“CHRISTIAN Democrat MP, the Reverend Fred Nile, has voluntarily undergone drug screening during a bizarre press conference at New South Wales Parliament.

Mr Nile is pushing for random drug tests for all candidates before next weekend’s NSW election and would also like random drug testing of public servants, including train drivers and police.

Today, alongside a handful of his Christian Democrat candidates, Mr Nile passed his own drugs test, which was administered via a saliva swab.

“All candidates should be totally drug free,” Mr Nile said.

“It’s a serious problem, particularly if you are debating legislation, making important decisions in parliament. Every member of parliament should both be free of drugs and free of alcohol.”

Mr Nile’s call for random drug tests was sparked by controversy this week around the Greens’ long-held policy of abolishing criminal sanctions for personal drug use.

Mr Nile said he was not accusing Greens’ leader Lee Rhiannon, who is standing by her party’s policy, of being a drug user but had his suspicions about other politicians who might indulge in illegal drugs.

“I don’t want to name those members but sometimes you have thoughts particularly if they are campaigning to legalise marijuana, cannabis and they think it’s a harmless drug,” he said.

“I think the deduction could be, if that’s their view, that they are using it themselves.

“I understand Lee has agreed to submit to drug testing but I would say that I’d be surprised if there wasn’t people in the Green party … who would be using marijuana but I have no evidence of that.”

For his test today, Mr Nile hired an independent firm to carry out a saliva swab test, which can detect whether a person has had alcohol or taken a range of illicit drugs in the past few days.

“I have never drunk a drop of alcohol in my life, let alone (taken) drugs,” he quipped before undergoing the test.

State parliament’s lone Democrats MP, Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, tried to crash Mr Nile’s drug test, saying he had nothing to hide but did not believe all candidates should have to be tested.

“I am quite happy to say I am drug free and I would take the word of my candidates,” he said.”

From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21392533-421,00.html

Humans need a victim. In his brilliant article “Violence and the Scapegoat”, ex-CEO of World Vision, Phillip Hunt quotes French Catholic academic Rene Girard. Girard states, “Violence in a society is resolved by blaming a victim. A victim is identified. They are accused as being responsible for the violence in society.” (Hunt,Violence and the Scapegoat). Hunt explains that when a victim is identified, something amazing happens – the community can be of one mind. There is a common purpose and social cohesion, as a community bands together against a common threat. Anyone’s who’s read “Big Brother” can identify with this – while there is a simple, common enemy, society can rest easy.

This “victim” changes according to the current age, and specific society. It has been communists, Hindu’s, Buddhists and black Americans. Once, it was the Jews. Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, had this advice in how to deal with the Jewish people, “…set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.(reference)” Luther’s words were later used by Nazi Germany to justify their extermination of the Jewish people.
Now, right across the western world, it seems the Muslims have taken the place of “victim”. One example is Professor Raphael Israeli, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, currently traversing the globe claiming Muslims make life untenable. No one would disagree that Islamic extremism is dangerous, nor that controversial Sheik Alhilali’s comments about Jews, women and the west are ignorant, racist and unhelpful. However, to condemn an entirety of people because of the extremism of a minority is ridiculous. Are all pro-life activists to be judged because of James Charles Kopp, who murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian because he performed abortions? Are Indian Christians to be judged because the Christian terrorists of the National Liberation Front of Tripura gunned down more than forty non-Christians in 2005?
Not only does Mr Nile vilify an entire group of people with his comments, he also makes a remarkable suggestion that Australia should deny clemency to refugees based on their religious affiliation. This, to me, sits at odds with Jesus’ claim, “Love your neighbour.” There are no qualifications to Christ’s claim. Love your neighbour…if they believe what you believe. Love your neighbour…if they belong to a group pf people who share the same values as you do. Love your neighbour…if they haven’t done anything to upset you. No. Christ’s call is simply this: “Love your neighbour as yourself”. It’s as startling now as it was 2000 years ago, because it makes no sense to the world, and it’s pretty tricky to achieve.
In his article, Hunt also quotes Gil Bailie, who sums up the Gospel in these words, “The Gospels tell a perfectly typical story of victimisation with astonishing insight into the role of religious zeal and mob psychology played in it…the story is told from the point of view of the victim.” Christ has always sided with the oppressed and the victimsed. Mr Nile’s assertions that Muslims should not be let loose in Australia does two things: it undermines the truth of the gospel, and it creates an “Us and Them” mentality based on fear and distortion of the truth. How can mainstream Muslims assimilate into society when they are accused of “despising Aussie values” based on nothing more than they ar Muslims? It closes the door of acceptance in their face, and if Christians honestly believe they want to “convert” Muslims, insulting them seems a strange way to go about it. Is this what “Christian politics” has sunk to in our country? Cheap points scored with a society desperate for a victim on the basis of fear and hatred? Again, the commandment to “Love your neighbour” seems so distant.
Still, there are pockets of hope: inter-faith dialogue being one. For example, the National Council of Churches and the South Australian Jewish Community Council have received significant government and community support to genuinely engage in discussions between Muslims, Jews and Christians. On a more populist note, the recent U2 concerts across the globe saw Bono wearing a “co-exist” sign, featuring a crescent moon, a Jewish star and a cross. Hunt closes his argument with another Bailie quote, “empathy for the victim and the needs for our rituals of victimization are incompatible”. (reference). I hope that as Christians we would chose to identify with Christ, with the victim, and not become part of the victimizing culture that leads nowhere, except to more violence.

Having leant on the Muslim leaders of Australia to distance themselves from the silly statements made by Sheikh Taj El-din Al-Hilaly, there seems to be a lack of zeal in getting Christian leaders to similarly condemn some of the more bizarre offerings from Fred Nile.

http://www.aina.org/news/2007031291313.htm

“The Reverend Fred Nile says Australia should give priority to Christians fleeing persecution in Muslim countries and stop Muslim immigration for a decade.

Mr Nile, leader of the Christian Democratic Party and member of the NSW Upper House, has called for a 10-year moratorium on Muslim immigration to Australia.

There had been no serious study of the potential effects on Australia of the more than 300,000 Muslims who were already here, he said. The CDP leader wants a study to look at the examples of the Netherlands and France, where the Muslim minorities have become large enough to “flex their muscles”.

“The same thing is happening in our city of Sydney . . . they (Muslims) concentrate and virtually by population numbers they dominate that actual community,” he said yesterday.

Mr Nile said Coptic Christians from Egypt had approached him to complain that persecution by Muslims seemed to have followed them to Australia.

Christians from Yemen have told him of how they were forced to pretend to be Muslims to avoid persecution in the street in their home countries.

The NSW Greens called on the major parties yesterday to publicly reject Mr Nile’s call for an immigration moratorium.”

Fred Nile has been doing and saying silly stuff in public for more than 30 years, but there’s not a peep from other Christian leaders about his nonsense.

Brian Houston may have overtaken Nile as the most despised Christian in Australia - which in some ways has sidelined Nile’s influence - but that doesn’t excuse the failure of Australian Christian leaders to distance themselves and the faith from Nile’s promotion of the conservative Pharisee cause.

What’s galling is that while Nile, in his senile years, is now quite open in his racist views (and it is racism, because he appears to have no problem with Muslims born and raised in Australia), at least Billy Graham had the decency to (decades later) apologise to Jews, when he was caught on tape in the Nixon White House, decrying Jewish people.

I’ll have to assume that Australian Christian leaders privately agree with Nile’s racist views, until they pipe up and say otherwise.

,..you know, ironic…

Hey - I’ll have you know that JB drones very nicely!!

In all seriousness (using my most serious font here) I went to the 1st one a couple of years ago, and it was ok - people knew each other well enough that the bulldust was kept to a minimum, and there was some inciteful stuff shared in a couple of the classes. Wasn’t all preppy and pink!

AND - it didn’t cost me my 1st born child like HS seems to do! So, I’m doing ok with that.

Man - what did you SAY that got them all so upset? Do you think that if you wrote it sans swearing that it could stay on?

Next qu - do you think you could write it sans swearing?

I was talking to a mate who read it before it got dumped, and he thought you had some good points - who knew?!

(He was previously unaware of your particular writing style!)

So Lance, did you get to the 2Inspire conference this year?

Buy any merch? (damn, I hate that word!)

http://chat2gether.cocwa.org.au/2006/07/24/2-inspire/#comments

The party is trying to remarket itself and focus on broader issues - let’s face it Fred isn’t getting any younger .

I’ve heard him on 2UE news talking about various non-morals-related things..

He hasn’t changed his views on homosexuality one iota…in fact he slipped up on Stateline here in WA in 2004….when he acknowledged that he still supports gay people being jailed …but that he doesn’t think the jailing policy should be pursued…because it wouldn’t receive enough political support.

http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/wa/content/2004/s1253922.htm

“REBECCA CARMODY: You built your name fighting against the decriminalisation of homosexuality - that debate has been and gone. Have you given up on that issue?

REVEREND FRED NILE: I can’t change that. I suppose I could reintroduce another law to try to reinstate it, but I think with the state of both Liberal and Labor parties, it wouldn’t get very far.”

Be in no doubt as to Nile’s two-faced approach…next time he claims to be ‘compassionate’ towards gay people.

Anyways…..there must be a photo of Fred-in-leather with Pat Mesiti floating around somewhere…as people do love to take happy snaps of these events.