VATICAN CITY (RNS) Nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality are threats to world peace — but so are abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage, Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement released by the Vatican Tuesday Dec. 11 2007.

“The Human Family, a Community of Peace” is this year’s papal message for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1.

Presenting the nuclear family as the “first and indispensable teacher of peace” and the “primary agency of peace,” the 15-page document links sexual and medical ethics to international relations. “Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of new life … constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace,” Benedict writes.

Read the article from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life here.

Here’s the image as a downloadable poster to use and distribute.

It’s a 1.6MB PDF. When it downloads into a new window, use ’save as’ to put it on your own computer, from where you can distribute and display it.

Male headship has been worshipped across patriarchies for millennia. Divine authority has recently been invoked to justify keeping one sex in power over another in the Sydney Anglican Annual Synod:

“The church’s annual synod last night reaffirmed its support for the disputed doctrine that the “relationship of loving and sacrificial leadership of a husband and the intelligent voluntary submission of a wife was the biblical pattern of marriage”.

However, some men in the church had twisted the teaching for their own ends, said Sydney Anglican, Lesley Ramsay, who has led opposition to the ordination of women priests and bishops.”

Read the rest of Linda Morris’ Sydney Morning Herald article here.

The insurrection in Burma is being documented day by day at Wikipedia.

Over three quarters of a million people have signed the petition here. Addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao, it reads:

To Chinese President Hu Jintao and the UN Security Council:
We stand alongside the citizens of Burma in their peaceful protests. We urge you to oppose a violent crackdown on the demonstrators, and to support genuine reconciliation and democracy in Burma. We pledge to hold you accountable for any further bloodshed..

Keep the monks present where you live: download a stencil design from the just seeds website.

Beware of the God contains straight answers to your burning questions about who governs Australia. Where are our politicians coming from? What are their beliefs, motivations, agendas and allegiances? It is impossible to know the whole truth about politicians’ interests, but much can be gleaned from the public record. Researcher Chloe Martin presents a series of information sheets on the religio-political affiliations of Australian politicians.

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So why did Tony Abbott enter politics? As a way of ‘giving glory to God in the human world’? Or to get in touch with his inner ‘junkyard dog’?

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While coaching Sydney University’s reserve grade rugby team (1988-90), Tony Abbott lost his temper and punched player Joe Hockey, the new Minister for Workplace relations.

Abbott attended an Australian Union of Students conference in the mid-1970s, which had initiated a special “women’s room” for females to discuss political issues. “Tony used to stand outside the women’s room with his right-wing mates and loudly tell sexist and homophobic jokes,” according to lawyer David Patch, who is a Labor candidate in the federal seat of Wentworth.

After a narrow defeat in the university senate elections in 1976 - Mr Abbott’s first year of an economics-law degree - he kicked in a glass panel door.

These are some of the fascinating facts that DIDN’T make it into the newest Information sheet, meticulously researched by Chloe Martin. Check out what DID make the cut here.

Download your handy PDF info sheet on Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott. It’s a small file, so you can easily email it to friends.

Or check out what his fellow students recalled of his university days for the Sydney Sun Herald in 2004.

In the news for citing ‘human rights’ in protecting the shadowy Exclusive Brethren from scrutiny regarding secret donations to guess whose political party, Senator Eric Abetz bears watching.

Beware of the God researcher Chloe Martin has compiled a dossier for your information, covering some of his notable attributes. Here, for your easy download and distribution, is your handy paper on the religio-political background of the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry & Conservation.

He’s only been a senator since 2002. But Guy Barnett is now one of the most visible backbenchers in the Australian government.

Since he entered public life in 1994, arguing against decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania, Guy Barnett’s main claim to fame has been the heterosexuals-only Marriage Act of 2004, which he recently followed up by organising for the ACT same-sex civil unions legislation to be crushed from above.

Parliamentary Convenor of the August 2006 ‘Australian Christian Heritage’ National Forum, Barnett’s interpretation of his Baptist faith brings a very particular emphasis to his political activism.

Where are Australian politicians coming from? What are their beliefs, motivations, agendas and allegiances?

It is impossible to know the whole truth about politicians’ interests, but much can be gleaned from the public record. Researcher Chloe Martin presents an information sheet on the religio-political affiliations of Australian politician Kevin Andrews.

You know he’s the new Minister for Immigration and Citizenship – here’s what you probably don’t know.

Presented in simple, downloadable PDF format, for ease of printing and email distribution.

Beware of the God will return early in 2007 with a fresh report by researcher Chloe Martin. Her newest investigation reveals the phenomenon of religiously-motivated anti-abortion activism which uses feminist language to advance its aims.

In the last decade it was still seen as prudent to publicly state:

‘…[F]eminists have failed to realise that the male gender role (besides paternity) is to pioneer, risk and create.  Once males created aircraft, risked flying in them, and thus ensured that flying was safe, feminists whined and said: “We demand equal opportunity to be pilots”.  It was the same with horses, wagons and cars, medicine, surgery, art and music.  Males pioneer, women follow.  The greatest failure of feminists may be that they have aborted many of their babies and have failed to hold their men.’
 
Babette Francis, ‘Age’, 17 January, 1994

But these days, claims of woman-centredness are more likely to characterise the activities of those who seek to reduce womens’ reproductive choices.

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Meanwhile, there are over 100 essays, images and articles collected here, examining convergences of religion and politics around the world. Check ‘em out!

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And downloadable here, your surprise present: a completely off-topic, free, screen wallpaper, of which the image above is but a tiny detail. It’s ready to use on your computer at 1024 x 768 pixels.

Marjane Satrapi was a little girl in Tehran when the Shah was deposed, and the Islamic Revolution became the theocracy which persists today. Her beautiful book, Persepolis, traverses all of life: history, politics, friendship, war, and wanting to be a prophet when you grow up.

Persepolis and its sequel, Persepolis 2, are graphic novels published by Random House’s imprint, Pantheon. More here.

The two books are newly available in one volume, but that information doesn’t seem to have filtered through to the publisher’s site editor, or even to Amazon.com.

Maybe just ask at your local bookshop!

It’s one thing for Ian Harper, head of Australia’s Fair Pay Commission to say that God will help him set the minimum wage.

But in Colorado, TV ads against a $1.70 raise in the minimum wage suggest that God is a member of the chamber of commerce. Have a look.

Assemblies of God-linked party Family First are fielding candidates in all 88 Lower House seats as well as all 8 Upper House regions of Victoria, in a bid to ensure that only one kind of family is counted.

Polemical Christian Pastor Danny Nalliah stood for the party in the 2004 Federal election, and is campaigning hard in 2006 :

“To Christian believers state-wide Mr Nalliah says they must NOT VOTE for Labor, Greens or Democrats because of the blatant humanist anti-Christian ideologies and agendas of these political parties. […]

…we have to cast our vote to the party which is able to give us the best possible outcome to protect our Freedoms, Rights, and Christian Moral Values in our rapidly deteriorating pluralistic society where right is considered wrong and wrong is labeled right […]

Most people are very naïve when it comes to voting and need proper leadership and guidance to vote the right way!”

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If you’re disinclined to be guided by Pastor Nalliah, perhaps you’d like to
download the A4 PDF poster above, and send it to friends, or pop it up in a window.

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More fascinating Godpolitics news from the Victorian state elections:

RADICAL sect the Exclusive Brethren has intervened in the state election campaign, buying large newspaper advertisements to decry parties with “radical and extreme policies”.

Authorised by Brethren member Ernest Morren, advertisements in The Age and the Herald Sun yesterday were headed “Warning: the future of Victoria is at stake on Saturday”. The ad also appears in The Age on Page 5 today.

The move came as New Zealand Opposition Leader Donald Brash resigned amid claims he sought to cover up a book detailing links between his conservative National Party and the contentious sect.

While the Victorian newspaper advertisements mention no party by name, they are clearly aimed at the Greens, warning that “persons promoting radical and extreme policies could gain control of the upper house” in Victoria. The radical policies named include those allegedly promoting drug use, same-sex marriages and extreme social policies, and opposing new dams.

“Do you want our young people subjected to homosexual education programs?” the advertisements ask. “Don’t take a risk with Victoria’s future.”

Read all of Michael Bachelard and Kenneth Nguyen’s Age article of 24 November 2006 here.

Many thanks to Lisa L for the tip.

“…“We’ve got a born-again prime minister,” trumpets David Mainse, the founder of Canada’spremier Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street. They see [Canadian PM Stephen Harper] as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep — so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation.

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During this summer’s Middle East war, Harper reversed decades of Canadian foreign policy with his adamant support for Israel, even after its jets smashed a clearly marked United Nations observation post, killing a veteran Canadian peacekeeper. His admirers argue that steadfastness could turn the burgeoning bond between evangelical Christians and Jews into a powerful and unprecedented alliance that could leave him unbeatable at the ballot box. […] Harper’s stand has also raised more unsettling questions. What does it mean if and when a believer in the infallibility of Biblical prophecy comes to power and backs a damn-the-torpedoes course in the Middle East? Does it end up fuelling overenthusiastic end-timers who feel they have nothing to lose in some future conflagration, helping speed the world on Hagee’s fast track to Armageddon?

Read Marci McDonald’s whole comprehensive investigation, Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons in the October 2006 edition of Toronto’s Walrus magazine.

If you like this Sydney skyline image, download it it as a screensaver, ready to use on your computer at 1024 x 768 pixels.

OR if you want a customised version featuring your own city, send a skyline sillhouette to:
moderator@bewareofthegod.com
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Or check out more free downloadables over at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

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The Beware of the God custom screensavers so far include Houston, NYC, Seattle, Florence, stormy Sydney and Cunjurong Point.

Check them out here.