Queensland LNP bans talking about abortion

The hearts of tens of thousands of Queenslanders were broken yesterday when they learned of the news that the Liberal National Party government, led by Premier David Crisafulli, had taken the entirely unprecedented step of actually forbidding the mere discussion of a major moral issue – the deliberate taken of the lives of preborn human beings.

Crisafulli moved that the Parliament’s standing orders prohibit any motions to change laws or even express views on the issue of abortion.

What was heartbreaking was the vote to support such a motion that inverts the very principles of representative parliamentary democracy and moral goodness by our elected “Christian” members of parliament.

I have strong feelings about this betrayal by the fifty MPs who supported the motion, but I find myself wanting to address them directly, as if I was face to face with them, in private, and off the record. I want to say to them here and now what I believe God is saying to them.

I am not interested in being conservative. I am not interested in the click bait or angry headlines which will grow my social media following. I believe God’s ways are higher than ours, His wisdom infinite, His Truth the only Truth, His laws the only just and valid laws. Almighty God’s policies are the absolute best policies for every Queenslander and Australian and all laws dissonant with His are oppression and injustice.

I am only interested in the most intellectual honesty and sober analysis, and have to sacrifice the outrage and labels that readily come to mind to describe the otherwise good MP sitting in front of me, or on the other end of the phone when I call.

I can’t be invested in pulling punches or currying favour with him or her so he or she will accept my invitations to speak at Church And State conferences or be interviewed by me on video.

So how should I speak to these MPs?

Firstly, I have to be aware of the difference between my feelings and God’s feelings. Secondly, I have to know what God says about the duties and boundaries of civil government. Thirdly, I have to be extremely diligent and faithful to say all of what I believe God is saying, and nothing more – no garnishes and flourishes for effect.

So here goes, God help me.

Have faith in God. I know you’re worried about your career, your influence within the party, your potential for effectiveness in future important fights where you can make a difference. But when you betray righteousness and promote the unlimited toleration of killing the most innocent and defenceless amongst us as a career move, you have lost faith in God.

You have demonstrated an unwillingness to let Him direct your paths, to let Him open doors which no man can close, to let Him provide all your needs and to let Him just be God.

What God values isn’t democracy, or monarchy, or dictatorship. What He values is honest scales, justice, Truth and mercy. He sees what you have voted for today, and you know full well in your heart that you have sinned against Heaven and your neighbour by voting to support the wickedness, the injustice, the deceitfulness and mercilessness of denying even the mere consideration of the best interests of preborn children.

Understand that tomorrow is a new day, and forgiveness follows confession and repentance. Commit yourself anew – not flippantly or conveniently, but profoundly – to upholding righteousness, justice, goodness and mercy in the execution of your parliamentary duties. Fall to your knees in sincere tears of repentance, and arise forgiven, washed clean, and ready to resist evil.

Have faith in God. If the path He has for you doesn’t make sense to you, trust that His ways are higher than our ways. Be obedient to His Word and uphold His justice, and leave your career and the outcomes of your faithfulness to Him.

There are nearly four years left for you to raise a standard of righteousness, justice, Truth and mercy in the government of our people, and the cause is incredibly near to God’s heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but have faith in God.

If He wills that your witness causes you to be ignored and overlooked for promotion and influence, then let that be your pleasing and sweet sacrifice to Him. But have faith in God, and lead us with righteousness and justice first, party and career second, from here on.

That’s it. That’s what God is saying to the fifty, especially those who call themselves Christians.

My heart is so burdened. It’s a sorrow for the children dying at the hands of our heathen culture, but it’s a sorrow for the culture itself. We have become so calloused, so professional that we have lost nearly all concept of right and wrong and cling to a sophisticated variety of “might makes right”.

Majority equals mandate, and mandate equals morality.

No, it doesn’t. We are a corrupt and wicked population in urgent need of repentance and reformation. We are in critical need of courageous Christian characters in party leadership, party membership, and voting majority.

We are in desperate need of pulpits preaching righteousness and thundering with the feelings of God’s heart toward injustice and oppression, deceitfulness and immorality.

Let every preacher this Sunday say what God says about abortion, and about the perversion of justice by those in power.

Dear God save us from our own pride, our affluent apathy and our cultural rejection of You. Lead us as states and a nation back to humility before You and reliance upon You. Give our leaders a revelation of their evilness, and a broken and contrite spirit in the face of that reality.

Almighty God, silence the voices and confuse the strategies of the those who would lead the people astray, and turn our hearts again toward Your Son and our Saviour, the Kings of Kings, Jesus Christ.

May our consciences be sensitive again to the evil of deliberately taking innocent human life. May we celebrate, support, promote and protect the treasure of motherhood. May this generation end abortion.

If you can bear witness to what God is saying to the fifty MPs who voted to support this evil motion, and if you can say “amen” to my prayers above, please feel free to add your name below.

Dave Pellowe is a Christian political educator & commentator, director of annual Church And State conferences around Australia, and founding editor of The Good Sauce. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to redeem culture through videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand, and events from Perth to Auckland. [more]

Subscribe to Dave’s mailing list here.