Making Christianity illegal: A revealing Facebook post – the sort thats quite rare popped up for Obadiah.
“Oklahoma Senate Bill 1554 (Burns, Prieto, Grellner) …. has been introduced, making it a felony for a church to feed, clothe or give any aid to a fellow human being unless you determine them to have legal immigration status first, If passed, following Matthew 25:35&36 could become a felony. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
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This year’s Super Bowl ad:, The “He Gets Us” ad campaign, financed by wealthy Christians including the Hobby Lobby’s Green family, returns for a fourth year to the US Super Bowl, home of high-profile ads.
This year’s Super Bowl Ad, titled “More,” uses images of modern life to say there has to be more.
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The Big Twist: Obadiah is not often shocked by politics or the twist and turns of fortune of lefties and righties. But he is shocked at the amount of vituperation levelled at Andrew Hastie, the liberal member for Canning.
His “Crime” was to vote for the post-Bondi hate speech laws passed in Federal Parliament. The Nationals opposed the laws, and the Liberals (except for a couple of members or senators who absented themselves) voted for the bill after extensive amendments.
Those opposing the laws claimed to stand for free speech. Here’s a meme from the nats.
But did they really?
The excellent and detailed analysis by Associate Prof Neil Foster on his Law and Religion Australia blog shows that Christians have little to fear.
With the split in the Coalition, product differentiation (I am more conservative than you) becomes valuable. Andrew Hastie is an odd person to pick on, especially for Christians of the right to far right.
Here’s an excerpt from his Substack, where he tells how his father’s church connected with many communities. It is the nearest Presbyterian church to Obadiah, and it is the church with which Obadiah volunteers to do “scripture,” Bible lessons in the local public school. Rather than engaging in a far-right anti-immigrant stance, Hastie offers hope of a peaceful multicultural future.
“Let me share a memory that gives me hope for my country, from the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, where I saw my father weave together a people from vastly different ethnic groups. And I will offer my thoughts on the kind of politics that will let us repair a fraying nation.
“This hope is a gift from my father. At Bondi Beach in 2025, we saw how one man’s hatred was passed to his son. Decades earlier, in Ashfield, my father passed to me his love for others as he faithfully served his church community. His example is why I do not despair for our country and our future.
“In Ashfield, I lived at the centre of a multi-ethnic community that practised a form of social cohesion motivated by Christian love. Growing up in the manse of a multi-ethnic church in Sydney, I saw the power of the Christian Gospel to bring together people from all nations and ethnic backgrounds.”