ChurchOnline.co.nz

This is an interesting topic because it touches on the very essence of life. I think people take this step not out of an easy life, but out of a lack of joy. They just haven't learned how to enjoy life.

I couldn't follow your link, it returns a 404 code.

This is another cool article on the subject https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_New_Zealand

Hi all! Allow a Christian to join your forum.

Hi Pokitren .
You are certainly welcome here . The posts I have been using here are from the family first organisation and the links don't usually work , I just put them on there to help people find the family first site for themselves as there is a lot of stuff on there that govt, etc are getting away with which is making a mess of the world .
Not many people interact on here but a lot are using it .
Blessings .

School gender ideology rejected
Hi everyone ,
If you listened to the media and politicians, and watched the recent coverage of the Bethlehem College pile-on, you would probably think that your traditional and biological-based views were very much in the minority. Here's some good news. There are many many families who share your views. It's time to #PushBack. Read our latest media release below.
FAMILY FIRST MEDIA RELEASE 17 June 2022
A new nationwide poll has found significant opposition to gender ideology being taught to primary school students, and majority support for parents being informed of their own children exhibiting gender dysphoria at school. There is also more support than opposition for a ban on transition medicine and surgery for children under the age of 18.

In the poll of 1,200 New Zealanders surveyed this month by Curia Market Research, respondents were asked a number of questions around gender ideology in schools.

When asked - “Do you believe that primary age children should be taught that they can choose their ‘gender’ and that it can be changed through hormone treatment and surgery if they want it to be?”, only 15% said yes. More than 2 in 3 people (69%) opposed this type of teaching, and a further 16% were unsure.

The respondents were then asked - “The Ministry of Education tells teachers that schools do not have to disclose to parents that their child is identifying as transgender in class and using a different name and preferred pronouns. Would you support a law requiring schools to notify parents if their child is identifying as transgender in class?” A majority (55%) would support a parental notification-type law, with only 29% opposed. A further 16% were unsure or refused to say.

In response to the question - “Some people have proposed banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and physical sex-change surgeries for children under the age of 18 who identify as transgender. Would you support or oppose this kind of ban?” there was 42% support and 36% opposition for such a ban, with a further 22% unsure or refusing to say. Males were more supportive and females were more opposed, but support was stronger than opposition overall in all age groupings. Not surprisingly, support for such a ban went up to a half (49%) of parents who had children under 16 years of age, and only 1/3'rd opposed.

Many young people today are wondering if they were ‘born in the wrong body’, and transgender activists are pushing a message that insists the body should be remade to conform with feelings. As such, the transgender trend spreads a confusing and stressful message to all kids, including those who struggle to accept their biological sex.

In the new curriculum for primary age children, primary age students are being indoctrinated with the confusing and dangerous message that changing sex is as easy as changing clothes, girls are discovering that biological boys have free access to their changing rooms and sports teams, and the curriculum states that parents are able to be kept in the dark when their child has decided to identify as transgender during the school day.

But this polling reveals that the majority of New Zealanders are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this curriculum and agenda in schools.

Which would you prefer your child to be taught - born male or female by Bethlehem College, or 112 genders and 200+ sexualities by this state school?!

A better and more compassionate and honest approach would be for schools to create a climate that welcomes every child by making room for a greater diversity of personalities without negating the importance of biological sex, and most importantly, respecting the rights, role and responsibility of the parents and wider whanau.

It’s also time that the Education and Health Ministries placed priority on scientific evidence and sound medical practice, rather than bowing to special interest groups pushing a radical agenda. Medical professionals and groups around the world – including the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) - are sounding growing concern around the use of puberty blockers to treat young people with gender dysphoria because of the low certainty of benefits, but the significant potential for medical harm.

Parents need to be alert to what is being taught in their local schools. Affirming biology is not bigotry.

BRUCE LOGAN: The Tyranny of the Offended
News & Stories / June 21, 2022
The Tyranny of the Offended
Bruce Logan: 21 June 2022

The Ministry of Education wants Tauranga’s Bethlehem Christian College to erase from its statement of belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. Of course it does.

The Ministry has its own competing statement of belief; the gospel of diversity, inclusion and equality (DIE) which fails before it begins by excluding the diverse opinion that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Bethlehem College says that marriage is between a man and a woman because it believes the Biblical story that declares human beings have been created male and female in the image of the sovereign God.

That nearly everyone believed that marriage is between a man and the woman until half an hour ago and that most people in the world still believe it would seem to cut no ice with the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education.

Subject to DIE the Ministry believes and preaches the sovereignty of identity politics; that human beings are self-creating self-affirming creatures. The Ministry is a government bureaucracy and marriage is what it says it is. Unbelievers must be silenced.

The battle for truth spins around opposing commandments. Bethlehem College believes that human beings should love and obey God with all their heart and soul. The Ministry of Education believes that we should love ourselves with all our psyche; souls and hearts optional.

Freedom of choice is a cardinal “virtue” underpinning DIE’s commandments; a necessity for self-creating creatures. It’s not about what one chooses but simply that one chooses. But such freedom applies only to those people who believe in DIE’s concept of freedom. It cannot possibly apply to unbelievers because that would undermine the entire self-creating enterprise.

The old idea of freedom of speech and religious belief and expression has no traction in the world of self-creation. The old idea rests on the belief in a created and ordered world. Human dignity is a permanent gift from God not something presumptuously imagined by the individual and the overreaching state.

If human dignity is not God-given an alternative and sovereign authority must be found. The contemporary discovery is the self-creating individual sustained by the ideology of identity politics. The necessary consequence of which is that those who control the gates (or is it corridors) of power will decide what it means to be human.

The ideology of self-creation would declare the purity of human passion and have the efficacy of that passion written into law. That is the new freedom.

Ironically the new freedom turns out to be more like tyranny. It reinforces the tribalism of identity politics which must be arbitrated by the sovereign state. Freedom of speech, religious belief and expression is impossible because criticism of self-creation is offensive and must be protected by evolving hate speech legislation.

If one is the creator of one’s own truth, that truth cannot suffer criticism. Admission of error would bring down the entire house of cards and DIE seen for what it really is, a civil religion.

The attempt by the Ministry of Education to censor Bethlehem College’s expression of marriage is at the sharp end of the sexual revolution and its claim to human meaning.

On the one hand we have a belief in objectivity and permanent truth in a created and ordered world; the kind of thinking that gave us scientific method and the dignity and primacy of the human conscience.

On the other hand we have DIE which is a parasite plagiarising its notion of dignity from the Genesis story while denying it has done so. Freedom of conscience is irrelevant because the fundamental freedom is the freedom of personal desire. One cannot define marriage as between a man and a woman because that would inhibit the free flow of sexual desire.

And so we have a world that no longer knows what marriage is or indeed what a woman is. But never fear, the Ministry of Education will tell us what both are.

If you listened to and watched the media coverage on the transgender issue related to our children, you would think that if you believe that a boy is born a boy and a girl is born a girl, and if you oppose any indoctrination that 'you can choose your sex, it must mean you are completely out of touch with reality and public opinion. Maybe it’s time to think again. You’re actually with a strong majority who want children to be told the biological truth and to be affirmed with the gender they were born with.
#education #schooling #teaching #GenderIdeology #familyfirstnz

Samuel Bilton reminds us that we live in a narrative culture, and that stories have the ability to shape how we feel and then what we believe to be true. Using current disturbing examples, Samuel encourages parents / caregivers to keep an eye out for how certain groups are trying to use media and stories to mould the minds of our children today and push a narrative that you may not be aware of, and likely not approve of either.
#storytelling #culture #reading #books #children #family #familyfirstnz

Religious liberty could be under threat here in New Zealand, so it’s worth understanding the origins and meaning of ‘separation of church and state’ - a concept that is designed to prevent Government intervention into religion.
#freedom #beliefs #faith #freetobelieve #religiousfreedom #familyfirstnz
https://familyfirst.org.nz/.../separati ... ch-and.../

You will have to type the links into search yourselves .

A perfect response...


As you may be aware, Bethlehem College has been under the media microscope because of their views on marriage and gender. (Even the Prime Minister got involved!)

But they won't be the last. It's why Family First is still awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court on the Government's attempt to remove our charitable status.

Our staff writers have written an excellent summary of the Bethlehem College issue which you can read HERE. And board member Bruce Logan analyses what 's really going on in an important piece which we've printed in full further down this email.

Yesterday the school responded to the ongoing media-fueled frenzy with a perfect response which we believe you would appreciate and support.

We think our Christian beliefs actually support and enhance the health and wellbeing of our students. As our most recent Education Review Office report notes, our special Christian character "contributes to a strong sense of wellbeing and belonging for students”. We appreciate that, for some, Christian beliefs can feel personally hurtful. Our message to those people is that our intention is certainly not to be hurtful. We believe God loves them and desires only the absolute best for them. Our motivation for continuing to hold mainstream Christian beliefs is because we believe they lead to human wellbeing and flourishing.”



BRUCE LOGAN: The Tyranny of the Offended
Bruce Logan is a board member of Family First NZ

The Ministry of Education and LGBT activists want Tauranga’s Bethlehem Christian College to erase from its statement of belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. Of course they do.

They have their own competing statement of belief; the gospel of diversity, inclusion and equality (DIE) which fails before it begins by excluding the diverse opinion that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Bethlehem College says that marriage is between a man and a woman because it believes the Biblical story that declares human beings have been created male and female in the image of the sovereign God.

That nearly everyone believed that marriage is between a man and the woman until half an hour ago and that most people in the world still believe it would seem to cut no ice with the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education.

Subject to DIE the Ministry believes and preaches the sovereignty of identity politics; that human beings are self-creating self-affirming creatures. The Ministry is a government bureaucracy and marriage is what it says it is. Unbelievers must be silenced.

The battle for truth spins around opposing commandments. Bethlehem College believes that human beings should love and obey God with all their heart and soul. The Ministry of Education believes that we should love ourselves with all our psyche; souls and hearts optional.

Freedom of choice is a cardinal “virtue” underpinning DIE’s commandments; a necessity for self-creating creatures. It’s not about what one chooses but simply that one chooses. But such freedom applies only to those people who believe in DIE’s concept of freedom. It cannot possibly apply to unbelievers because that would undermine the entire self-creating enterprise.

The old idea of freedom of speech and religious belief and expression has no traction in the world of self-creation. The old idea rests on the belief in a created and ordered world. Human dignity is a permanent gift from God not something presumptuously imagined by the individual and the overreaching state.

If human dignity is not God-given an alternative and sovereign authority must be found. The contemporary discovery is the self-creating individual sustained by the ideology of identity politics. The necessary consequence of which is that those who control the gates (or is it corridors) of power will decide what it means to be human.

The ideology of self-creation would declare the purity of human passion and have the efficacy of that passion written into law. That is the new freedom.

Ironically the new freedom turns out to be more like tyranny. It reinforces the tribalism of identity politics which must be arbitrated by the sovereign state. Freedom of speech, religious belief and expression is impossible because criticism of self-creation is offensive and must be protected by evolving hate speech legislation.

If one is the creator of one’s own truth, that truth cannot suffer criticism. Admission of error would bring down the entire house of cards and DIE seen for what it really is, a civil religion.

The attempt by the Ministry of Education to censor Bethlehem College’s expression of marriage is at the sharp end of the sexual revolution and its claim to human meaning.

On the one hand we have a belief in objectivity and permanent truth in a created and ordered world; the kind of thinking that gave us scientific method and the dignity and primacy of the human conscience.

On the other hand we have DIE which is a parasite plagiarising its notion of dignity from the Genesis story while denying it has done so. Freedom of conscience is irrelevant because the fundamental freedom is the freedom of personal desire. One cannot define marriage as between a man and a woman because that would inhibit the free flow of sexual desire.

And so we have a world that no longer knows what marriage is or indeed what a woman is. But never fear, the Ministry of Education will tell us what both are.

Kind regards.

Bob McCoskrie
Chief Executive / Founder

"Nichols submitted a request to be euthanized and he was killed, despite concerns raised by his family and a nurse practitioner. His application for euthanasia listed only one health condition as the reason for his request to die: hearing loss."
This is why we opposed legalising assisted suicide.
#euthanasia #assisteddying #mentalhealth #illness #familyfirstnz
https://familyfirst.org.nz/.../disturbing-experts.../
‘Disturbing’: Experts troubled by Canada’s euthanasia laws
FAMILYFIRST.ORG.NZ
‘Disturbing’: Experts troubled by Canada’s euthanasia laws