It’s going to be another big year.
What can Christians expect from politics in 2022?
One thing is for certain, there will be no letup in the war on life, family and freedom.
I wish I had better news but enduring hardship with joy is part of the Gospel, even if not often preached.
We are going to need buckets of courage and resilience in 2022 and most likely for years to come.
Christians have faced worse in history and prevailed, so we look forward with hope. But we can’t sugar coat things.
Two federal parliamentary inquiries hang over from 2021 examining the Morrison Government’s Religious Discrimination Bill.
It is in turn a hangover from the 2017 same-sex marriage law change, which creates legal vulnerabilities for those who believe the truth about marriage and our children’s gender.
A glance through the list of submissions shows every LGBTIQA+ and pro-abortion group – many of them taxpayer-funded – lining up against Christians being free to speak and act on their beliefs about marriage, gender and life.
A well-organised coalition, which includes the “modern Liberals” of the Morrison government, is determined to neuter the bill before the election.
That both houses of Parliament are looking at a bill which, if it was not about freedom for Christians, would be unremarkable, is a tell.
Public hearings continue this month and both inquiries will report on February 4.
Even if the bill’s useful clauses, particularly the protection for Christian schools, make it through the inquiry process, the bill is expected to face stiff opposition in the Parliament from the Greens, Labor and the “modern Liberals”.
With an election due in either March or May at the latest, the chances of meaningful protections for freedom of religion being legislated are low.
The other unfinished business from 2021 is euthanasia. New South Wales was the last state standing.
But a bill to allow doctors to kill patients sailed through lower house of the New South Wales Parliament before Christmas.
An upper house committee is looking at it but passage will likely be a formality in coming weeks with the Legislative Council expected to also capitulate.
It’s ironic that one of the key drivers of same-sex marriage and abortion, independent MP Alex Greenwich, has also led what is shaping up as a successful euthanasia campaign.
He has faced very little opposition. There has been too much silence in the face of evil.
The war on children’s gender will continue in 2022.
Schools will keep teaching gender fluid ideology and run LGBTIQ+ indoctrination days called “Wear it Purple”.
Again, politicians remain largely silent. One Nation’s Mark Lathan and the Christian Democratic Party’s Fred Nile are exceptions.
Courageous Tasmanian Liberal Senator Claire Chandler is pushing a private Senator’s bill to save women’s and girls’ sport from the incursion of biological males but is getting no public support from Scott Morrison.
Sadly, this bill seems to be going nowhere, just as Queensland MP George Christensen’s bill to render medical care for babies born alive after botched abortions went nowhere.
There is no will and courage within the Liberal and National parties.
If a Labor-Greens government led by Anthony Albanese is elected, expect the radical left and the libertarian right to double down on anti-child, anti-life and anti-free speech legislation.
The Morrison government’s anaemic religious discrimination bill will be off the agenda and further restrictions on Christians will be on the cards if Albanese follows the lead of state Labor leaders like Daniel Andrews.
Albanese’s own left faction will demand this of him.
There will be elections in South Australia (March) and Victoria (October). Both governments, despite Stephen Marshall being Liberal and Daniel Andrews Labor, have backed abortion, euthanasia and criminalising parents for seeking to protect their children from LGBTIQA+ ideology.
Both governments deserve to be thrown out.
On a personal note, but one that will affect all Christians eventually, the anti-free speech legal case against me by two drag queens shows no sign of going away.
After almost two years and $70,000 in legal fees, it drags on (pun intended) with no end in sight.
This is going to be another big year for those who dare to tell the truth.
Today a bloke won best actress at the Golden Globes.
As Charles Wesley wrote from his death bed to the young British politician William Wilberforce, let’s not be weary of doing good.
Happy New Year!
Lyle Shelton is Director of Campaigns and Communications for the Christian Democratic Party. To keep in touch with Lyle and the CDP, sign up here.