Where I come from, in Medicine, ACL means anterior cruciate ligament. Over here in Australia, ACL is also an abbreviation for a club of bigoted, homophobic and xenophobic old white guys called the Australian Christian Lobby. They are god’s representatives in the Australian federal and state parliaments, so to speak. But, since gods don’t really exist, they are just bigoted old white dudes who try to lobby politicians into hating and oppressing any non-heterosexual, non-white Australians. In other words, the usual Christian thing.
Their Managing Director, Jim Wallace, made a bubu yesterday :
You see, Jim, that’s something you can say at the board meeting of the ACL behind closed doors, but maybe not on Twitter, where non-bigots might read it and object ! Check out this interview with Wallace giving a notpology on Channel 7 this morning, and it becomes clear that the guy is a complete and utter moron. I wonder who these “Twitter activists” are that he is mumbling about ? Like, non-bigoted normal people ? And I love the “I have gay friends who tweeted me about this” line (but would Jim let them use his bathroom, I wonder ?). I think the guy has no fucking clue what he is actually talking about.
So, this club of homophobic bigots was founded in 1995. Here’s their mission statement :
The vision of the Australian Christian Lobby is to see Christian principles and ethics accepted and influencing the way we are governed, do business and relate to each other as a community.
The ACL aims to foster a more compassionate, just and moral society by seeking to have the positive public contributions of the Christian faith reflected in the political life of the nation.
The ACL, established in 1995, operates in the Federal Parliament, and in all the State and Territory Parliaments, and is neither party partisan nor denominationally-aligned.
The ACL does not seek to be the peak political voice for the church, but to be a professional witness to Christ in the Australian Parliaments which allows for the voice of the church and individual Christians to be more respectfully received in the public square.
They are really not very subtle about their goals :
Do you know?
That 12.7 million, or 64% of Australians declared themselves as Christians in the 2006 ABS Census.
That over 2 million Australians attend a place of worship every Sunday.
That there are large numbers of Christian politicians at all levels of Government who value your prayers and support.
Not really subtle in hinting at who their targets are, namely Christian politicians who might have votes to lose if they don’t comply with the ACL’s ideas. So 1/3 of Australians are not Christians. And if the numbers provided here are correct, which I doubt very much, 2 out of 12.7 million of those who are Christians go to Church one day out of 7 in any given week, that’s 15%, on one day of the week. They must really be serious about their belief, I guess.
Here is a listing of the ACL’s recent success stories :
Played a leading role in the successful campaign against a national Charter of Rights – ensuring a win for religious freedom and the integrity of our democracy
Yep, successful in that it leaves Australia as the only first-world country without a basic charter of human rights on this planet.
Achieved the principle in policy that the ‘worst of the worst’ pornography be filtered from the internet
Which, as everyone and their dog knows, will be completely ineffective.
Contributed substantially to the extension of funding for school chaplains, announced by the PM at the 2009 ACL National Conference
More religious kooks without supervision or proper training in pedagogy proselytising to our children. Praise the Lord !
Helped uphold religious freedom in Victoria, contributing to a Government backdown on plans to strip freedom of choice in employment from Christian schools, charities and churches
Translation : Helped uphold the right of religious organisations to not employ single mothers. Again, praise the Lord !
Upheld the dignity of human life by playing a key role in defeating euthanasia bills in Tasmania and Victoria
Translation : Made sure that Catholic-style, Mother-Teresa-style suffering of dying human beings can continue for as long as possible. Because, don’t you know, it brings us closer to god. Or so the Albanian sadist said.
Hosted the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader addressing Christians at ‘2010 Make it Count’.
*Nuff’ said*
So these folks are essentially there to lobby and pressure politicians, and they say it openly, it’s quite astonishing :
ACL offers you
A credible Christian voice into the corridors of power
The campaign tools to influence policy and legislation
Regular news on issues of concern to Christians through the blog on this website, our weekly E-news or monthly hard-copy newsletter
Partnership with a credible Christian voice based on a Biblical worldview, balanced research and expert advice
The opportunity to hear from political leaders via election webcasts and ‘Meet Your Candidates Forums’ to inform your vote
All has been said already about the historical inaccuracy of Mr Wallace’s tweet, so I don’t have to repeat it here, but what I want to say, is that this country was not founded on judeo-christian principles, and certainly not on homophobia and xenophobia. If this is what the Australian Christian Lobby stands for, and so far all I’ve heard is notpologies, then maybe our politicians should think very hard about getting into bed with these bigoted kooks. Maybe it is time to tell the ACL that we don’t consider them qualified to make any suggestions about how we should be living our lifes in Australia in 2011, not qualified to comment on issues of race or gender, and generally too backward and bigoted to be a voice worth considering when it comes to making policy decisions in the first place.
