IN VICTORIA IDENTITY MARCHES ARE SACRED AND THE NATION IS OPTIONAL

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Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s Pride March appearance sparks debate over political priorities, as critics contrast enthusiastic support for LGBTQ events with the quiet disappearance of Melbourne’s Australia Day parade. Jacinta Allan marched through the streets of Melbourne on Sunday, waving a rainbow flag and calling out “Happy Pride” to anyone who would listen.

While the Premier happily marched with a gay flag on Sunday, there was no State-supported street parade with Australian flags Monday a week ago.

Transgender Victoria

In Victoria, you see, a gay street march is not merely permitted, it’s celebrated. It’s elevated. It is described, without irony, as representing the very best of the state. Speaking as she paraded with a rainbow flag, she said: “Today is amazing. And let’s remember, this is what Victoria is. This is what represents the best of this amazing state. Happy pride.“

THIS is what Victoria is? Victoria isn’t its history. Or its democratic institutions. Victoria isn’t its civic inheritance passed down by people who built things, defended things, and believed that nations were worth sustaining. Nope. Victoria, apparently, is a march. A worldview. A set of approved flags. A moral orthodoxy enforced by applause and enforced silence. Meanwhile… … Melbourne’s annual Australia Day street parade — the one involving the national flag, the national story, and the national holiday — was cancelled during Covid and never reinstated. Why? Well, as a spokesman for the Premier explained at the time: “We recognise that January 26 means different things to different people.”

Victoria has cast God out of its life and it has no understanding that God exists and that history shows that He judges nations. One only has to look at how God has judged the nation He set up for His purposes, Israel. Biblical prophecy shows us that even before Joshua led the nation of Israel into the land that God had given them, Moses told them their entire history. If they obeyed God’s commandments they would have abundant blessing:

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.”

If they did not obey God then God would judge them harshly:

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you… The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it… The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other,

Thank goodness Moses also told them the end of the story:

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.” Deuteronomy 30:1-3

And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 30:6-10

Jacinta Allan should read the Bible. perhaps then she would repent of turning away from God and His commandments and lift God’s judgement off Victoria. There are many Biblical prophecies of Jesus second coming and many of them are playing out in our day.

SPIRITUALITY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: THE TRUTH OF IT

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The Uluru Statement from the Heart, though successful in uniting Indigenous peoples, should be re-examined. The key document in the voice referendum held last year, it insisted in poetic language that all Indigenous peoples were bonded spiritually to the specific homeland where they were born. Their souls or spirits “must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors”.

A shock to these affirmations of spirituality was delivered by the census held nationwide in 2021. It revealed that the Uluru Statement was preaching a myth. In fact, most Aboriginal Australians today are not worshippers of an Indigenous religion. In the Northern Territory, still viewed as a stronghold of the ancestral religion, 94,000 of its Indigenous peoples are Christian and only 3400 worship an Aboriginal religion. Across the nation as a whole, fewer than 2 percent of the Indigenous people declare that they worship an “Australian Aboriginal traditional religion”.

Australian Aborigines are more Christian than the mainstream Australians who live in the capital cities.

Most of these Aboriginal Christians probably would not conceive of themselves as primarily victims of the so-called Invasion Day. After all, it was this so-called invasion that, year after year, spread the very religion they worship. Indeed, the Torres Strait Islanders were so grateful for the arrival of the London Missionary Society in 1871 that they still designate it not as Invasion Day but as the Coming of the Light.

I am thankful to Geoffrey Blainey and his article in The Australian – Australia Day A Time to Reflect on the Country We Call Home for most of the information in this article.

THE ONLY SOLUTION TO INVASION DAY

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CALL IT UNITY DAY, NOT INVASION DAY OR AUSTRALIA DAY

“My children say to me, ‘Happy Invasion Day, Dad.’ But I say to them, ‘Happy Unity Day.'”

These powerful words come from Pastor James Dargin, a recognized Indigenous leader and elder in Wollongong, who has a deep love for people and for Australia. 

James has seen much pain and suffering in his life and his message is simple: we need to forgive so we can build a united future for our children. The only way to do that, he believes, is to stop the division and work together.

According to James, there is no better opportunity to practice this value than on Australia’s national holiday. “Let’s not change the date of the 26th of January,” he says. “But let’s change our hearts on the 26th of January.”

In explaining why he is such a strong believer in forgiveness, James opens up about his childhood: “I grew up with mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse. I was tied to a bed, and my brother was tied under our house. My brother was put on a stove. I grew up with racism. I grew up with a lot of abuse. And it got to a point for me to hide that abuse is that I was on alcohol and drugs for forty years straight.”

But that was not the end of his story. He recounts that “At the age of 50, I gave my heart to the Lord. He changed my heart. I have forgiven the people that have hurt me and I’ve forgiven family members.” Why? “When I gave my heart to the Lord, I realised He forgave me. He died on the cross for me.”

As a result, James is convinced that division over issues like Australia Day is unproductive and ultimately destructive. He has a better vision for how we can celebrate:

“Let’s come together and call it Unity Day, Forgiveness Day — to forgive each other, to love one another. It should be a day of celebration, of love. Hug someone. Forgive somebody. Love somebody. That’s what we should be celebrating. What happened in the past was horrific. Let’s come together, let’s build a future for the next generation.”