The Kill Bill

Revivalist Lou Engels says . . . You should look for the answers to corporate days of prayer and fasting in the headlines of secular newspapers. These words have often been quoted in recent times because they're increasingly true.

On the 15th of October The Canberra Declaration launched their October Month of Prayer and Fasting for Family and Nation. The same day, Gladys Berejiklian resigned as NSW Premier. This was not an outcome that had been specifically prayed for or foreseen: as far as Australia's premiers go, they would have said that she was one of the better ones. Nevertheless, Ms. Berejiklian chose not to use her voice for the voiceless when it was needed most. Almost two years before her resignation she had waved through horrendous abortion legislation that made abortion-to-birth legal in NSW. Shortly after Gladys Berejiklian stepped down (along with two of her pro-abortion colleagues), Dominic Perrottet was overwhelmingly voted in by his party room.

Mr. Perrottet has an excellent track record on Christian values: he voted against the abortion bill and is a strong opponent of the euthanasia law that members of his party are seeking to push. NSW can only benefit from having a man of faith, a loving husband, and a father of six children at the helm. In another act of God, he and his wife have announced that they are expecting their seventh child. Clearly, his pro-life credentials are more than theoretical. Silvana Nero-Nile (the wife of Rev. Fred Nile MLC) – successfully elected unopposed by the Federal Administration Committee as the lead Senate candidate for the Christian Democratic Party – said . . . It is a sobering reminder that we serve a God of Justice. He hears the cries of our hearts and He hears the cries of the blood on our land.

The Government and Opposition have now agreed to send the Bill to the Upper House, where an inquiry will be held and with a report due in February 2022 before debate can begin again. By no means does this guarantee the failure of the Bill, but the aura of inevitability has evaporated. While the role that Mr. Perrottet played in this decision is not entirely clear, it can be safely assumed that he's in favour. A devoted Catholic, he is by far the most pro-life premier in the country. While Treasurer in 2017 he penned a moving piece in the Sydney Morning Herald in defence of life. It began by noting how news articles about suicide include links to suicide prevention organisations at the end. He then wrote . . . If NSW or Victoria did cross that threshold, would news organisations continue to include the potentially life-saving referral to suicide prevention services in their reports? Or would that footnote need to be updated, with one message for those whose deaths the publishers wish to avert and another for the people whose deaths they are happy to facilitate?

And what about the suicide prevention hotlines themselves: will they screen out people whose wish to die sounds rational and who may qualify under the relevant legislation, distinguishing them from the thousands of callers desperately seeking help to avoid the tragedy of suicide? Will those hotlines be asked to refer people who can legally end their own lives to places where they can obtain more information on how to go about it? Will the hotlines acquiesce in such requests?

He also highlighted the very real and concerning issue of medical mistakes that can take place once assisted suicide laws have been passed, saying that doctors can and will make mistakes, victims will be pressured, judgements will be clouded and that among all the arbitrary rules and safeguards only one thing is absolutely certain: innocent people will die at the hands of these laws if they're passed. Whereas the falsely-imprisoned can be exonerated and freed years later, for the innocent victims of abortion and assisted-suicide laws there can be no long-awaited justice – just the silence of the grave.

The Scriptures have shown that God doesn't favour one political party over another, but He cares very much about life. He has a heart for the vulnerable, and this includes both the unborn and the elderly and infirm. He is a God of Justice, He knows what He is doing, and He cleans house as He sees fit. Neither the outgoing political leaders nor the incoming ones are the answer to our nation's problems; only God is! Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keeps truth forever. (Psalm 146:3-6).

Let us hope and pray that Dominic Perrottet holds the line on this issue, and that by February enough of NSW's lawmakers will have their eyes opened to the dangers posed by this legislation. Although NSW has managed to dodge a euthanasia bullet, it will be a dark, dangerous void of confusion should these bills be passed. Mr. Perrottet has already been crucified by the secular left and the secular left media. His crime? He is conservative, he is Catholic, he is pro-life, and (gasp) he has six children with another on the way!