GordonMoyes.com

Where is God amidst the horrors of war? How do soldiers keep their faith in God’s goodness amidst the suffering and slaughter of battle? American soldiers and sailors, airmen and Marines have asked questions like these ever since the War for Independence. The questions occupy their thoughts and find their way from faraway battlefields into letters to loved ones. Journalist Andrew Carroll has collected many of these letters in a book titled “Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War”. Among them is a note from Private Walter Bromwich, who questioned God’s role in the slaughter of World War I.

On 7 May 2008, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, John Hatzistergos, introduced the Same Sex Relationships Bill to the Legislative Council. This bill, based on recommendations from the NSW Law Reform Commission, seeks to amend 57 NSW laws by first re-defining homosexual partners as equivalent to heterosexual de facto partners under the law, and then seeking to make all legislation apply equally to de facto couples and married couples.

I agree with the top climate scientists that some level of climate change can now be considered unavoidable, no matter how aggressively the problem is combated, and this means that we in Australia will be dealing with unknown changes in the climate, as well as the already deadly environmental extremes that are common here such as drought and flooding.

The devastation caused by the cyclone and tidal surge which hit Burma (Myanmar) this month has shocked the whole world. The suffering is beyond imagining, with an estimated 150,000 dead, a million homeless and no one knows how many lacking food and fresh water.

Last Sunday, Dr Moyes was preaching to an enthusiastic congregation at New Lambton Heights Family Church of Christ under the excellent leadership of Kelvin Holliday This church is known for its wide spread care ministry and its support for Christian leadership in the Parliament. Then he spoke at the CDP meeting at Islington Baptist, under the leadership of Milton Caine and Jim Kendall.

With the State Government so reliant on the generosity of developers, the community is entitled to mistrust proposals to streamline planning. At the same time, however, the need for reform is undeniable. No less than 120,000 planning proposals worth $21 billion are processed each year in NSW. The figure can only grow as housing in particular faces the pressure of surging immigration. The Government is right to pursue a sustainable reduction in the permanent backlog that clogs council planning offices. The question is: at what price?

Every one is aware of the heated debate on whether the State Government should sell the electricity generation plant to private industry in order to get significant money to enable it to pay for public infrastructure for schools and hospitals. I placed before you the arguments for and against as supplied by the Treasurer’s Office and the head of Unions NSW.

I am concerned about developments approved by the Department of Planning, Department of Lands, and Department of Environment, with two big developers intended for the inter-regional area between the Central Coast and the Hunter. There was no community involvement in the process signed off by Ministers Sartor, Kelly, and Debus allowing Rosegroup, and Coal & Allied, that is going to allow extensive development in these areas, in exchange for land to be dedicated as a conservation reserve or a national park.

The shocking deaths last year of three particular Australian children have again highlighted the crisis affecting children and our urgent responsibility to be relentless advocates for them, both at home and abroad.

Victoria is set for an explosive parliamentary debate on euthanasia after the Government agreed not to block the introduction of a Private Member’s Bill. The Hon. Keith Smith (Liberal, Bass), will soon place on Notice Paper in the Victorian Parliament the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill 2008. The Bill aims to give the right to those with a terminal or advanced incurable disease and intolerable suffering the right to assistance from a doctor to die peacefully.