Gary (Garnet) Milne has done it again. This time, he has used crib notes from the UK Christian Institute in one of his CACU media releases. What is the UK Christian Institute? It's the United Kingdom answer to the Maxim Institute, although far more honest about its provenance. The Christian Institute has campaigned against same-sex adoption law parental responsibilities and the recently-passed Civil Relationships Bill. It failed, on both counts. Amusingly, Milne has indicated the "New Zealand" Christian Right's total dependency on exported rhetoric, ideology and tactics from overseas. It's usually the United States, but this time, it's Britain. Milne recently argued that New Zealand was descending into a "new Baalism." However, this "new Baalism" has been around for the last decade or so. You see, Milne reproduced his odd observation from the work of one Richard Hollway, a Christian Institute symposium speaker, who made the following assertion nine years ago. Hollway presented a paper entitled "The Breakdown of Britain" (21.09.95), later reprinted on the Christian Institute website at the following location. Of particular interest is the following quotation: "[The] new "Baalism" of the second half of the century has failed. Esslin was writing in the mid-sixties. What followed? We witnessed a new "Baalism" in the West - an immersion in the stream of nature, whether through sexual arousal and release or through blood. Nor was that so unlike the practices and style of the ancient Canaanite religion that the Old Testament prophets inveighed against. In those days, as now, this was generally an unsatisfactory method of discovering meaning. The Hebrew prophets, indeed, pitted the full weight of their rhetoric and ire against God's people following the Baals. They inveighed against abandoning the true God, child sacrifice, female and male prostitution, divorce, violence and the ill treatment of the poor. Today we approve of their indictments against violence and injustice, but think that Godlessness, child sacrifice through abortions, sexual licence and divorce are legitimate 20th century options. But the prophets argued a linkage between religious, moral and social distress. Your long-term quality of public life depended on your personal beliefs and private behaviour - a lesson for today. If you cheat on your wife, why should you not cheat in your business? What nonsense to suggest that the private life of public figures does not matter." Milne has simply paraphrased the above, without citing its actual source. Presumably, this fringe sect 'minister' uses the above as justification for a scurrilous attack on Chris Carter and Peter Kaiser, who have been happily involved in a monogamous relationship for the last three decades or so. He rants and raves about the fact that Chris was only five years older than Peter when they started seeing each other, and Peter was seventeen. In case Milne has forgotten, sixteen has been the official New Zealand age of consent for the last eighteen years, since passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986. Why doesn't Milne similarly object to heterosexual males in their twenties or thirties who become involved with female sixteen year-olds? It seems to have something to do with plugs, according to a bizarre CACU graphic currently on their website. Sources: Richard Hollway "The State of the Nation and Time for Action". Originally presented as "The Breakdown of Britain" (21.09.05) at Christian Institute London Seminar: http://www.christian.org.uk/html-publications/nation.htm CACU: Campaign Against Civil Unions: http://www.civil-unions.org Craig Young - 8th December 2004