Hi Helen
I don't actually think the issue is one of forgiveness. Do you really think Tony Abbott needs to be forgive for having pre-marital sex all those years ago... because he is also a Christian?
And as the leader of the opposition i think it is good he has an opinion on this moral issue. He would know his opinion to be unpopular electorally... and I don't necessarily agree with it... but hey he is entitle to his opinion and it is consistent with his faith.

The hysteria over what Tony Abbott advice to his daughters, is a clear example of how some women, will verbal men, and add meaning that is not there.

They will extrapolate the orginal intention and in the process the what was really meant gets trampled by the oestrogen fueled stampede.

So it takes a really brave man, that is prepared to offer his opinion in this socalled patriarchial society(sarcasm).

The greatest sin of Tony Abbott in this matter is that he conviced his girlfriend at the time to put the child up for adoption for fear it might ruin his own political ambitions.
Shame on you Mr Abbott, you have absolutely no platform for giving advice on how people should live their lives.

Here comes the self righteous pontificators who obviously very keen to take Abbott out of context. The fact that in answer to a question from a women's magazine he said the best advice to a daughter is not to give your virginity away lightly has got the feminist in hysterics. He could be like many secularist and encourage their daughters to spread their legs cheaply which seems to be the only other logical conclusion. No wonder the baby killing rate is so high. Any half reasonable father would give the same advice as Abbott. Those who threw away their own virginity like an empty milk bottle knows this better than anyone. No wonder the godless religion of Islam is growing so fast with views and distortions like the author of this article.

Abbott can be called a hypocrite. In his own defence he could say that he would like young people to learn from his mistakes, but nobody under 25 is going to take any notice of that. They all think they no better than oldies.

The point is, however, Abbott's advice is not bad. Most young people act more like barn yard animals (whe it comes to sex) these days.

You have got to be kidding Helen Dale. If you've been forgiven for a past literary controversy - which in fairness we can put down to youth and naivety - then why can't the same courtesy be given to Tony Abbott? People make mistakes in their youth. Some are bigger than others but it doesn't really matter. They then grow up and as mature adults they can express their opinions on things like morality.

If you note that shame based societies have high suicide rates then how on earth can you advocate that we shame Tony Abbott?