Review of Breakfast Address by Jim Wallace

Ex Soldier Heads A Christian Lobby Group – Is this the Church Militant?

Review by Lydia Kinda

Just as Winter is creeping in, the glorious leaves of autumn are descending to remind us Summer is over despite the lack of rain. 33 hardy souls attended the latest Breakfast at our friendly hostelry, 525 Lonsdale Street.

Coming from the suburbs at an unearthly hour of 6.30am, one realizes there must be many shift workers as the Eastern Freeway is already crowded. The breakfast was another opportunity to mingle with other Christians in the legal profession, or soon to be in the form of law students.
 

It was pleasing to see people not wasting time but quickly introducing themselves, getting to know each other and breaking any hierarchical boundaries. The gathering was to hear a talk by Jim Wallace AM. Jim has an impressive CV, his career in the armed forces, from which he resigned recently just before being promoted to General. His call by God to his current work was costly financially, and one senses that the financial stress imposed by kick-starting a new organisation is as challenging as any Nehemiah must have felt in trying to motivate the Israelites to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in spite of surrounding hostility.

Jim’s main theme was the clash of Anti-Discrimination legislation versus the Freedom of Religion and the Freedom of Speech.  As Executive Chairman of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) Jim aims to get all Christians to use their political strength as a major group of voters to encourage the rebuilding of a framework which supports Christian values rather than erodes them.
 

Jim told the group that we need champions in Parliament. Even now, at least 40 out of 150 Parliamentarians regularly stand up for recognised Christian values. They need our encouragement to keep doing so, not just our hate mail when they get it wrong. There are Christians in Parliament but often they are not even given an opportunity to speak because no one believes there is a Christian constituency out there that they represent. They need us to stand up to be counted to get “standing”, so to speak, and be heard.
 

ACL aims to make sure Christian values get into the Parliament by getting them into the Party Room and through there into the Cabinet Room where the argument could be won. This, he believes, is the way to have political effect. ACL aims to do this by building links and relationships and activating the Christian constituency to identify itself as one that needs to be won. To this end they are looking for new members. Currently he is encouraged by the increase in registrations with 20- 30 new registrations a week.

Whilst stressing that he does not support a conspiracy theory, Jim contends that there are groups who work to well-defined strategies, which include demonising or otherwise silencing anyone who dares to oppose their agenda. ACL believes that this has reduced the larger battle we face on these issues to one of preserving or re-establishing truth in public debate.

He stressed the concern that we are fast losing our Freedom of Speech. Australia differs from the US in that it is not enshrined in our Constitution. He states that we are now 20 times more likely to be sued for things we say in Australia than in the US. He cited a recent incident in which the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney cited the advantages of marriage and the gay advocate Rodney Croome threatened a $20,000 defamation case against Pell. In Victoria our Racial and Religious Intolerance Act 2001 has now enshrined principles contrary to our normal due process in that the burden of proof is on the accused, or rather the person alleged to have either contravened the Act or assisted or authorised the person alleged to have contravened the Act, to prove themselves innocent of the charge (Section17 & 18). The following is from the HREOC website:

Burden of proof

The complainant is responsible for proving that the act was done in public, that it was done because of his or her race and that it was reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a reasonable person of that race. The respondent must establish that the act is covered by one of the exceptions and that it was done reasonably and in good faith.

Even if the accused is successful in refuting the allegations, there is no comeback and no costs. He cited the case of the two involved in the Catch the Fire Ministry whose legal bill must now be enormous because something that should have taken two days has stretched out for nearly 2 years.

He stated that during the case evidence was put that it was suggested people attend the Catch the Fire lectures to try and “get offended” by what was being said. Jim felt this was akin to entrapment.

He also cited the recent case of a witch in Casey. The Mayor had encouraged people to pray against paganism (www.paganawareness.net.au/casey.html) and agreed to settle out of court with an apology. Paganism is growing and cases such as this can only strengthen it. Perhaps because, as Christians we tend to turn the other cheek, we are allowing ourselves to be attacked whilst not defending ourselves from unfair attack which discredits us all.

Jim complained at a lack of impartiality of Government enquiries and that the legal fraternities are most to blame. He reminded us that marriage today is more than ever under severe threat, especially with cases like the Kevin and Jennifer case (www.hreoc.gov.au ) where the Full Court of the Family Court granted leave to HREOC to intervene in the appeal against the Judgment of Justice Chisholm. The issue being the definition of “man” and that Kevin, a former transsexual, is a “man” for the purposes of the Marriage Act 1961 (Cth). The definition of marriage is no longer frozen in time. Jim challenged us to take on test cases to remove the negative effects of the Anti Discrimination legislation. He stated legal minds were needed to bring a more visible profile of Christians within such bodies as the VLRC. He reminded us that our rights are under attack and we need to take up the challenge. He finished with reading Isaiah 1:10-17 and suggesting by it that God was not satisfied with our worship alone, if all around us was like “Sodom and Gommorah”.

During questions some of us raised concerns but all of us were probably challenged to agree with Jim that as lawyers we should use the skills we are trained with to think through the issues he raised in determining how we can bring those skills to bear for the glory of God.

Jim Wallace AM

Jim Wallace is the Executive Chairman of the Australian Christian Lobby, one of Australia’s fastest growing political organisations, which aims to see Christian values better acknowledged in the way we are governed, do business and relate as a community. He is also a sought after commentator on Defence and security issues having left the Army as brigadier in late 2000 after a 32 year career which included command of the SAS Regt, Special Forces and the Army’s mechanised Brigade of three thousand personnel and most of the Army’s fighting vehicles. He is a graduate of Duntroon, The British Army Staff College and the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies. In 1984 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to counter-terrorism. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Studies Centre and was recently appointed by the Minister of Defence to the Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Jim worships with his family at the Hughes Baptist Church in Canberra.