SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Maurice Williamson MP: ‘Gay Icon’ must answer to a Higher Being

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Dominion Post Letter to Editor (24 April) accompanied by colour photo of ‘Gay Icon’ Maurice Williamson delivering pro-same-sex marriage [Marriage Amendment bill] speech on 17 April 2013. In 2004, he voted against civil unions at the Third Reading of the Civil Union Act, along with John Key and 22 other Nation Party MPs.

maurice williamson

National Pakuranga MP Maurice Williamson’s marriage-amendment bill speech would have been half funny were it not for the assumptions he made as facts. He promised that the Sun would rise tomorrow, we’d not suffer skin diseases or plagues of toads, and that the world would carry on. His knowledge of physics assures us eternal punishment will last 2.1 seconds. His major error is to ignore that he’s answerable to a higher authority. It’s an error shared by the bill’s supporters, including some churches and their leaders. Though he and this Government might act as if they govern the universe, the Bible is clear that they will be called to account for their lives. Pussyfooting around, with platitudes about loving relationships and Jesus’ acceptance of everyone, ignores that, faced with an adulterous woman, he said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” – the later instruction being the condition placed on the forgiveness. The Church must be aware that after 30 years of “normalising ” homosexuality, the future demand will be to marry same-sex people in church because it would be “discriminatory” not to do so. What then, sheep?

Peter Bradley, Aotea.

24 April 2013. The Dominion Post. P. A10.

Poor Show to cast doubt on charity – Editorial: Manawatu Standard

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OPINION: Poverty by Rob Mitchell – Acting Editor 24 April 2013

There are few words in the modern New Zealand lexicon that stimulate quite as much debate or polarise the populace as dramatically as this one.

It appears that you either believe in its existence or you do not; there is little middle ground, little stable footing from which to mount a reasoned argument. It’s black and white. End of story. At least until the next round of statistics are released.

Critics who argue against the existence of poverty usually point to what they claim is a dearth of evidence supporting the contention. They point to disturbing images of bloated, malnourished African children too weak to bat away the many flies as a major plank in their own cross-examination.

That is poverty, they say, and nothing like that exists in this country.

That may be true, but like most points of reference when comparing our country with others, everything is relative. Including poverty.

And while we have a safety net to help ensure that pictures of hungry, dying children remain a distant, foreign concern, there are people who are struggling in this country. Some of them quite badly.

And the evidence is there. In Palmerston North it is displayed for all to see just metres from the city’s expansive, pleasant Square.

It wraps around the walls of two buildings leading to an outlet where free food is dispensed to all who need it.

Some of those waiting in line at Just Zilch are likely not as desperate as others, but it is clear that the great majority of these people share a ragged and threadbare coat of desperation and deprivation.

Whether it’s their own fault or they are victims of circumstances beyond their control, most of these people badly need the support of organisations such as Just Zilch.

The service this organisation delivers for its community is both honourable and charitable. That a funding body would deny its status as a charity is most definitely dishonourable. And that its main reason for doing so is Just Zilch’s refusal to discriminate is bizarre and disturbing.

There is a poverty of morality and logic in not supporting Just Zilch’s good works: it takes food deemed surplus to requirements and helps to feed those struggling to look after themselves. And it also keeps a lid on shoplifting and petty crime, a point made by those on the line.

Possibly even more importantly, it provides very public, albeit challenging, evidence that poverty of a sort does exist in this country.

It’s black and white. End of story.

Source: Fairfax NZ News

OPINION: Poverty by Rob Mitchell – Acting Editor

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/8590870/Editorial-Poor-show-to-cast-doubt-on-charity

Charity status declined – Free-food outlet is under threat

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Just Zilch could close in three months unless its application to become a charity is accepted or the community provides emergency funding.

The free-food store, which opened in June 2011, has been fighting to become a charitable trust for the past 18 months, but has been refused at least six times.

It is about to put in its seventh application to Charities Services and if it is refused again Just Zilch Trust chairman Mark Ward says the community organisation will be on “desperate street”.

The reason Just Zilch keeps getting turned down is it has been unable to provide proof it is alleviating poverty.

Charities Services – formerly the Charities Commission – was unable to immediately respond to Manawatu Standard queries yesterday, but on its website it says that an organisation such as Just Zilch needs to be “providing the poor with a food bank” to qualify as a charity.

Because the store gives food to everybody – regardless of need – Just Zilch Trust has struggled to explain that the store is not feeding the rich as well, Mr Ward says.

For full story go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/8584365/Charity-status-declined

Podcast:

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/aft/aft-20130423-1407-free_shop_denied_charity_status-048.mp3

from Afternoons with Jim Mora on Tuesday 23 April 2013

Just Zilch is a food bank-like set-up, where food is collected from a variety of local shops, cafes and restaurants, and distributed for free to anyone who needs it, out of a premises on Fitzherbert St, Palmerston North. The initiative has applied to be registered for a charity on several occasions over the past 22 months, but to date all applications have been refused.

Duration: 15 min. 27 sec.

Earlier stories on Just Zilch

23/12 2012 http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/life-style/6183313/Growing-a-sustainable-future

21/12/ 2012 http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/8108346/Just-Zilch-busier-than-last-year

19/06/12 http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/7128146/Growing-numbers-need-Just-Zilchs-help

13/06/12 http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/5135443/Food-free-for-all

Group calls for legalisation of multi-partner marriage

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Stuff News (23/04/13) reports:

A group is calling for the Government to consider legalising multi-partner marriages.

The group set up a Facebook page just before the Marriage Amendment Bill passed through Parliament last week, legalising gay marriage.

A statement on the page described multi-partner – or polyamorous – marriage as “responsible, adult, committed non-monogamy,” and said all committed loving relationships between adults regardless of number should be respected and given legal acknowledgement.

“Some Australian Greens have now got a lobby group going, there are several MPs around the world coming out as poly and poly-friendly and it seems the time is right to at least bring it to the attention of the New Zealand public and New Zealand parliament,” the group said.

“This will be a long-term project but with the rest of the world getting on the bandwagon legal multiple partner marriages/unions may one day be accepted.”

The “slippery slope” towards legalising polygamy, polyamory or incestuous relationships has often been an argument raised by opponents of the Marriage Amendment Bill.

Last year the member in charge of the bill, Labour Party MP Louisa Wall, and Conservative Party leader Colin Craig went head to head in a live online debate about marriage equality.

At the time Mr Craig predicted the bill would inevitably raise issues surrounding discrimination to people in polygamous or polyamorous relationships who could not marry and yesterday said it was “no surprise” the Support Legalise Polyamory in New Zealand group had started up and there was no doubt marriage would be further redefined in the future.

“We have opened the doors to this.”

He said it had begun when the line was moved for civil unions.

“They said that was it, they’d never touch marriage again, and that’s what they’re saying now.”

Mr Craig said legalising gay marriage created a precedent for further redefinition of marriage, which he had been against from the start.

Last year Ms Wall said marriage was based on love, which was why gay and lesbian people wanted the same rights.

“Marriage is the institution of two people who love each other committing themselves to a shared life together. This bill will not address polygamy or other forms of relationship.”

Mr Craig said if people were intellectually honest they would see the arguments for legalising gay marriage could apply directly to those in other alternative relationships.

“If it’s about love and commitment and respect, don’t they have that? They would say they do.”

Source:

Story by Kirsty McMurray. 23 April 2013

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8588721/Legalise-multi-partner-marriage-group

Kirsty McMurray

Maurice Williamson: A “Gay” icon’s ‘Gangnam-style’ politics and his “contemptible” speech

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The media has reported that the Pakuranga National MP, the Hon. Maurice Williamson, “has become an unlikely gay icon” following his supportive speech at the final reading of the same-sex ‘marriage’ bill. On Wednesday night  [17 April]  Williamson delivered a masterclass in the use of humour as a weapon, introducing New Zealand – and the world – to memorable phrases like “the gay onslaught” and “most enormous big gay rainbow” as he dismantled arguments against the bill, which passed into law by a comfortable margin.”

[According to Wikipedia a gay icon ”is a public figure (historical or current) who is embraced by many within lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities”].

A careful analysis of Williamson’s four minutes of grandstanding reveal that this newly discovered “gay icon” never really addressed any of the key arguments levelled against the bill by its opponents in the First and Second Reading Debates, let alone “dismantled” them (see later discussion). The empty rhetoric and poverty of coherent argument was reminiscent of the The Emperor’s New Clothes.

“One of the newspapers in New York claimed I was one of New Zealand’s only openly gay MPs,” Maurice Williamson told a reporter while  laughing, adding:  ”That’s not quite true – my wife wanted to know whether the New York Times knew something more than I did.”

A video of  the energetic speech given by this flamboyant “ego-tripping” “Buffoon”, as journalist Karl du Fresne refers to him in commenting on his “contemptible” speech, has reportedly gone “viral” on You Tube, having been viewed over 580,000 times since Wednesday 17 April. Du Fresne considered it contemptible “because it mocked and ridiculed people who had merely exercised their right to express a view on the bill.” The self-deluded Emperor Williamson’s ‘arguments’ in favour of the bill, when exposed, are found to be nothing more than ridicule and self-deluded lies motivated by naked ambition to curry favour with the LGBT communities.

So what does this media-hyped ‘adulation’ by “gays” over the most enormous big humour of ‘Emperor’ Williamson indicate about the true size of this Member’s exposed ego? [Read more…]