This Orwellian bill is almost North Korean
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
The Australian government is proposing a ‘Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Bill’.
The negative effect of this on society, democracy and the Church could be considerable. The bill requires social media companies to remove any speech that causes harm to Australians' health, to the environment or any economic or financial harm. In other words, the government is giving itself carte blanche to censor any view it does not like, as being harmful. Anyone who is critical of transgender, or government policy on climate, or abortion, or even some religions, could be considered guilty of hate speech and causing harm.
How evangelicals facilitated Scottish church collapse
During the lengthy period of debates about same-sex marriage and sexuality, the Church of Scotland leadership often spoke of the ‘trajectory’ that the Church was on.
By this they meant a trajectory towards a more ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ theology and practice. For over 20 years I have been writing about the Church of Scotland’s ‘trajectory’ – a trajectory which I believed would end up with its demise. I had thought it would be a gradual decline resulting in extinction by 2050. I was wrong. As this year’s Assembly demonstrates, the Church of Scotland has now fallen off a cliff edge and is in a state of terminal decline. It is doubtful whether it will exist in any meaningful form by 2030.