Lismore City Councillor Elly Bird is waging a war on Christianity. Her most recent motion to remove the opening prayer from Council meetings reeks of the extremist atheism modeled by The Greens. Cr Bird commented that prayer “is no longer an appropriate opening for Council meetings and should be removed.”

Frighteningly for Lismore residents, Cr Bird’s developing pattern of christophobia has shown less regard for the best interests of the beautiful heart of the region than with asserting her own special kind of vision for Lismore. This social re-engineering of Australian culture bears little or no resemblance to free nation that has welcomed and embraced people from around the world, regardless of their colour or creed. Until now. An inclusive secular democracy has one idea in particular that keeps getting on the wrong side of this Councillor…

Christians.

That’s right – if you believe in the historical figure Who taught us to love our neighbours, to turn the other cheek, to actively treat people the way want to be treated, to be peacemakers – then it seems you’re too dangerous for Elly Bird’s vision for Lismore.

No Christians Please

In April Lismore was struck by devastating floods. Residents and businesses were damaged and traumatised by floods that didn’t discriminate. Volunteers from outside the region were gratefully welcomed with open arms by locals, thankful that they weren’t forgotten or left alone. But when 700 volunteers from the Gold Coast, Sydney and even Melbourne were offered by the Church of Christ, Cr Elly Bird was overheard prior to a Council meeting expressing concern that these volunteers would be too religious.

Not only did these dangerous religious radicals help clean Lismore’s public parks, residents’ homes and businesses, volunteers walked the streets delivering thousands of relief packages to those affected by floods, and even had the religious audacity to donate $10,000 to the Lismore Flood Appeal.

The Northern Star reported that one of those Christians (which Cr Elly Bird expressed concern about), John Ley, enthused that, “It’s fantastic to be here today to help. It’s a Christian responsibility to my fellow people in society to help in any which way we can, no matter how small.” What an extremist.

One has to wonder exactly what Cr Bird was fearing for the people who thought she was representing them. An outbreak of Christian responsibility and love for our neighbours?

A Pattern Emerges

Of course, like a true Green fundamentalist, when Council voted on the critically important Council business of redefining marriage, Cr Elly Bird was there again, dutifully imitating her comrades in the federal Greens Party, voting to fly the rainbow flag in open rejection of our nation’s Judeo-Christian values. Nobody was helped by that ridiculous waste of Council’s time and ratepayers’ money .

Concern about Christian charity, flying the rainbow flag, and now banning prayer before Council meetings.

This isn’t just about the latest inch she’s asking for, it’s a pattern. Is Cr Bird’s re-election strategy to cleanse the Lismore environment of the noxious weed of Christians? Lots of socialists in history have attempted to eradicate Christians. The refugees from those regimes fled to the Christian culture of Australia and other liberal Western democracies where all beliefs are (or were) welcome.

Does Cr Elly Bird know what her job is? Has she got even the vaguest idea that what residents are really worried about – like lack of funding for basic road repairs, the growing council rates bills (which are already the highest in the region), stagnating regional growth, sky-rocketing unemployment, and a shortage of low-cost housing (made worse by the flood from which Cr Bird would disdain 700 recovery volunteers simply because they were Christian)?

Extreme Green

In bizarrely back to front logic, Cr Bird has said the reason why she thinks prayer should be removed is so Council can be more diverse and “as inclusive as possible”. Ahhh, Elly – how does excluding traditional cultural values of Australia make Council more inclusive?

Removing prayer makes Council less diverse. You would be literally removing one of the ingredients of our culture and history – the most dominant and singularly most defining ingredient of our justice system and government. To dilute or delete this Australian fact is willfully ignorant of our origins.

Of course, the prayer isn’t even mandatory. Councillors are free to abstain. No one’s being forced to be religious, but Cr Bird would like to remove the option to even say amen.

Cr Bird also commented that, “A declining percentage of our population is Christian.” Follow the implied line of logic, it would be consistent to argue that every cultural reference which enjoys a smaller percentage of the population than Christianity is also inappropriate and should be removed. If this is not her position then the latent hypocrisy would belie the sincerity of her charade of concern for diversity and inclusiveness.

Christophobia may be the real motivator, and Christians could well ask their very Green Councillor, “How long will Christians be welcome in Lismore?”

A Dozen Seconds

So what exactly has Cr Elly Bird in such a tizz that she thinks the important work of the Lismore City Council should be halted this Tuesday while the more important business of removing Christian prayer is executed?

Almighty God, we humbly ask you to grant your blessing upon this Council. Direct and prosper our deliberations to the advancement of your glory and the true welfare of the people of our city, New South Wales and Australia.

In that fleeting moment opening each meeting, Councillors are reminded they are not the font of all knowledge nor the ultimate authority in the Universe. You might be forgiven for thinking that a pinch of humility and regard for our heritage would help the average politician better perform their job. Cr Elly Bird doesn’t agree; not if it takes 12 seconds of deference to the Christian God to achieve it.

If We Give An Inch

It is the nature of “progressive” politicians to take ground by inches. They rightly believe that platitudes and propaganda will lull trusting citizens into a false sense that all is well, and take advantage of our good-natured wllingness to compromise and find a middle ground. We give an inch; but they’re playing a very long and patient game, hoping we won’t notice they’ve taken a mile: an inch here, an inch there. This isn’t about prayer. It’s about the larger vision of a culture without any trace of public Christianity.

Today is always the day to say no to Cr Elly Bird’s extreme Green fundamentalism; the kind that calls banning Christian prayers for divine wisdom in Council some kind of bizarre and Orwellian inclusiveness; the kind that fears Christian volunteers; the kind that says kids being raised by their biological parents is less important than adult claims to redefine marriage.

City of Lismore Residents

If you’re a voter in Lismore City Council elections, here’s your chance to draw a line in the sand that must not be crossed. Tell the Lismore City Councillors who are actually listening that they won’t be getting your vote if they keep attacking Christianity. This motion and all others that target Australia’s traditional Judeo-Christian values must be rejected.