But that’s starting to change as more and more of us realise that this issue is being exploited by the left-wing activists who arewaging war on our way of life.
The issue is less same-sex marriage itself than the consequences for parental choice, freedom of speech and freedom of religion that it will bring in its train.
Tony Abbott has warned changing the Marriage Act will have far reaching consequences.
Very few Australians would want a Catholic adoption agency to close down, an orthodox Jewish school to have its funding threatened, or parents to be denied information about sex education classes in their children’s schools, but these have all flowed from enshrining same-sex marriage in the law of comparable countries.
Of course, the placards “vote yes for same-sex marriage and for (so-called) safe schools” misrepresent the views of most same-sex marriage supporters but social re-engineering is certainly the agenda of the countercultural warriors who are driving this campaign.
They don’t want to join marriage; they want to change it.
The more marriage is broadened out, the less it means; but once it means almost anything, it can end up meaning nothing much at all and a great pillar of society designed originally for the protection of women and the nurturing of children has been kicked away.
When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was no doubt a tough and judgmental aspect to life in Australia where much was improperly denied and where many were wrongly kept in a subordinate place. I rejoice at the freedom, the opportunity, and the acceptance that everyone can now take for granted; but I fear a suffocating new orthodoxy as the social pendulum swings from one extreme to another.
For all the narrow-mindedness of the recent past, at least there was a clear understanding that the concept of marriage as the loving unionof one man with one woman, preferably for life and usually dedicated to wellbeing of their children, was an essential part of keeping in check the selfish and exploitative side of humanity.
Everywhere we look, what was self-evident just a generation ago is now under assault; and we’re not just junking old prejudices in favour of sensible things like allowing women to tackle numerous roles once reserved for men.
It’s becoming a different world where gender is no longer objectively set but is whatever people choose; where prepubescent children are permitted (as far as they can) actually to change their sex; where doctors are expected to assist people to die rather than help them to live; and where schoolchildren can’t give each other Christmas cards lest that seem unfair to non-Christians.
These are just some of the bewildering moral transformations that are becoming the new normal in this brave new world.
Same-sex marriage is the frontal attack on traditional values that can only take place because of the infiltration and erosion that’s been going on for years.
So much social change has happened more or less without anyone noticing at the time: IVF for singles; adoption for gays; the evolution of fathers’ day and mothers’ day into “special person’s” days.
And due to the bullying and intolerance of the “yes” forces — the GetUp!!!!! petition to strike off a doctor concerned about family values; the sacking of a young Christian girl who posted “it’s OK the say ‘no’” on social media; the notion that anti-SSM MPs should be “hate-f … ed” out of their alleged homophobia; the hounding of Israel Folau for daring to speak out and much more — the public are beginning to sense that the “love is love” campaign isn’t quite as innocent as it sounds.
Of course, the “yes” case has all the money and all the celebrities on their side.
The Abbott family’s ballots arrived in the post along with a glossy brochure from some Liberal leaders urging a “yes” vote.
Millions of people’s (silent) mobile phone numbers have been bombarded by “yes” text messages.
Tony Abbott describes his attack as “a shock”
Dozens of big companies are spending shareholders’ money on one side of this argument.
Even sporting codes are trying to frogmarch their followers into voting just one way.
We’ll soon find out how influential the politically correct establishment has been.
My instinct is that Australians still might surprise everyone and vote against being lectured about what to do.
Tony Abbott is MP for Warringah and the former prime minister
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the Cross.And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
Free speech is under siege. Everywhere we look, there’s a new attack on the rights and liberties of Australian citizens. In the same-sex marriage postal vote, gay-left militants are showing their true colours.
If a doctor like Pansy Lai says she believes in traditional man-woman marriage, they try to have her thrown out of the medical profession. If two parliamentarians have a civil debate about the Marriage Act, hosted by a beer manufacturer like Coopers, the militant tendency tries to close down the company. If parents organise a meeting at their local church to discuss the education of their children and Safe Schools program, as they did in Brisbane last Thursday night, gay-left protesters try to block them from entering the building.
Is this a forerunner to the type of division and intimidation that will dominate Australian politics if the Yes vote succeeds?
A nation where anyone who chooses not to worship at the altar of homosexuality and gender fluidity will be run out of town?
Justice is gagged and free speech is under fire. Illustration: John Tiedemann
I fear for the Christian cake-makers and tailors who chose not to be involved in gay and transgender marriage ceremonies. In the United States, with the passage of “marriage equality”, these small businesspeople have been attacked and demonised — fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to defend their rights.
The only practical freedom for Christians and conservatives is the freedom of gay marriage never coming into law.
Pansy Lai was the Sydney doctor who appeared in the “No” campaign ad. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian
Last Tuesday in Melbourne, the legal system struck another blow against liberty. It convicted Chris Shortis, Neil Erikson and Blair Cottrell of inciting ridicule of Muslims by staging a mock Islamic State beheading of a mannequin in 2015.
The so-called Bendigo Three were protesting against a development application for a mosque.
No Muslims complained about their stunt. No other groups were incited to take similar action.
Yet Shortis, Erikson and Cottrell were charged under the Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.
I thought their protest was stupid, but did it need to trigger the public expense and legalism of a court case?
Absolutely not.
Things like this often occur in Australian politics, without punishment. The US D-grade celebrity Kathy Griffin, for instance, has booked the Sydney Opera House next month, at $90 a head, to cash in on her notorious mock beheading of Donald Trump.
Apparently, under Australian law, a theatrical presidential beheading is OK, but a theatrical mosque protest is illegal. This is what Trump himself calls a rigged system.
Leftist atrocities go unchecked, while conservatives and nationalists have the book thrown at them.
If gay-left militancy and legal inconsistency weren’t bad enough, last month there was a third strike against free speech in Australia.
In June 2013, Gaynor received a notice from the Chief of the Defence Force David Hurley, confirming his sacking on the grounds of “intolerance of homosexuals, transgender persons and women” that were “contrary to (Defence’s) policies and cultural change program”.
As a political activist, in his private time, Gaynor had made a series of contentious statements — most notably, that he would not allow gays to teach his children at school. This is not something with which I agree, but so what. They are Gaynor’s children, not mine or anyone else’s.
Major Bernard Gaynor was dismissed from the Australian Army. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian
As a father he has the right to decide what’s best for his family. Having outlined his views publicly, they should have been seen as an exercise in parental belief and free speech.
Hurley acknowledged that Gaynor “was not on duty, in uniform or performing any service for the Army at the time of the comments”.
He also said Gaynor had “interacted with male and female Defence members in a cordial and respectful manner in the workplace”. Gaynor was a decorated war hero, having served in Iraq. He hadn’t done anything other than articulate political opinions consistent with his Christian faith and parental responsibilities.
Yet he was out on his ear.
After two years of court action and huge personal expense, the High Court ended Gaynor’s matter by not even hearing it.
transgender relationships. How is this relevant to national security? It’s another politically correct distraction from the core responsibilities of government.
Australia urgently needs a Free Speech Act. Twenty years ago, in the Lange case, the High Court declared that Australians enjoyed the “implied rights” of freedom of political speech. As our constitution is based on a vigorous parliamentary democracy, we need to be able to debate issues without censorship or punishment.
Yet in Gaynor’s case the High Court ignored this principle. If it won’t defend its own precedents for free speech, Parliament must legislate instead.
Observers of the same-sex marriage debate will have noticed the voice of one particular community has been largely missing from the fray: Muslims.
With few exceptions, including a statement from the National Imams Council, almost all of the talk of religious freedom and opposition to the bill on the grounds of faith has come from Christian leaders, particularly from the Anglican and Catholic Churches. But now one Muslim leader has offered an explanation. Last night on ABC's The Drum, Ali Kadri, spokesman for the Islamic Council of Queensland and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said his community was stuck with the choice of offending allies or siding with critics, and the result had been silence. "Unfortunately, in the current climate, the right and conservative side has attacked Muslims as terrorists and extremists, and naturally the left side has been allies in defending us for a long period of time," he said. "We are afraid if we come out with our opinion then the left may abandon us for going against their view and we can't be friendly with the conservatives because they have been bashing us for 15, 20 years every chance they get … and that includes some Christian sects as well."
Even though it was the Australian Christian Lobby that led the charge against the Safe Schools program, Mr Kadri said Muslims were also deeply concerned about the possible impact of any legislative changes on education. "A lot of Muslim community are concerned that religious rights will be trampled in Islamic schools [and that they] will have to follow a national curriculum that will teach things that go against the fundamentals of their religion, so they are concerned about it," he said. "There are people in the Muslim community who want to know the facts. "Will it have an impact on Safe Schools or not? "Will it trample on our religious freedom because we are already afraid to build mosques, because we get right wing groups complaining about mosques, so will this have further impact on our rights and freedoms?
"The Muslim community is not speaking because the climate which is created in this country, we are not allowed to speak. We speak up and are called a terrorist, unpatriotic and all those slurs.
"So we are missing out on having our say in this debate and that's the wrong thing." ....
Divide emerging between traditional and progressive Muslim leaders
Not all Muslim leaders have shown a reluctance to speak though. Recently Council of Imams Queensland president Yusuf Peer said gay marriage was unacceptable to Islam, and that Muslims should respect LGBTQI people but "condemn only their actions".
And the statement from the National Imams Council was unambiguous: "Islam places the family unit at the heart of a healthy society, and in this context, the right of children to be cared for and raised by both a mother and father is one that must be protected. "Islam also explicitly and unambiguously states that marital relationship is only permissible between a man and woman; any other marital relationships are Islamicly impermissible." But the Muslim community's view is not unanimous. In recent weeks, strong opposition to the conservative leadership view has begun to emerge. National Advocacy group Muslims for Progressive Values has expressed support for same-sex marriage and in August, Muslims for Marriage Equality was formed to build support for the Yes vote. In a press release, Muslims for Marriage Equality spokesman Fahad Ali, former peer educator with the AIDS council of NSW, stated: "There is a diversity in belief and opinion on equal marriage within the Muslim community … there is a strong thread of egalitarianism and social justice within the Koran and we think that it is very applicable to the question of same-sex marriage." In recognition that many LGBT Muslims — or supporters — may be living with family members who do not support their views, Muslims for Marriage Equality is offering to provide temporary postal addresses for those who cannot have their ballot paper sent to their home addresses.
Tony Abbott describes his attack as “a shock”
Dozens of big companies are spending shareholders’ money on one side of this argument.
Even sporting codes are trying to frogmarch their followers into voting just one way.
We’ll soon find out how influential the politically correct establishment has been.
My instinct is that Australians still might surprise everyone and vote against being lectured about what to do.
Tony Abbott is MP for Warringah and the former prime minister
