LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY crazyjane13)

(x-posted from crazyjane_13

It's a beautiful day, don't you think?

It seems that the Assemblies of God/Dominionist/fundie types may have finally outsmarted themselves, at least as far as the Australian federal election (coming Real Soon Now, honest) is concerned.

Y'see, Danny Nalliah, sometime pastor for Catch the Fire Ministries, has shot off his mouth yet again.

Some of you might remember that this is the guy who - despite numerous appeals - was convicted under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act for vilifying Muslims in a particularly horrible manner. He's also been known to exhort his followers to burn down mosques, Hindu temples, "covens" and places where lesbians gather.

Not content with spreading a gospel of hate in Australia, in April this year he even took it upon himself to visit the US - in order to protest against a hate crime bill (HR254). Of course, CFM's website describes that as "wildly successful", but then it would, wouldn't it?

But take heart, friends and neighbours.

A report in today's Australian newspaper details how Prime Minster John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello held private meeting with Nalliah back in August. Coincidentally, this was about the same time that Howard was meeting with the Exclusive Brethren (more on that in a later post).

Anyway, at these meetings, Nalliah assured Howard and Costello of his support. In a letter to his followers, however, he revealed that the Lord had, in fact, told him to spend one-on-one time with the PM, and to prepare "Australia's future prime minister". A second letter clarified that Nalliah wasn't talking about Mr. Rudd - in fact, Nalliah claimed he was "well-justified" in attacking the Labor Party for their "support of homosexuality and abortion".

The Australian also noted that Mr. Costello had written letters of support to Nalliah during the religious vilification case. Costello, apparently, has no trouble being associated with a man who exhorts his followers to violence against anyone he thinks is evil.

The Howard government copped a lot of flak for meeting with the Exclusive Brethren - but there was a general feeling of "they don't vote, so it doesn't matter too much". Nalliah and his ilk do vote however - and both Howard and Costello have just been caught publicly supporting and accepting the endorsement of a convicted criminal who justifies his atrocious behaviour by saying, "God told me to do it".

Now, apparently, God's told him to throw his weight behind Howard's election campaign - and presumably Costello's, in the future.

I've got three little words for this.

Kiss.

Of.

Death.

This one isn't going away, Mr Howard. You and your sidekick have been caught with your interest groups down. Australians don't, as a general rule, stand for this kind of overt interference in government.


... See why I said it was a beautiful day??



Postscript : If you want more info on CFM, check out the above link - they are becomingly more and more openly Dominionist by the day. Their "Rise Up Australia" campaign has some rather revealing little statements about an "army of laborers" and "a Daniel generation of spiritual warriors" - and let's not forget establishing God's "presence, authority, and righteousness in Government".