SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Rachel Kellie Whitwell: Teacher censured after appearing in porn magazines

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In its Media Release of 5 March 2011, the highly respected registered charity Family First NZ welcomed the majority decision by the New Zealand Teacher’s Council to formally censure a female primary school teacher for her “serious misconduct”  – involving her work as a porn magazine model – and ordered her deregistration (See 35 page decision The Complaints Assessment Committee v Rachel Kellie Whitwell. NZTDT 2011/7).

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that the defendent, aged 29, must meet the CAC’s actual and reasonable cost associated with the disciplinary proceeding and pay half the Tribunal’s costs.

“Teachers have a special status as leaders and should be respected – especially by our children,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

“Modeling and selling naked photos to a pornographic magazine doesn’t meet that standard. Associating the photos with her profession of teaching children is also unacceptable.

“These sexually explicit photos of the teacher have been published and are now in the public domain. The combined role of porn star and primary school teacher simply doesn’t fit for many families. Parents would be just as concerned if a teacher was coming to school topless or teaching that pornographic magazines are harmless. [Read more…]

Relationships Aotearoa Inc – an $8m government-funded charity

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Relationships Aotearoa Inc, a registered charity (CC24033) which received $7.91 million in government funding last financial year (ended 30 June 2012), via Child Youth and Family and Ministry of Justice operating grants, is described in the Dominion Post today as a “family counselling organisation” for which “marital status was not the most important factor in raising children” [Emphasis added]. However, this charity that employed 60 full time workers and 250 part-timers last year and spent $8,184,156 on wages and salaries last as well as $11,600 on its honorarium payments to central boardroom members, has no mention of, let alone definition of, the words “marriage” or “family” or “marital status” or “children” in its  Constitution and Rules (amended and approved at its AGM on 26 November 2012).

Its Constitution Objects” (available on the Charities website (www.charities.govt.nz) have all been approved by Charity Services/Department of Internal Affairs as serving “charitable purposes”. There is no mention anywhere in the Constitution/Rules that the charity has any obligation, duty of care or interest in educating parents, whether married or unmarried, in the “raising [of] children”. The entire focus of this charity which had a total operating income last year of $13,070,460 is on enhancing undefined “relationships”.

Midlands regional manager of Relationships Aotearoa, Ash Smart, is quoted in the Dominion Post as saying: “[Marital status] is not the issue [in raising children]. The issue is: Are they being born into strong and healthy relationships?”.

Family First NZ, another registered charity, while agreeing that strong and healthy relationships are important, puts such a statement in context – i.e. such relationships are important in the raising of children. It contends that children thrive best when raised by a loving mother AND father who are committed to each other in marriage. It recognises the excellent parental achievements of solo parents, de facto parents, and parents who adopt children, but emphasises that an input to children’s upbringing/nurture etc from both a father AND a mother (living together in a committed relationship) is the ideal environment in which to raise children.

So focused on undefined “fulfilling relationships” is the charity Relationshiops Aotearoa, that the closest and most precise statement about the $8m state-funded charitable activities of its employees is limited to the following:

Objects include:

3.1 To promote and advance the Society throughout New Zealand.

3.2 To support the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand to create fulfilling relationships by providing quality service including counselling, information and resources, and by building awareness of the importance of strong and healthy relationships.

3.3 To recognise and honour Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

3.1 To promote education for relationships throughout New Zealand.

The Dominion Post points out:

“Children needed to be in a home with love and warmth, and evidence showed having their biological parents around increased the likelihood of this.”

Family First NZ has for many years highlighted this very point, but gone much further by researching and publicising the factors that sadly lead to family breakdown and child abuse etc.

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc, (“SPCS”) has as one of its objects: “To promote wholesome personal values, including strong family life and the benefits of lasting marriage as the foundation for stable communities.” (Constitution. s. 2[c]).

SPCS points out that loving and committed relationships between spouses in marriage is fundamental to the success of Society’s “natural and fundamental unit” – THE FAMILY. Supporting and promoting stable marriages should be seen by government as beneficial to Society’s well-being and future.

New Zealand and Australia are both signatories to Article 16 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), as are all member States of the United Nations

Article 16 states:

16 (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have a right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

16 (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouse.

16 (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

See: www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Note: The Relationships Aoterora Inc. website “Relationships Aotearoa: counselling & educating” listed on the Charities website as:

www.relationshipsaotearoa.org.nz

…. is currently NOT functioning. Its homepage states: ‘Our website is now under construction and coming soon’

Make a “Marriage Pledge” to Uphold Marriage definition as one man-one woman – Family First NZ

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Family First NZ is calling on all New Zealanders who oppose the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill that is scheduled to have its Third Reading in Parliament on Wednesday 17th April 2013, to go online (see link below) and make a “Marriage Pledge” that:

(1) they will not use their electorate vote to vote for an electorate MP who supports changing the definition of marriage, and

(2) they will not use their party vote to vote for a party whose leader supports changing the definition of marriage.

Family First states in an explanatory note assures those making the pledge:

“The politicians have ignored thousands of your submissions. They have ignored calls for a referendum on this massive cultural change – at the same time as demanding a referendum on state asset sales! They have demanded their right for a conscience vote, yet have voted to ignore the consciences of celebrants, registrars, churches hosting weddings, and others in the wedding industry etc. They are ramming this bill through without giving it the due consideration and debate it deserves.

“BUT THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOU AT THE BALLOT BOX! In fact, it’s the one time that they DO have to listen – so they will take notice of this”

WEBSITE ADDRESS TO SUBMIT YOUR PLEDGE:

See: http://www.mymarriagepledge.org.nz/

To download poster/advert on pledge go to:

http://www.protectmarriage.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/My-Marriage-Pledge-Full-Page-Advert.pdf

Registered charity Family First NZ promotes “21 Reasons Why Marriage [Between 1 Man & 1 Woman] Matters.”

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Family First NZ, a registered charity (Reg. No. CC10094) that was registered with the Charities Commission on 21 March 2007, is promoting and making available to the public for free download, its booklet entitled “21 Reasons Why Marriage [Between One Man and One Woman] Matters.” (Available from homepage of “The National Marriage Coalition of New Zealand” www.nzmarriage.org.nz).

The content on this website presents the case for protection of the current definition of marriage as ‘one man one woman’. in response to the private members bill of Labour MP Louisa Wall which seeks to redefine marriage. The registrant of the domain name nzmarriage.org.nz is the “National Marriage Coalition of New Zealand” C/- the Family First NZ’s P.O. Box 276133 Manakau City 2241.

Family First NZ – a registered charity – calls for abortion law change

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The latest figures released by Statistics NZ on June 19 show a drop in abortions. There were 15,863 abortions performed in New Zealand in 2011 as compared to 16,650 in the previous year, the lowest number since 1999.

To grasp the size of this number, one can compare it with the current population figures for three vibrant rural NZ towns: Tokoroa (14,200), Cambridge (14,400) and Ashburton (16,100).

If all the inhabitants of each of these three towns were killed, one town at a time per year, over three years, through the medical intervention of skilled registered health practitioners, funded by the tax-payer, pro-lifers argue that this would gives us a good comparison (numbers-wise) of the devastating impact of removing the same number of unborn children under our present system of (effectively) “abortion on demand”, over the last three years.

In the case of the elimination of foetuses (unborn children), the ability of these “victims” to respond to, protest, retaliate against, call for “human rights protection”, or seek refuge, from impending surgical removal; is somewhat muted compared to the elevated, hysterical, well-educated and strident calls for mercy that would come from the more mature denizens of Tokoroa, Cambridge and Ashburton, if they were faced with surgical elimination (genocide).

But of course, this gulf between the level and quality of the hypothetical ‘protest actions’ mounted by foetuses, compared with those  mounted by those actually able to speak for themselves; is perfectly comprehensible. The latter group, faced with elimination, are treated under current law as, in effect, “a superior class of human beings” – one that is “mature”, “fully sentient”, and “highly educated” (relatively speaking) and worthy of full “human rights” protections – while foetuses in contrast are “the unborn” – a mere “category” of “non-sentient” development tissue (sub-human/less than human).

The “passing” (elimination) of a foetus does not warrant the erection of a tomb stone or a national memorial, nor a death notice in a local paper, nor the awarding of a posthumous Queens Honours award for crowning achievements. Their crowns are not yet fully-formed, nor their tongues, nor their language-functions, nor their sensory apparatus, when they were aborted.

On average 55 teens have an abortion in New Zealand every week, 17 per cent being performed at 12 weeks or later despite the research on foetal development that has revealed the exquisite beauty and wondrous complexity of the organ and tissue structures of the unborn child, even as early as 12 weeks.

Challenge Weekly (June 25) reports that Family First NZ, a charity registered with the Charities Commission, “is calling for a law which requires informed consent, including ultrasound, for all potential abortions, and counselling to be provided only by non-providers of abortion services. Parental notification of teenage pregnancy and abortion should happen automatically except in exceptional circumstances approved by the court.

“It is incorrect to label abortion as ‘pro-choice’, because nobody chooses to be in the situation of unwanted pregnancy and having to make such a difficult decision,” said Mr McCoskrie.

The fact that 6042 women were recorded in NZ as having had a repeat abortion in 2011, has raised serious concerns among  members of pro-life groups.

References

1. Source of quotes from Family First NZ: Challenge Weekly, June 25, 2012, p. 3.

2. Statistics NZ – report released 19 June 2012

3. Cities Population data http://www.tageo.com/index-e-nz-cities-NZ.htm

Note: The SPCS has as one of its objects: “To promote recognition of the sanctity of human life and its preservation in all stages” (s. 2[b] of SPCS Constitution). Approved by the Charities Commission on 17 December 2007 (Reg. No. CC20268).

For more material from a Christian perspective on abortion see chapter 6 of Dr William Lane Craig’s Hard Questions, Real Answers. Online here:

http://christian-apologetics.org/2012/abortion-hard-questions-real-answers/