Family First: Australia's Totalitarian Taliban

So the Coalition hopes to get over the line with the help of Family First. People should know exactly who these people really are.

It’s not hard to discover: they are the political wing of the Assemblies of God (AoG) church. There may be no legal connection, and no direct funding, but:

FF Federal Chairman, Peter Harris has been a church member for over 10 years and is on the board of AoG, and almost all FF candidates are either ministers or church members or staff.

In NSW, for example, all the candidates are either church ministers or parishioners, with 11 of the 23 lower house candidates from Hawkesbury Church.

Hawkesbury Pastor Ian Woods is NSW AoG president – his wife and co-pastor Joan is lead FF senate candidate, their son Mike and his wife Melanie are both candidates. Another Hawkesbury pastor, John Dorhauer and wife Caroline Dorhauer, are also standing. The number two NSW Senate candidate Ivan Herald is an AoG pastor. Five more are members of the church’s paid staff and the rest are ordinary church members. The only NSW FF candidate who is not a member of AoG is Greg Briscoe-Hough.

According to the Syndey Morning Herald, Briscoe-Hough is a Catholic father of six who says he is motivated by concern that other parties have "weird" social policies in areas like the "gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/intersex agenda".

Other Family First candidates with strong church connections are: Andrew Evans, founder of AoG in Australia and pastor of the Paradise Community Church SA (who also gave the world Guy Sebastian, the man with the Pubic Hairdo); his two sons – Ashley, Pastor of Paradise AOG Adelaide, and Russell, director of Planetshaker Ministries (AoG youth wing) and Pastor of City Church Melbourne, who meet at Storey Hall RMIT.

They connect to other fundamentalist churches, too: Louise Markus, FF candidate for the western Sydney seat of Greenway, on paid staff of the Hillsong Community Church. Danny Nalliah (aka Evangelist Danny), pastor of Catch The Fire Ministries – who was recently on trial for religious vilification concerning his remarks on Islam - standing for FF in Victoria.

Where do they get their money from? AoG Australia founder Andrew Evans specialises in Business Ministry, which reassures rich businessmen that their profits are sanctified if some of them are devoted to church purposes, so it seems likely some donations come from there.

And candidates and representatives are known to come to AoG services and spruik for money. Sunshine Coast Daily reported elderly parishioners at Nambour church getting very annoyed at a service being interrupted by 15 minute appeal for funds and votes by an FF representative.

It’s not hard to find out what they really stand for either. They may have taken down their Australian website at the start of the campaign to hide their true colours (it’s now flagged “under construction”) but AoG Australia is an affiliate of the American church, so it seems fair to assume church members, especially pastors, espouse the same beliefs.

To put it bluntly, if you favour a Taliban-style totalitarian regime in Canberra, vote Family First. The US parent church believes:-

The answer to everything is in the bible, so all laws should be based on it; it is the sole, first and last authority on everything, inerrant in every particular

Only Christianity is the truth – all other religions are false; therefore laws forbidding discrimination, or banning hate speech, are wrong because they prevent preaching against Moslems, heathens, pagans and gays, among others

No mixing with non-Christians or those who call themselves Christians but lead ungodly lives; never date or marry an "unbeliever'

Environmentalists are pagans whose beliefs are a form of witchcraft

Wives must always be subject to their husbands authority; a good marriage is characterised by mutual love, respect, submission and servanthood

Divorcing your partner, even if they’re abusive, is an absolute last resort, and even then, only permissible if they abandon you permanently or are persistently unfaithful

Homosexuality is a choice which can be reversed if the sufferer wants to. Strong hints that the penalty for gay sex should be death, because the Bible says so

The internet, television, radio and all forms of communications should be censored to ensure ‘decency’. In the meantime, be guided by your pastor

“Social dancing” (i.e. with members of the opposite sex, for pleasure) is not permitted; single sex charismatic dancing and speaking in tongues in church under the watchful eye of the pastor is OK - in fact, it’s a condition of being considered ‘saved’

Dress modestly, no tattoos or piercings – these things are “heathenish”

There are pages of this nonsense - exclusivist, divisive, smug, and replete with all the apparatus of thought control and manipulation. These are the truly evil people.

Don't mix with people who don't think as we do - you might change your mind.

Don't read or listen to or watch anything we don't approve of - you might see things in a different light.

Incidentally, isn't it odd that all these self-styled 'pastors' can watch / read all this allegedly harmful stuff unscathed, but they want to withold it from us because of it's supposedly evil effects? That must make them the most corrupted people on the planet and hence unfit to lead anyone, mustn't it?

Dress modestltly and don't dance, you might 'provoke lust' either in yourself and others, and discover there are other things in the world besides AoG.

Do yourselves a favour and put Family First way down the bottom: at least Fred Niles and his gang have the courage to show us who they really are, not like this bunch, who seek to pull the old 'bait and switch', pretending to be nice Mums and Dads instead of people who would like to stone to death others they don't approve of.