Preacher "prepares" Costello

[Lusankya]

Because, of course, we need even more reasons not to vote Liberal this election.

Pastor 'prepares' Costello

THE leader of a Christian group that advocates the destruction of mosques, casinos and bottle shops has met Peter Costello to "prophetically prepare" the Treasurer for the prime ministership.

Mr Costello and John Howard held private meetings with Catch the Fire leader Danny Nalliah in August, the same month the Prime Minister met with the leaders of the Exclusive Brethren, which prohibits voting and modern technology.

Mr Nalliah said in a letter to Christians that the Lord had told him to spend "personal time" with Mr Howard and to prepare Mr Costello as the "future prime minister".

He had a "one-to-one meeting with Peter Costello on Thursday, August 9 and John Howard on Friday, August 10".

A spokesman for Kevin Rudd said he was concerned about the "closeness of the Exclusive Brethren and Catch the Fire groups to Howard government ministers".

Mr Howard would not comment and Mr Nalliah did not return calls.

A spokesman for Mr Costello confirmed he had met Mr Nalliah many times.

"The Treasurer has met with Danny Nalliah on a number of occasions and has publicly supported his successful appeal against prosecution under Victoria's religious vilification laws."

In a second letter justifying his support for the Coalition to fellow Christians, Mr Nalliah said he was well justified in attacking Labor because they supported homosexuality and abortion.

"I have attached a letter from Mr Rudd to one of his constituencies, where he declares Labor's full support for homosexuality, including the amending of current laws if elected, to support homosexuals," he says.

The Catch The Fire ministries sparked a row with the Islamic Council of Victoria in 2002 when it claimed in a newsletter that Muslims were demons training to make Australia an Islamic state, that the Koran promoted violence and that Muslims derived money from drug dealing.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Mr Nalliah and colleague Daniel Scot had vilified Islam under the state's 2002 Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.

However, the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed the order, ruling the VCAT had not used the proper legal test for incitement and so sent it back for a review, where the dispute was mediated.

Mr Costello wrote a letter of support to Mr Nalliah during his legal battle.

The Howard Government has been under fire for meeting with extreme right-wing groups after it was revealed the Prime Minister met Bruce Hales, the elect vessel or leader of the Exclusive Brethren, and other leading members of the reclusive sect in August.

Australian Federal Police are investigating expenditure before the 2004 election of $370,000 on pro-Liberal and anti-Greens advertising by Willmac Enterprises, a company linked to the Brethren.

Sect members are prohibited from voting, attending university and having televisions, radios, computers or mobile phones. Contact with family members who leave the church is also banned.

The Opposition Leader has labelled the Brethren an extremist cult and called on Mr Howard to reveal what was discussed in his meeting with its senior members.

[Darth Wong]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

[Walsh]

I wonder if their "personal time" together involved a bit of rub 'n' tug in a public toilet, knowing those fundies...

Good on Rudd for sticking by gay rights, it's taken far too long.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Well, you are dealing with a conservative party here that boot licked Bush all the way and people actually voted for them in for the last few elections.

[Ford Prefect]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Probably because by now, the only people voting Liberal are those who are voting Liberal because they're the Liberal party. Something which I've noticed is that in Australia (or at least Tasmania), whole families tend to choose a party and stick with them for life.

[Walsh]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Probably because by now, the only people voting Liberal are those who are voting Liberal because they're the Liberal party. Something which I've noticed is that in Australia (or at least Tasmania), whole families tend to choose a party and stick with them for life.

Indeed. I have heard quite a few people say "I'll always vote *insert party*", fucking stupidity. Also, based on my anecdotal experience, age seems to correlate directly with a person's probability of voting Liberal.

Also, I am curious to see how much of the two-party preferred vote slides to labour after Howard fucks off. Could the Liberals cope without him?

[Drooling Iguana]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Because said right-wing extremist is a Man of God, and therefore if you criticise him in any way that makes you just as bad as he is!

Because getting in touch with your faith and spiritual side is always a good thing, and if it isn't then you were never a "true" member of your given religion anyway.

[Darth Wong]

I think it's more complicated than that, and probably worth study, although I'm not in that field. For some reason, even if Christian moderates disagree with the propaganda of their own extremists, they are totally unwilling to view those extremists as bad people, which means that association with them does not carry the kind of negative connotations that association with non-Christian extremist groups would have.

[Drooling Iguana]

Maybe it's because part of them knows how nonsensical their belief system is, but after a lifetime of having it constantly drilled into them that religion is a good thing, that non-believers are hollow, emotionless shells and/or just hate God and are rebelling, that god == good and good == god and that everything related to religion is good by definition that they're unwilling to abandon it and thus crave any validation they can get that the beliefs they've invested so much into aren't as stupid as they think they are in their "weaker moments." While religious extremists may regularly do horrible things, they also provide this validation in spades, so it all cancels out.

Now, at this point I'd normally ask any religious members of this forum to correct me if I'm wrong, but fuck it. I was baptised, I went to church every Sunday for most of my life, I went to Catholic school for a good portion of my education, I've been to confession, I've been to Sunday school, I was even an altar boy for a few years. Just because I realise that it was all bullshit now shouldn't make me any less qualified to talk about the religious mindset and what's wrong with it.

Sure, most Christians are generally decent people, but that's only because most human beings are generally decent people and even Christianity isn't enough to override that completely. That doesn't mean it isn't a thoroughly negative construct that has brought nothing good into the world that wouldn't have come along anyway, and has piled pain and suffering onto humanity like there's no tomorrow.

I think I got a bit side-tracked there and said a lot of things that aren't really pertinent to this particular thread, but I still think they need to be said so I won't edit them out.

[Archaic`]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Probably because by now, the only people voting Liberal are those who are voting Liberal because they're the Liberal party. Something which I've noticed is that in Australia (or at least Tasmania), whole families tend to choose a party and stick with them for life.

I'm voting Liberal, but based on economic issues (including work choices, which I see as a lesser of two evils), nuclear policy, Labour's pandering to enviro-wackos (all for reduction of our carbon emissions, but Labour's 60% target is something that can only be an attempt to buy young votes. It's not realistic or viable in the least), and the simple fact that I dislike Rudd even.

Having said that...Howard himself is an absolute dick as far as social issues are concerned, and Costello is worse. With any luck, they'll both lose their seats, and we'll see Turnbull emerge as PM. Not holding my breath waiting for that though.

[Lusankya]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Well, I was reading through the comments to the article, and it seemed that most of the responses were either people expressing their disgust with the Liberals, or people who seem too naive to think that it's no more than the politicians "meeting with their constituents". Most of the people in the latter category called themselves "Bob from Queensland" or "Jim from Sydney", which doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Well, you are dealing with a conservative party here that boot licked Bush all the way and people actually voted for them in for the last few elections.

Well, in all fairness to the Australian people, last election it was Howard vs The Guy Who Assaulted the Taxi Driver. And the last few Labor leaders have had decent honeymoon periods (even Latham), so it's not that people haven't been considering change. It's just that the Labor party's been hideously incompetent.

Having said that...Howard himself is an absolute dick as far as social issues are concerned, and Costello is worse. With any luck, they'll both lose their seats, and we'll see Turnbull emerge as PM. Not holding my breath waiting for that though.

We can always dream. I just hope Turnbull manages to keep his seat so he'll be in a position to become opposition leader in 2-5 years.

[Dartzap]

Blimey. Pity the Governor General cant intervene these days.... I'm pretty sure the media here would have a field day if a potential PM was consulting with loonies. (Extreme ones anyway, "normal" religion is still acceptable)

[Lusankya]

Blimey. Pity the Governor General cant intervene these days.... I'm pretty sure the media here would have a field day if a potential PM was consulting with loonies. (Extreme ones anyway, "normal" religion is still acceptable)

Costello's not a potential PM. Howard probably has dark satanic rituals in place to animate his corpse on the off chance that he dies while Costello's still next-in-line. That doesn't excuse Costello, but it might explain why nobody particularly cares.

[mr friendly guy]

Why isn't it more politically damaging for a politician to have ties to right-wing extremists?

Because the Liberals could be crewed by homophobes and racists, oh too late, but thats ok. As long as the economy is good.