WHERE AND HOW QUICKLY A.I. IS IMPACTING OUR WORLD

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In this video, the CEO of Nvidia gives us an incredibly detailed view of how quickly AI will impact every aspect of our world. It also reveals how Taiwan has led and is still leading the way not only with AI but also with Robotics. It is undoubtedly a major reason why China wants to make Taiwan part of China.

Huang shows several videos showing AI and robotics already in use in many industries. It is already happening and the change is fast. It is “mind-blowing”.

YearAverage Stock PriceYear OpenYear HighYear LowYear CloseAnnual % Change
2024812.7203481.65761224.4000475.66791224.4000147.26%
Growth of Nvidia share price in 2024 The full chart shows years since 2019. The stock price has more than doubled in 2024.

From a Biblical prophecy viewpoint knowing that as the world continues to reject God and His morality, chaos and increased lawlessness will engulf the world. Overlay this with the loss of jobs that will result from AI and Robotics and you have a world in turmoil. It is easy to see how this world will embrace the prophesied Satan-empowered Antichrist and his False Prophet. He is offering peace and has miraculous powers.

BIBLICAL PROPHESIED END TIMES SIGNS

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Watching the anti-Israel protests raging on campuses across the country reveals the demonic nature of the hatred of the Jewish people and their control of the land that God has given them. It also shows how easily the entire world under the influence of Satan can believe a lie, and then turn on any group and hate them. Jesus reminds us that we are destined to face this before His return. Regardless, the gospel will be preached worldwide, and the end will only come then.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14

PROPHESIED APOSTATE END TIMES CHURCH

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UMC drops decades-old ban on ordaining LGBT clergy without debate

The United Methodist General Conference has voted to remove a decades-old ban on ordaining pastors in romantic same-sex relationships after thousands of conservative congregations left the denomination in recent years. 

Bishop Karen Oliveto (in blue jacket) and her wife, Robin Ridenour (front, center), join in embracing delegates and visitors at the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. after the conference voted to remove the denomination’s ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” — a prohibition that dates to 1984

At the UMC General Conference Wednesday, delegates approved without debate a measure removing the language from the Book of Discipline as part of a broader consent calendar, passing it by a final tally of 692 to 51.

Since 1984, the UMC Book of Discipline has prohibited the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals,” with many progressives in the mainline Protestant denomination openly refusing to enforce or follow the restriction.  

Applause from General Conference attendees was heard after the vote, with retired Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, a longtime proponent of removing the language, offering a prayer.

“You every day are great God, and every day You are working for good in the world. Stir up in us a desire to serve You, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all creation, and devote this day to your service,” Ward said, as quoted by UM News.

Over the past several years, the UMC has experienced intense debate over whether to change various rules in its Book of Discipline regarding LGBT individuals, which included barring the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals, prohibiting clergy from performing same-sex unions and barring church bodies from funding LGBT advocacy groups.

Although efforts to change the rules at the General Conference have failed in past years, many theological liberal leaders within the UMC have ignored the rules and allowed individuals who were in same-sex relationships to be ordained or even promoted to bishop.

For example, Karen Oliveto was elected bishop in 2016 by the UMC Western Jurisdiction despite being in a same-sex marriage. Although her election was deemed invalid by the United Methodist Judicial Council, the denomination’s highest court, in 2017, she remains a bishop to the present day.

Oliveto gave a sermon at General Conference on Monday, asking those gathered if they were “willing to meet and serve Jesus in the queer clergy person who has been faithful to God’s call even when the Church has tried to deny that call?”

At a 2019 special session of the General Conference, delegates approved a temporary measure that created a disaffiliation process for congregations that wanted to leave the UMC due to the debate over sexuality, with more than 7,500 churches doing so by the end of 2023.

On Tuesday, as part of another consent calendar, delegates voted 667-54 to remove the Book of Discipline’s ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and mandatory punishments for clergy who blessed same-sex unions.

Article by Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor, The Christian Post, Wednesday, May 01, 2024

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THE WINNER OF THE MASTER’S GOLF TOURNAMENT

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Scottie Scheffler dedicated his second Masters win in three years to God, declaring that “victory was secure on the cross” as he secured the victory at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday.

“I was sitting around with my buddies this morning, I was a bit overwhelmed,” the 27-year-old said Sunday after becoming the 10th golfer in history to win two green jackets in three years.

“I told them, ‘I wish I didn’t want to win as badly as did I or as badly as I do.’ I think it would make the mornings easier. I love winning. I hate losing. I really do. And when you’re here in the biggest moments, when I’m sitting there with the lead on Sunday, I really, really want to win badly.”

“My buddies told me this morning, my victory was secure on the cross,” he said. “And that’s a pretty special feeling; to know that I’m secure forever and it doesn’t matter if I win or lose this tournament. My identity is secure forever.”

“I believe that today’s plans were already laid out many years ago, and I could do nothing to mess up those plans,” Scheffler later added. “I have been given a gift of this talent, and I use it for God’s glory. That’s pretty much it. So when I’m out there, I try to compete to the best of my abilities … I feel like that’s how I was designed. … At the end of the day, my identity’s secure already.”

Scheffler, whose wife of four years, Meredith, is expecting their first child, said that while he’s going to “soak in” the victory and doesn’t plan on taking his eye off the ball anytime soon, his family remains his main priority, with golf “probably fourth” down the line.

“I feel like playing professional golf is an endlessly not-satisfying career,” the University of Texas alumnus said. “For instance, in my head, all I can think about right now is getting home. I’m not thinking about the tournament. I’m not thinking about the green jacket. I’m trying to answer your questions, and I’m trying to get home.

“I wish I could soak this in a little bit more. Maybe I will tonight when I get home. But at the end of the day, I think that’s what the human heart does. You always want more, and I think you have to fight those things and focus on what’s good.

“Because, like I said, winning this golf tournament does not change my identity. My identity is secure, and I cannot emphasize that enough.”

BIBLICAL END-TIMES PROPHECIES WARN US CHRISTIANS WILL FACE INCREASING PERSECUTION

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In November 2020, a Christian woman in New Jersey named Betsy Fresse filed a lawsuit against Starbucks when the coffee chain allegedly fired her for refusing on religious grounds to wear an LGBT pride shirt as part of her uniform. 

Now Taylor Price, a Christian claims Starbucks fired her after opposing pride promotions, refusing to use trans pronouns.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trice said she started working for Starbucks because the company offered tuition assistance for Arizona State University’s online program. In 2022, she was fired from Starbucks in Apex, North Carolina, after working for the company for two years.

“Before working at Starbucks, I knew nothing about it except that it was considered a bougie coffee shop,” Trice said. “So I didn’t know that it was a very liberal company.”

In a statement sent to The Christian Post, a Starbucks spokesperson said the company will not comment on this “private employment matter.”

“However, Starbucks has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind in our stores, and we’re committed to fostering an environment where everyone is welcome, respected and valued,” the spokesperson said. “We expect all partners (employees) to abide by company policies and standards, including our anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies.”

According to Trice, the Starbucks where she worked put up a glass wall during pride month in June that described various sexual orientations, saying families with kids would be able to see the display. 

She said that the display explained the sexual attractions of people who identified as “demisexual,” adding that she would have still opposed the display if it said “heterosexual.”

“I just felt like that didn’t need to be added to the decorations,” Trice said. 

Trice said her co-workers got defensive. She believes they thought she was a “homophobic Christian” and became “salty” towards her. 

Another issue with the company concerned a policy requiring her to use the “preferred pronouns” of individuals who identify as the opposite sex.

Trice said that she was willing to call a trans-identifying individual by name or avoid using pronouns, but her faith would not allow her to lie. 

“So, that means if I see you are a man, and I call you a woman, that is lying,” she said. “That is identifying you as something that God did not create you to be. And it’s identifying you as something that Satan wants to identify you as, and Satan’s ultimate goal is to confuse you and deceive you about your identity.” 

Trice said the power of a “small sin” can’t be underestimated.

“So, with all those factors combined, I say, respectfully, hey, ‘I’m willing to call you by your name; I’m willing to avoid using pronouns, but it’s against my faith to lie and say that you are a woman if I know that you are a man.'” 

She told Fox News that managers said customers made complaints against her, such as they believed she wasn’t comfortable with their “identity.” 

“I do not understand because I would talk to everyone there all the time,” she told the outlet. “I was never making insults towards them or anything.” 

Trice said she felt God warned her about what was to come, as the day before her store manager called her into a meeting with the district manager, she had a dream that she was in trouble at work. During the meeting, Trice’s employers informed her that people had accused her of “homophobia.” 

“As predicted, I got fired,” she said. “I’m not saying this to bash my old co-workers or my old manager. I actually had a lot of fun with them, and I love them, and all I want to see is for them to be in Heaven.” 

GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS

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Near the end of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the people of Israel “became impatient” and “spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food’” (Numbers 21:4-5). Such complaining was commonplace, but the ensuing sequence of events is unique — and even weird.

“Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” Numbers 21:6-9

God sent “fiery” serpents with fatal bites as a judgment on his grumbling people. The Israelites then repented; they confessed their sin and named it. Yet God did not grant the relief they asked for — to take the serpents away. Instead, he authorized a strange method of relief: to look at a bronze serpent set on a pole. What a peculiar prescription.

The doubtful might ask, “Really, God? What is that supposed to do? If I’m dying of snake venom, I don’t see what good looking at a bronze statue of a snake on a pole will be.” The nation of Israel certainly didn’t understand. They made offerings to Moses’s serpent as an idol (2 Kings 18:4), apparently thinking the healing power was in the snake. But the power was in obeying God’s word, “everyone who is bitten when he sees it, shall live.” Those who had faith heard God’s Word and believed it. When they were bitten by serpents, they acted in faith, looked at the snake, and lived.

As foreign and arcane as this may seem to American Christians in the 21st century, there is a direct New Testament application of this episode in John 3:14-15, where Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” The Son of Man is a Messianic name for Jesus, and he was lifted up on the cross.

In this parallel, we have the same role as the children of Israel, wandering in the wilderness of this world. We are afflicted not by fiery serpents but by the effects of the curse, and by our sin, and the sins of others. Our sin makes us gross and unlovely, unworthy of any favor from God. By our sin, we profane God’s image in us and pervert his good design for mankind. We deserve both physical death and eternal death for our rebellion against God. But God has provided Jesus as a means of salvation for all who look to him in faith. On Good Friday, Jesus suffered everything we deserve.

For this blood atonement to stick, it must be laid over the theological primer coat found in the following verse, which is among the Bible’s most famous, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This verse makes it clear that the man who was crucified in our place was not only a man but also the Son of God.

Why is that essential? Any regular man would be incapable of dying a substitutionary death because, born of Adam’s fallen race, he would have earned his own death penalty for his own sins. The only effectual sacrifice that could wash away our sins is a sinless one. No descendant of Adam is sinless, and the sacrifice of no lesser creature, like bulls or goats (Hebrews 10:4), can suffice. With no acceptable offering available by human agency, God provided the lamb to take away the sins of the world. (Genesis 22:8, John 1:29).

DO YOU WANT TO HAVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS?

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“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.” Revelation 2:26-27

God has responsibilities in store for you in the Millennial Age to Come that you cannot imagine. You could literally end up being a general in the Lord’s army. You could literally end up subduing entire nations.

But make no mistake God is training His army now if you allow the Holy Spirit to direct your steps.. When He asks us to overcome various obstacles today, He is not only preparing us for our next “season” of life. At a more fundamental level He is also preparing us to wage war with Him and reign with Him in His Millennial Kingdom.

How we respond to adversity, hardships, disappointment, persecution, temptation, and unanswered prayers will determine our rank, position, and responsibilities in the kingdom of God. Don’t be surprised by adversity. This life is your job interview for the future.

Let us strive to be faithful and worthy of the honor the Lord will bestow upon us in His coming Millennial Kingdom. Let us seek His grace and keep His deeds until the end. Please pray for me, and I will pray for you.

Let us all start Living Eternal Now – Ready for Jesus’ Return. My book is available on Amazon as an ebook or trade paperback, or you can email me at ron.careshare@gmail.com and I will send you an autographed copy for US$20 including postage to anywhere in the world.

“When he comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:10-12

RUSSIA GOT THIS PARTIALLY RIGHT

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Russia has designated the “LGBT movement” on its list of extremist and terror organizations, aligning with a Supreme Court decision last year. State media reported that the “LGBT movement” was added to the list maintained by the Rosfin monitoring agency, which works to combat terror financing and has the power to freeze the bank accounts of over 14,000 entities and individuals designated as extremists. The designation applies to the “international LGBT social movement and its structural units,” according to state news agency RIA.

Treating the LGBT movement as a terrorist organisation is not a Christian approach. But what the LGBT movement is teaching and inflicting upon our children needs to be stopped. Russia supports God’s values on marriage, family, and sex.

 In November, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled LGBT activists as extremists based on a motion filed by the Russian Justice Ministry to ban the movement’s “activity on the territory of the Russian Federation.” According to the human rights group Amnesty International, a person convicted of involvement in LGBT-affiliated “extremist organizations” could face between five to 10 years in prison.

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church called the ruling a “form of moral self-defense by society” against attacks on “the Christian idea of marriage and family from the public and legal realms.” This ruling followed a broader trend of tightening restrictions on LGBT expressions in Russia, emphasizing traditional family values. Laws have been enacted against promoting “non-traditional” sexual relations and gender changes, reflecting the government’s stance against Western liberal attitudes.

 The European Union criticized the Supreme Court ruling. “Amid the decades-long crackdown on rights of LGBTIQ persons unleashed under President Putin, this decision aims at further persecuting the LGBTIQ community in Russia,” the EU said in a statement at the time.

“Look at the Holy Scripture,” Putin said at the time. “It says it all, including that family, is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned.”

Source: Christian Post

BIDEN BANISHES CHRISTIAN IMAGES AND CELEBRATES TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY ON EASTER SUNDAY

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Late last week, the Biden administration prohibited children from expressing their Christian faith while redesignating Easter Sunday as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Biden literally banished Christianity from a children’s contest celebrating its most joyful holiday while exalting a radical and harmful ideology in its place.

The Biden administration’s revolution began where all revolutions begin: with children. The 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art contest, which is part of the White House Easter Egg Roll, asks children of servicemembers to submit designs for Easter eggs — but not any that highlight the actual content of Easter. The contest’s flyer instructs children they “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” The Biden administration banned religious imagery alongside “bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

These rules, overseen by the nation’s “devout Catholic” president, stigmatize the majority of Americans, who believe in God. They also prohibit the families of service members, who stand ready to deploy into combat at a moment’s notice, of the free exercise of their religion. The instructions ask children to depict “a favorite activity, scenery in your state, your military family, a day in your life, etc.” But what if the child’s “favorite activity” is exclaiming, “Christ is risen!” in church on Easter morning? What if a day in this child’s life does not go by without thinking about the empty tomb that gives them eternal life? The Biden administration has deprived them of the opportunity to share their artistic gifts and win a prize, funded by all Americans. (Forget the move’s hypocrisy: Presumably, in signing his Easter proclamation, Biden did not remove the rosary he has worn around his wrist since the tragic death of his son Beau in 2015. Biden told Megyn Kelly in 2017 that rosary “is my connection with him.” For some, such religious items connect them with a Higher Power — a power they also wish to symbolize, in public, on their religion’s holiest day.)

Biden issued the official statement on Friday declaring Easter Sunday, March 31, as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Biden actually previewed the shift to America’s new religion in the first of his two statements celebrating the 2023 “Transgender Day of Visibility,” in which Biden declared: “Transgender Americans shape our [n]ation’s soul.”

“Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our [n]ation,” Biden wrote. Since people who identify as transgender “help America thrive,” they deserve the “fundamental freedom to be their true selves,” Biden’s 2024 statement states.

But how can trans-identifying people do for America what they cannot do for themselves? One study found, that the moment someone begins to identify as transgender, “the most common outcomes were worsened mental well-being (47.2%); worsened parent-child relationship (57.3%); unchanged or mixed grades/academic performance (59.1%); and a narrower range of interests and hobbies (58.1%).” A growing list of whistleblowers know what everyone who works in gender clinics quietly admits: Teens who identify as transgender suffer from an array of psychological comorbidities, including autism, depression, and bipolar disorder aside from their “gender dysphoria.”

Democratic politicians continually highlight statistics showing the mental suffering and fragility of trans-identifying Americans, but they, like Biden, chalk up innate depression to “bullying and discrimination.” In the Left’s bipolar world, the LGBTQ lifestyle is both a perfectly well-adjusted path to “trans joy” and a death sentence in an America whose heteronormative and cisgender bias rivals that of Pakistan.

Biden warned darkly that “extremists are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids.” Extremists? In reality, 71% of Americans agree “there are two genders, male and female”; 64% of Americans support legislation barring talk of gender ideology in elementary school; and 68% believe minors should not be subjected to transgender hormone or surgeries. But in the Left’s Permanent Committee to Repeal Reality, if a same-sex relationship can be a marriage, and a man can become a woman, then 32% can be a majority.

Biden did not speak for his administration alone. Praising the new holiday became, in the Left’s Orwellian-sounding parlance, a “whole-of-government” exercise. Vice President Kamala Harris gushed, “On Transgender Day of Visibility, we celebrate transgender and nonbinary Americans,” adding, “We won’t stop fighting for you.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has seldom missed an opportunity to wage war on America’s allies, vowed to “continue to fight for a world” that aligns with transgender political priorities. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said without proof that “our country’s great transgender, nonbinary, and two-spirit leaders … epitomize resilience, progress, and joy.” Even the secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, praised the “vibrancy of the transgender community” before highlighting “our shared fight for justice.”

Christian politicians, and those not committed to the social revolution, took Biden to task for redefining Easter weekend. “It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden [a]dministration’s year-long assault on the Christian faith. We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. “This is the left’s new religion. They want people worshiping the trans flag instead of God,” said Donald Trump Jr. Contrasting Biden’s commitment to transgender visibility and Chrisian erasure, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) said, “The Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter — which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The Left attempted to counterpunch, claiming the real offense is not Biden’s banishment of Christian themes from the White House but since “[t]he date of Easter moves each year, while Trans Day of Visibility is always recognized on March 31,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO of the LGBTQ group GLAAD, accused “right-wing politicians and talking heads” of “using the coincidental timing to overshadow the hope and joy that Easter represents.” But Transgender World — which touts itself as a source for “queer news, debate, and resources” — posted on social media that “the Transgender Agenda’s final goal has finally been achieved: holding Trans Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday. That’s right, folks: we got ’em.” 

The Biden White House tried to portray Biden’s endorsement of gender confusion and mutilation as less offensive than President Trump endorsing and encouraging people to read the Bible. “President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit,” lectured White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

By replacing Christianity with a new holiday celebrating transgender ideology (which, one must concede, relies entirely on faith), Biden has become the new Jeroboam. When Israel made a decisive split, Jeroboam made himself king of the northern 10 tribes of Israel. To keep his people from returning to worship at the Jerusalem Temple during annual Jewish feasts, Jeroboam “made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (I [III] Kings 12:25-33). While Israel coasted for some time on the fumes of its former fidelity and God’s mercy, the decision brought destruction to the nation.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand

In Australia, Netball, NSW Swifts star shooter Sam Wallace-Joseph, a devout Christian has outraged fans. On Easter Sunday, she reposted US President Joe Biden’s announcement of March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. This year it coincided with Easter Sunday.

Wallace-Joseph shared the post with the words: “The disrespect is crazy. Don’t play with GOD.”

Despite the post being deleted, Wallace defended her opinion to fans online via X. She responded to one fan who said her “opinion was hateful and wrong” with “I don’t owe people on the internet any explanation”. She told another fan “My opinion still stands”.

Netball Australia insists it is “committed to embracing diversity” as the sport grapples with the fallout to the controversial social media post. It will be interesting to see what they do.

CHRISTIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS FAREWELL TO PARLIAMENT

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Scott Morrison delivered a magnificent farewell speech in parliament, full of emotion, splendid gratitude, love of family, faith and country, plenty of substance, and a brilliant little riff, requested by his daughters, on Taylor Swift album titles. Anthony Albanese’s response was equally generous and gracious.

This is a good moment in our politics. The battle of ideas should be ferocious, the battle of people should be civil, decent, and full of human regard. Morrison and Albanese both deserve our thanks for this.

On foreign affairs and national security, Morrison was an effective national leader who left a strong legacy. The big failure across the Coalition’s decade in office was in not producing new defense capabilities. But beyond his share of that failure, a failure fully continued by the Albanese government, Morrison had a lot of positive achievements.

One of his biggest national ­security achievements came before he became PM. Under then-prime minister Tony Abbott, Morrison as immigration minister secured our borders and put an end to dangerous waves of unregulated boat immigration from the north.

As prime minister, his biggest single foreign policy achievement in Greg’s view was not AUKUS, but standing up to China. Beijing made a cold, calculated decision that, using all its coercive power short of military intervention, it would intimidate Australia and force a change of policy on us in a range of policy areas – the ban on Huawei in our NBN, laws against foreign interference, national security limits on Chinese investments in critical infrastructure, closer defense co-operation with the US and a raft of other matters.

The Morrison government resisted this aggression absolutely and pursued policies in Australia’s national interest. I think Scott’s government’s language was sometimes a bit too strong, but this was a pivotal moment in our national story. It was the right thing for Australia and it won enormous international respect, not least in Washington.

Scott Morrison says “authoritarians and autocrats win” if the ­nation’s embrace of secularism ­allows it to drift into a “valueless void”.

In an at-times emotional valedictory speech to parliament on Monday, the former prime minister thanked his family and constituents for their support during his 16-year parliamentary career, quoted the bible and referenced every single Taylor Swift album and some songs after being challenged to a Swift bingo game by his daughters.

He touched on his government’s pandemic response, which he said ensured Australia emerged with “one of the strongest economies through Covid”, and reflected that politics was an imperfect project.

The member for Cook, whose resignation will trigger a by-election later this year, declared respect for human rights has its roots in religion, warning of a decline in Judaeo-Christian values in Australian society.

“You don’t need to share my Christian faith to appreciate the virtue of human rights,” he said.

“I’m not suggesting you do, but equally, we should be careful about diminishing the influence and the voice of Judaeo-Christian faith in our Western society, as doing so risks our society drifting into a valueless void.

“In that world, there is nothing to stand on. There is nothing to hold on to, and the authoritarians and autocrats win.

“In the increasing Western embrace of secularism, let us be careful not to disconnect ourselves from what I would argue is our greatest gift and most effective protector of our freedoms – the ­Judaeo-Christian values upon which our liberty and society were founded.”

This article reporting Scott Morrison’s (former P.M.) farewell speech in the Australian Parliament appeared in The Australian by Greg Sheridan