Heyyyy wait a minute there young Webby :)

"Australia needs a traditional Catholic influenced ALP"

grrr ... even I don't claim that we need a 'name_the_denomination' influenced politics. I would be happy if politicians spent more time in 'quiet times' between themselves and the Lord, rather than pandering to a specific denomination. Christians pretty much are of one heart on the issue of protecting unborn life arn't they ?

We all might do well to read what Naliah actually said..... and it's nothing like the 'rumor' that got to me over the weekend which said "Danny Naliah believes he is the reincarnation of the prophet Samuel" -not a bit....

http://www.windfarm.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=70

His email is there.

His 'prediction' that Howard will win is also conditional "If the body of Christ unites in prayer" etc...

Matheson is reading more into Nalliah's words than should be.

Family First is Pentecostalist, the Liberal Party is for former Baptists who become Anglican as part fo the social climb eg Costello. The DLP which was a mainly traditional Catholic breakaway from the ALP visited all the Protestant groupings during the 50s and 1960s and they didn;t want to pitch in.
Queit times for prayer are good however one should always pander to the Catholic Church ( which is not a denomination).
Before Protestant 'evangelicalism' in the USA , and now sadly here in Oz, became the fad it is, the Southern baptists used to support Roe VS Wade and contraceptive pills simply on the basbis that catholics were opposed. Happy now that Baptists ahve joined the trolley bus but they were slow getting out of the blocks.

It is also good that Catholic Archbishops Barry Hickey of Perth WA and Cardinal George Pell of Sydney say publicly to politicians to remember Church teaching when voting on life issues. Taht caused both state parliaments to call the two archbishops before them on charges of contempt !! Both were recently exhonorated thankfully. So much for leaving things to allegedly praying politicians ( many of whom are renegade Catholic and rnegade Protestants who say they pray etc , and perhaps they do... but then go on to vote for abortion and RU486 etc etc).
To be of one heart one must be aligned with moral truths in terms of all the dimensions of the 10 commandments.

One of the reasons - probably the main reason - why I follow all this god-bothering stuff, is that this century will see the growth and proliferation of various forms of religion-as-a-weapon. So in the traditions of know thy enemy, I feel obliged to try and keep up with the discussions,even though it can become incredibly mind-bending at times.

So Webby, can you please expand on this throwaway line of yours?

>>one should always pander to the Catholic Church (which is not a denomination)<<

If it is not a "denomination" (n. a group of religious congregations having its own organization and a distinctive faith), then what is it?

But even more, why is it important whether it is, or isn't, a denomination?

The Catholic Church is not a derivative of any other organisation. Hence it is THE nom-ination. Those who broke away 1500 years ago are referred to as de-nominations.
It is important in terms of knowing that the Catholic Church is the ONE TRUE Church, founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.
'Know they enemy'? I would ahve thought that the evidence is in for the 19th and 20th centuries that the perpetrators of genocide are the non -religious:
Hitler
Mai Tse Tung
Pol Pot
Napoleon
Josef Stalin
Many other non -religious persons whoare honest actually side with Catholics on pro life and other issues to their credit.

Sorry Webby, that piece of attempted verbal chicanery simply doesn't work.

The word "denomination" comes to us straight from the Latin "denominare", a combination of de- "completely" + nominare "to name."

As long ago as 1398 it was used to define "a naming," or "a calling by anything other than its proper name, metonymy."

So I'm afraid your protestation that:

>>The Catholic Church is not a derivative of any other organisation. Hence it is THE nom-ination. Those who broke away 1500 years ago are referred to as de-nominations...<<

... falls flat on its face.

I don't particularly care one way or the other whether you believe your religion to be the "one and only",. But I do care when people misuse and manipulate the English language simply to make their point.

Webby,

You are mistaken to label the mass-murderers Hitler, Mai (sic) Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Napolean, and Josef Stalin as "non-religious." It's a very tired argument. Hitler and the Nazis were, if anything, neo-pagan. (Sorry pagans, but you can kiss my hairy little butt as well.) The Communists treated the works of Marx and Lenin, (and Mao in China and Cambodia,) as virtually sacred. Like the Nazis, a cult of personality raised the leader to god-like status, and the party took the place, both functionally and symbolically, of the church.

As for Napolean, one could criticize him and others such as Robbespierre, who were involved in the worst excesses of the French Revolution, as having irrationally high expectations of the power of rationality. They replaced a faith in god with a faith in rationality, rather than having a reasonable, logical understanding of their own limits, and the limits of what a society based on rationality could achieve. Hence, and sadly ironically, they followed the ideal of rationality in a religious manner. What was actually needed was more rationality.

As for abortion, I, like you, would like to see this despicable practice come to an end. However I, (interestingly) like many religious politicians who you are criticizing for their apparent hypocrisy, understand that to ban it would cause far greater misery and force many expectant mothers into awful desperation. A much simpler solution, but one which Catholics can't seem to get their heads around, would be to encourage people to be a little smarter about using contraception. (Doesn’t cover rape or abuse but that’s another matter.) The concept fits in perfectly with the ideal of personal responsibility. And frankly, if I can remember to wear a condom while having sex while being absolutely tanked, then it shouldn’t be too hard for the rest of society.

Pericles,

You have highlighted just one of many misunderstandings Christians have of the Latin and ancient Greek roots of terms that are fundamental to their faith. Keep it up.