Forrest Gumpp,

Here's a biographical article on Women's Forum Australia. Melinda Tankard Reist was one of its founding directors.

http://blog.cannold.com/2011/09/womens-forum-australia.html

Perhaps the reason Tankard-Reist does not disclose her personally-held beliefs is that she knows that as soon as she says the word ‘Christian’ her views will be immediately discounted, as you reveal later in your article when you say ‘We have a human right to live free of religion and the imposition of religious morality.’
Theoretically, I could just as easily argue that I have a ‘right’ to live free of humanist, secular imposition. But unfortunately that right is not able to be upheld, since humanists feel they are currently in a privileged position where they can impose their opinions on everybody else without right of reply.

One thing that secularists, humanists or atheists (or any other category where God is discounted) need to realise is that they do not have a monopoly (yet) on these debates. We do not live in a totalitarian society (yet) and until then, you need to listen to other people’s opinions and realise that yours is not the only one. You don’t have to agree, but you do have to listen to and put up with different points of view. That’s democracy.

If God made us, then what He says will be in our best interests. The overwhelming evidence is that when you leave the path of his commands, you are living a life that is not in your best interests. You don’t need a religious viewpoint to see this. You just need to go in with your eyes open as the evidence is there: things like abortion, divorce and the sexualisation of women hurt men, women and children in our society. The list could go on and on.

Instead of ‘shooting the messenger’ and trying to look for reasons to discount her views because of what she ‘believes’, try looking at what Tankard-Reist is on about. Look at the material she presents – weigh it up – does she have evidence? Are her arguments compelling? Does she present truth? Perhaps the real issue in the attack on Tankard-Reist is that some are threatened by the thought that maybe she might be right.

hadassah89,
Now that's an interesting aspect to it.

Do feminists have an attitude that they want to learn something from MTR, or do they want to interrogate MTR, as a part of a process of condeming her and carrying out a feminist attack on her.

Conversely of course, could MTR ever learn anything from a feminist?

>>Instead of ‘shooting the messenger’ and trying to look for reasons to discount her views because of what she ‘believes’, try looking at what Tankard-Reist is on about.<<

Hear, hear. Judge a book by its contents, not its cover.

>>Look at the material she presents<<

I did that last night and would sooner stab myself in the eye with a spoon than repeat the experience.

>>weigh it up – does she have evidence?<<

Scant at best.

>>Are her arguments compelling?<<

Is the Pope a Protestant?

>>Does she present truth?<<

I'm sure she presents someone's version of truth: it's just that that someone makes their living as a village idiot.

>>Perhaps the real issue in the attack on Tankard-Reist is that some are threatened by the thought that maybe she might be right.<<

Perhaps, but it seems unlikely given that she is so obviously wrong.

Cheers,

Tony

hadassah89

nicely put.

hadassah89, runner,

This is even more nicely put:

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13244&page=0#228903