Media Release
Call for Support for World Day of Prayer & Fasting
7 September 2013 - Australia's Election Day
Pope Francis has called for a world day of prayer and penance for an end to the war in Syria on Saturday 7 Sept, the same day as the Australian Federal Election. Ps Matt Prater, chairman of the Billion Souls Revival Prayer Call team, is calling all Christian people of goodwill to support this historic interdenominational call for prayer, fasting and repentance. Prater became a national figure this week after questioning the Prime Minister on Q & A last Monday night about his biblical inconsistency in his support for homosexual marriage. This YouTube explains why 'marriage equality' is a misnomer.
Ps Matt Prater said, "We are very excited to support this global interdenominational call to pray and fast for an end to the conflict in Syria. The team behind the National Day of Prayer and Fasting previously called, with other key international prayer leaders, for 40 days of prayer, fasting and repentance from 6 August-14 September 2013. The 14 September is Yom Kippur, Israel's National Day of Atonement and will be the first ever International Day of Repentance. We were inspired by the Australian Prayer Network's earlier call to prayer for the Australian Federal Elections, so we are already praying and fasting at this time. Our key verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14. We feel that this call by the leader of the Catholic Church is in the timing and purpose of God. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and so we ask Christians, both in Australia and around the world, to pray for peace to prevail in Syria. This is of course also an opportunity to pray for our Australian elections at the same time."
David Rowsome, a key organiser of the Billion Souls Revival Prayer Call said, "The Billion Souls Revival Prayer Call focuses on praying for four things:
1. Revival and transformation of the nations of the world.
2. A billion people to find Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.
3. An end to abortion and for God to turn back the global tide of death and immorality.
4. A multiplication of prayer, praise and worship to God across the world as never before.
We believe that Pope Francis' global call for Prayer, Fasting and Penance is a direct answer to our prayer for a global multiplication of prayer as never before. This is also an historic time for Australia as we have our elections on 7 September. We have a Prime Minister who has promised that if he is re-elected he will introduce 'homosexual marriage' within 100 days of being in office. Just as violence leads to more violence, so immorality begets more immorality. 'Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people'.
Australia has a strong Christian heritage as a nation so we ask that as you pray for peace in Syria, you also pray for revival and reformation for Australia. The Prince of Peace has all the answers for Syria and all the nations of the world. To God be the glory."
Ps Matt Prater: +61 433 192 267
David Rowsome: +61 7 3422 0969
www.billionsoulsrevivalprayercall.org
www.facebook.com/BillionSoulsRevivalPrayerCall
'Judas Kiss' Could cost PM
by: Adam Ch'ng
From: The Australian
September 05, 2013
If there is actually such a thing as the "Christian vote", on Monday night Kevin Rudd lost it.
For many, the Prime Minister's spirited defence of same-sex marriage on ABC1's Q&A program was a watershed moment.
Kerryn Phelps hailed it as a "historical moment in Australian politics" and penned a 475-word article of thanks to Rudd.
For Phelps and so many other LGBTIQ (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/intersexed/questioning) voters, this was the "sweetest victory of all".
Yet for so many Christian voters, this was the moment that the sheep's clothing came off the wolf's back.
At 7.30pm that Monday, more than 35,000 Christians gathered across 339 churches in every state and territory of Australia to watch Rudd and Tony Abbott address the Christian constituency.
Not yet knowing what was to come, many of us sympathised with Rudd's apparently genuine admission that: "Many in the Christian churches may be disappointed with some of the decisions that I have taken as Prime Minister or as a person. I have also undertaken those decisions in good and prayerful conscience, even though people in equal prayerful conscience may disagree with some of those conclusions."
If the night had ended there, many of us would have been disappointed but at least sympathetic towards Rudd's clumsy attempt to navigate through a complex moral minefield. What came next, no one could have foreseen.
Not more than three hours later, Rudd publicly crucified a mainstream Christian pastor for questioning the PM's backflip on marriage policy.
Instead of the "gentle Kevin meek and mild" we'd seen earlier that night, Rudd now not only failed to directly answer the question but mercilessly lambasted the pastor, whose personal views were irrelevant to his response.
According to Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies, Rudd was "profoundly wrong in his understanding of the Bible. He misquoted the Bible and attributed to the Bible something that Aristotle said (that slavery is a natural condition)."
While Rudd's gross distortion of biblical truth was deeply concerning, it was his modus operandi and treatment of the Christian church that was offensive.
In retrospect, the Prime Minister's apparently gracious words of 7.30pm were akin to Judas's kiss before his 10.30pm betrayal. Voters can forgive a prime minister for changing his or her mind on even an important policy issue. On Monday night, however, Rudd treated every Christian voter in Australia with absolute contempt.
Far from being some moment of great integrity and strong leadership, the Prime Minister's visceral attack on the Christian church was nothing more than cheap political opportunism.
It was this Prime Minister's attempt at creating his own "misogyny speech", with the same confected moral outrage against a fictitious straw man. It was political desperation on steroids.
With the Labor Party heading for electoral wipe-out on Saturday, Rudd's attempt at leveraging the same-sex marriage debate as a Hail Mary pass was always doomed to fail. It has irreparably damaged his once close relationship with the Christian constituency across Australia.
In fact, across the course of the election campaign, Rudd has gradually severed ties with the people with whom he identified so closely in 2009.
According to former ALP senator John Black, Rudd has neglected the "young working-class families in the outer suburbs, many of whom go to church and believe in God".
"Frankly, I haven't seen Kevin Rudd talking to those people a lot during the course of this campaign," Black said.
In June 2010, Rudd was torn down by his own party over his mismanagement of the emissions trading scheme and resource super-profits tax. His gross lack of political judgment cost him the confidence of his "gang of four" and caucus.
Unfortunately, that same lack of judgment appears to have motivated his neglect of vast swaths of the electorate who were supporters of Kevin07.
Joe de Bruyn, national secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, cautioned that "Labor runs the risk that people who traditionally vote Labor will not vote Labor because they don't like the (same-sex marriage) issue. So Labor is actually running the risk, the more they prioritise this, people will vote against it."
On Monday, the Prime Minister ran that risk and crashed through. So this Saturday, he should crucify any expectation of political salvation.
Adam Ch'ng is a workplace relations lawyer and policy adviser in Melbourne.