Dear Conservative Member of Parliament I am writing to you to address views that seem common amongst your peers.

As a tax payer, rate payer, citizen and proud Australian I am concerned that you seem determined to stagnate our nation until it reverts to an undeveloped backwater. I have a keen interest in the history of nations, in their political, social and scientific development and what I have observed in twenty plus years of study is that successful nations move forward, not backward. I understand that being focused on the word of law in a religious text means that you may believe history is somewhat unnecessary but please be a good Christian and show the patience of Job while I explain. Historically, nations that experiment socially, which have strong emphasis on developmental programs and increase the rights of the individuals, progress faster than those that instead doggedly maintain traditions for the sake of, well, tradition. Examples are the British development of democracy, the flourishing of artistic, legal, scientific and mechanical experimentation that occurred during the Renaissance and the American New Deal. Nations that have fought against social change are also notable for their place in our modern world, for example, Afghanistan, Qatar and Somalia. You may have already noticed some of the obvious and simple truths of my assertion, that if you had a choice, you wouldnt be moving to any of the latter nations. Ironically, those latter nations governments (although that is a strong term considering the lack of governance they have) have a strong belief in adherence to the letter of religious texts, in dogmatically applying rigid interpretations of a holy book to everyday lives. It may be at this point that you cry out, righteously and with great zeal, Those nations are not Christian, which is why they fail! That might be a valid point except you fail to note that Ethiopia, which is dominated by Christianity has been a failed state for close to half a century or more, so long in fact that it no longer registers with most conservatives as a Christian nation at all but is instead characterized by its location. Further evidence that Christianity itself solves no problems is Mexico, where cartels (deeply religious cartels mind you) run riot, beheading their enemies, the police and the general public but proudly take confession afterwards. Personally I would think that a persons life should be worth more than fifteen hail Marys and a Sunday hymn. Which brings me to my next point, life.

Conservative Member of Parliament, my life is mine, it is not yours to tell me what to do with, the only person who has ever had any right to determine my life, my right to life or my right to exit life stage left is my mother and when I get too addled to think, when I cannot remember my name, my children or my life, then the ones I love also have a right to take that life away and give me merciful release from oblivion. Conservative Member of Parliament, the scriptures in a book you believe in have no power over me, they do not determine my actions or my responsibilities. I do that. If by chance I am wrong in this, then I wont hold you culpable, Im good like that. I find that there is great irony in having conservative, pro-life politicians being the first to raise their hands when it comes to voting for the deployment of troops to far off nations where undoubtedly many will lose their lives. I find it ironic that despite the protestations by Conservative Members of Parliament on the sacredness of life they are happy to consign others to misery and torment in an immigration camp, an earthly purgatory for crimes they have not yet committed resulting in mental grief so pronounced that these individuals, who would travel across the world through countless dangers to find a better life in our nation, take their own lives in despair resulting in (if you believe the text you live your life by) damnation to eternity in Hell. So the title of Pro-life, Member, seems a little far-fetched to me. So, what leads you honorable Member of Parliament to have such views, to wail and gnash your teeth at the prospect of having people determine their own fates, of controlling their own bodies and choosing to begin a new and better life in our nation, despite not having found the secret location where they could actually process the paperwork required to apply for legal asylum? You protest at the idea that a man and a man or a woman and a woman want to share their lives together, to be wed and to stand proud of their love. You say that tradition demands that marriage is simply for a man and a woman and no exceptions. However; the institution of marriage predates Christianity by several thousand years at least and gay marriage has existed in almost every culture as a legally sanctioned union. Have you actually studied history Conservative Member of Parliament? While you may personally believe in what is written in a holy book, (whatever version tickles your fancy) the laws of this nation are to be made separate from sectarian authority. Therefore, you have no legal right to determine how two consenting adults of any gender can identify their relationship. Marriage is not just for the religious. If you are stuck for something to say worthy Member, worry not, for I have the answer for you. Conservative Member of Parliament, you are afraid. You fear what you do not know and understand and that is hardly surprising for you have been raised to fear the unknown and raised to ask no questions. You have been raised to accept, to submit to the authority of long dead demagogues and priests who held power over the poor and disenfranchised. In those long past days the rights of the common man were non-existent, the common men were slaves to the desires of the wealthy and those vested in holy garments. The loyal flock were controlled by the scepter and crook as surely as a shepherd gathers sheep.

And like sheep they were used, used for food, for their labor, until their efforts were spent and they were butchered and forgotten. Conservative Member or Parliament, do you seek to supplant yourself in the role of traditional shepherd? To dictate our movements, our decisions, what we eat and drink, where we have the right to live and who we spend our lives with? Do you project your fears onto the world around you and seek solace in chains of rigid interpretation? To stay safely cloistered in musty dreams of antiquity while all around you rots? Your fear has made you blind and in your blindness you have wandered far from a righteous path. Conservative Member of Parliament, by your own rules you have sinned. Your gluttony sees you accept donations, supplications and blatant lobbyist bribes while outside the poor starve, where is your temperance? Your envy sees you sneer at the freedoms espoused by those you deem radicals, where is your admiration for their efforts to make a better world? Your pride sees you dress in finery, humility and simple clothes would suit a noble Christian better. Your sloth has you sit idle while injustices rain down upon the poor, the homeless, the aged and the young. Where is your diligence to help those you represent and not just those that treat you with favours? And your wrath, it pulsates palpably as you stand on pulpits and and call for punishment, for imprisonment and destruction of all those who dare to be different. Where is your forgiveness? Compassion? Where are those things that made Jesus our Saviour? By forgiving example Jesus found his followers, your wrathful policies will bring you naught but violence and retribution. Conservative Member of Parliament, despite desires to the contrary, you are not among the best of us, only among the blinded, your vision for the future of our nation is a vision of decay, of slow decline into the annals of history as a failed state. You have forgotten the spirit of the laws you live by and instead are shackled to the fevered manipulations of worthless third noble sons, grasping at straws for power. Our nation and indeed our worlds future is not in the hands of a book, though the spirit of the rules is worthy, Conservative Member of Parliament, our nations future is in the hands of our children, let them love as they wish, play as they wish and live as they wish. It is not our part to shackle them with fears of distant past. You owe it to the future.

B.Groot 06-01-2014