociated itself from the submission, describing itself as an inclusive school for all without discrimination. The church may own the school but does not control it.

Which century are we living in? I can't believe such a submission would come from the Presbyterian Church in modern Australia. What a disgrace. 

Meanwhile the gay captain of the Church of England Melbourne Grammar School eloquently speaks out. This lad will go on to be a huge benefit to society. 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/i-m-melbourne-grammar-s-school-captain-and-i-m-gay-the-presbyterian-church-would-have-me-sacked-20230418-p5d1b8.html  

The Presbyterian Church of Australia has declared its right to refuse school leadership opportunities to students based on sexuality or premarital sexual activity. This comes in response to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of discrimination laws.

The Church has reasoned that, in the case of discriminating against students based on sexual preference, gay students “would not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling Christian living”.

I write this as captain of Melbourne Grammar School. I write this as someone who is gay, a fact about myself which I cannot change. I also write this as someone confused – surely “modelling Christian living” is not well exemplified in the practice of exclusion or discrimination?

The Christian faith is built on the example Christ set in his life. His revolutionary compassion, so radical then as it still is now – care for the outcasts, the lepers, the unclean – inform the values of Christianity and direct the moral constitution of the Church. Jesus shocked the established powers of his time, his love the instrument of a legacy which left a world faith developing in its wake.

His example leads me to wonder what Christ would make of this situation. If he was confronted with a body of young people – all, to remind the Presbyterian leaders, made in the image of God, in the imago dei – would he divide them and cast inequality among their ranks?

Would he tell a portion of them they could not lead their friends, simply because those they love are of the same sex? Well, Jesus did not condemn the adulterers, did not avoid the pariahs, and surely would not deem some more capable of Christian living than others because of the details of their sexuality.

I see nothing particularly Christ-like in telling a child that, because of some unchangeable fact about their identity, they cannot have a recognised position of respect among their peers. To be honest, what I do see is irrationality.

The beauty of my generation is its widespread, gentle disinterest for sexuality. My peers know I am gay and they do not much care, just as they do not much care that others are straight or of other sexualities. This strength in character, this security of identity, is characteristic of the best leaders, and the Presbyterian Church of Australia has a chance to demonstrate it too. Unfortunately, the current absence of such a positive and healthy outlook is harming both the place of organised religion in the modern world and the safety of adolescents.

Not in modern Australia. But here I am, a student, writing an open letter to a group of adults who have lived a good deal longer than I have, and my intention here (at the risk of sounding quite bold) is to educate. I ask the Presbyterian Church of Australia to withdraw their response which outlines the right to discriminate among children and adolescents based on sexuality or sexual activity.

Firstly, it is a violation of the privacy of students and a rather clumsy attempt at preserving a worldview now thankfully frowned upon. Secondly, it is the most remarkable antithesis to the true Christian values (the central commandment “love thy neighbour as thyself” should be the directing maxim here).

And, thirdly, this desire to discriminate among young people is plainly unsettling. The sexuality of students is not something which should be the subject of so much scrutiny – as Stephen Fry once pointed out, the stricter branches of the Church often like to brand homosexual people as exhibiting unnatural sexual attitudes, though it is not the gay community which displays an unhealthy obsession with the regulation, repression and restriction of sex, rather the shoe is on the other foot there.

I am very lucky – I am secure in myself; I attend a school which values all its students equally. Yet so, so many children do not yet have this same confidence. The influence of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in declaring the right to discriminate against students based on sexuality is therefore mightily dangerous to some of the most vulnerable in our society.

Those people behind this submission to the ALRC need to exhibit the compassion which their faith is built on, as do the other religious groups which have submitted similar requests.

Organised religion is a powerful force for positivity. Those groups which tarnish the name of spirituality by using it to justify prejudice do a disservice to all people of faith, and they endanger all those who fall under their care.

Daniel Cash is Melbourne Grammar’s school captain.

Easter

Thank goodness Easter has finished. I don't like and I expect many non Christians don't either. The shock of finding supermarkets being closed has caused a huge rise in emergency hospital admissions. 

In what I suppose is a coincidence we had a great full moon over Easter. 

Of course being a full moon, the crazies were out in force. Fortunately everyone on the escalator was correctly standing to the left at QV shopping centre in town, as a manic man tore up the walk side. Upon reaching the top, he kicked at a young female cleaner and then started hitting her. Another man tackled him to ground and kept him pinned there and was calling out 'Call the police'. Nasty stuff.

We moved on to Soul Cafe, outdoors for coffee. Up the street a man was banging his head on metal bars surrounding a garden bed.  

I am not superstitious but after forty years of working with the public, a full moon is a problem. Just ask the police or paramedics.

So what is this Easter thing about? It began when a woman gave birth to child in horse shed, or was it for camels. She denied a man was involved. I used to hear that from young women in the 60s and 70s.  Some foolish men visited and the most foolish was a bloke who gave Mary gold. There are two Marys in this story, so don't confuse the street worker Mary with the mother Mary. Did the not so wise man know how gold would have appreciated and what it would be worth in 2023? He did his descendents down. 

The baby grew up, there is no information about his puberty and teen years, and he went on to make some miracles. I am prone to exaggeration too so yep, ok. Miracles were performed. I believe it.

He was then locked up for some reason by I think Italians, in a cave and freed by the aforesaid Mary the street worker. He must have been caught again and was involuntary put into bondage and whipped. I've seen some videos showing that peccadillo. 

If that was not enough, somehow he must have ended up in the Philippines where at Easter they nail men to crosses through their hands and feet. Rather barbaric and he suffered for his supposed crimes. 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  

My taxes

I am happy to pay my taxes, to federal, state and local governments. I like to see my taxes wisely spent and I can't say that always happens but in the big picture, our taxes are spent on the betterment of and for society. 

If a society has an insufficient tax base, the well being and living standards of the citizens falls apart. 

I don't even mind my taxes being spent on what I may see as wankery art or opera. My taxes spent on picking up a drunk and drugged waster from the gutter and feeding them, clothing them, housing them and ensuring they receive appropriate medical care is fine with me.

What I really object to my taxes being spent on is huge funding of religious private schools. Sadly as I recall, this begun under God Gough's Labor government's reign over Australia when he began taxpayer funding of Catholic schools in the 1970s.

And hasn't it snowballed from there. Every little tin pot religious school receives taxpayer money now, as well as the extremely wealthy mainstream Catholic and Protestant religious schools. It is a disgrace. Our public schools are perfectly fine with dedicated teachers but underfunded. Why overfund private religious schools when public schools need funding? 

Parents and defenders of subsided private education point out how overwhelmed our public education system would be without private schools. Well, the change would not happen overnight and the subsidies for private schools will go into the public purse to expand the public system. 

When Dictator Andrew Highriser rules, he will defund private education over the course of five years and redirect the money to public schools. We will return to a good education for all, and if you want an alternative, you pay for it and not me. Only the absolute elite will ask which school you attended.

We do have some public schools that select students on merit. I'll put them in the too hard basket and let them be for now. They do suspiciously have very nice facilities though.

This is a hard one as so many family members go to private schools. Irreligious Sister's career has been teaching in a prestigious Catholic boys school. Jo goes to an excellent non religious private school. Little M and Little Em go to private Catholic school, mainly because they open the gate on their back fence and be at school. The Cafe Latte twins have just started at a government primary school.

I wish I had saved the article to quote the correct figures, but as per the last census, only about 42% of Australians are now religious believers and the figure is dropping rapidly. Wait, I found it easily.

Religious affiliation in 2021

In 2021, more people opted to answer the Census religion question than in 2016. In 2021, the number of people who answered the religion question was 93.1% of the population, an increase from 90.9% in 2016.

In 2021 the most common religions were:

• Christianity (43.9%)
• No religion (38.9%)
• Islam (3.2%)
• Hinduism (2.7%)
• Buddhism (2.4%)

Here is a snip of what happens in private religious schools, in this case the school where the soon to be ex Premier of the State of New South Wales attended. It is known as the Opus Dei branch of the Catholic religion. The vaccination referred to is for HPV, Human Papilloma Virus and is free and readily available for teens upon request without need for parental approval. 

My taxes pay for this crap education!!! I don't like private education institutions and I detest what happens in religious schools.

I'll leave you with a media quote.  

What kind of school tells its students not to get a life-saving vaccine because it encourages promiscuity? What kind of school tells its students pornography causes holes in the brain? What kind of school tells its students same-sex relationships are evil while at the same time barely disciplining a staff member in a same-sex relationship with a disciple and former student?  

The happy clappers at Hillsong

As if normal religions aren't bad enough, we have newer religious organisations such as Hillsong. I've no idea what Hillsong is about but it seems to attract nice but disaffected people who are believers. That's just my opinion. I don't think anywhere has done better with happy clapper religions and scandals than the US as the people behind the happy clapper nonsense raked in millions of dollars to spend on themselves, were unfaithful to partners, involved in sexual scandals and more.

Followers of Islam go to great lengths to justify their religion but they have no tolerance of a diverse society and while the rest of Australian electorates voted for gay marriage, one heavily Islamic suburb in Sydney did not. Then you get prats like this Muslim bloke who preaches such hatred against gay people. It's a quick read. He should be prosecuted for hate speech.  https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/sydney-muslim-preacher-goes-on-vile-rant-against-lgbt-persons-worldpride/222423

Back to Hillsong with some links that should work for you.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/05/hillsong-founder-pastor-brian-houston-sydney-court-trial

I love the Kardashion reference in this one. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/09/hillsong-accused-of-money-laundering-and-tax-evasion-by-mp-under-parliamentary-privilege

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/world/australia/brian-houston-hillsong-resign.html

Crooks, liars, thieves and charlatans. 

I've just checked the definition of religious bigot and it seems I am not one. It just seems like it and I make no apologies.