{"id":28590,"date":"2012-01-17T04:59:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T18:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=28590"},"modified":"2012-01-18T22:00:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T12:00:17","slug":"mtrsues-part-deux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=28590","title":{"rendered":"#MTRsues Part Deux"},"content":{"rendered":"

More confusion<\/strong> : All of a twitter as legal threat to blogger adds spice to the public battle<\/a>, Bianca Hall, The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, January 18, 2012 | Legal threats as insults exchanged<\/a>, The Age<\/em>, January 18, 2012 | MTR Sues?<\/a> asks Dave Gaukroger @ Crikey. A bit headache-y, that one. Also, Dr. Cam’s Internet Grumpiness EXPLODES!<\/a> on the issue of MTR. Meanwhile, aside from a comment @ The Age<\/em>, MTR is keeping Mum.<\/p>\n

I’m confused.<\/p>\n

Farah Farouque writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A BLOGGER who characterised anti-porn activist Melinda Tankard Reist as a ”fundamentalist Christian” says she has been asked to apologise – or be sued.<\/p>\n

Tankard Reist – who briefed lawyers to warn off liberal blogger Jennifer Wilson – says it’s not being called Christian she objects to, but the claim that she is ”deceptive and duplicitous about her religious beliefs”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For her part, blogger Jennifer Wilson:<\/p>\n

…insists that author Tankard Reist, whose resume includes advising anti-abortion senator Brian Harradine, is loath to discuss her links to evangelical Baptism.<\/p>\n

”[Her] involvement with fundamentalist Christians opposed to abortion, contraception, surrogacy and homosexuality are well documented<\/a>, and I have to wonder why she’s singled me out at this point in time for writing about her religious beliefs,” she said in a post written after the lawyer’s letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FWIW, there seems to be little doubt that Melinda Tankard Reist (MTR) is a Baptist<\/strike> Christian [\u201cI have no denominational affiliation or church membership”<\/a>], one who regularly addresses Baptist gatherings and whose views, it would appear, are welcomed by Christians.<\/p>\n

In October 2011, the Brisbane launch of MTR’s book Big Porn Inc<\/em> was promoted<\/a> by the Priceless Life Centre — a pro-life\/anti-choice advisory service based in Queensland — as being one made by a ‘like-minded organisation’. (NB. PLC is a ‘Public Benevolent Institution’ and as such in receipt of a GST Concession, FBT Exemption and Income Tax Exemption.)<\/p>\n

In August 2011, she was a featured speaker<\/a> @ the Lifewell conference, “one helpful and wholistic strategy in restoring lives through Jesus”, organised by Enfield Baptist church in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

In May 2011, MTR addressed a yoof conference @ Inaburra school (a Christian educational facility established by the Menai Baptist Church) on the subject of social pressures upon young people (PDF<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In September 2010<\/a>, she took part in a Women’s Night @ Epping Baptist Church in NSW, “speaking on the effect of popular culture on young women and girls”, taking the ladies who assembled “on a confronting visual tour of images from the media and popular culture which girls are bombarded with”.<\/p>\n

In November 2009<\/a>, she addressed the Australian Christian Lobby\u2019s National Conference on the theme of \u2018Putting Kids First\u2019.<\/p>\n

In September 2009<\/a>, when Sheridan Voysey spoke about ‘The Quest for God’, he did so as one of several ‘Inspiring Christians’, including MTR, to address congregations at Belconnen Baptist Church in Canberra.<\/p>\n

Curiously, sometime after 2004, MTR was a signatory to the ‘Marriage Manifesto’, a document produced by the ‘National Marriage Coalition’ which, inter alia<\/em>, campaigns against same-sex marriage. Well, one version anyway: the copy of the 2008 Manifesto published on the Coalition website (PDF<\/a>) does not contain her name, while that published on that belonging to the Fatherhood Foundation (PDF<\/a>) does.<\/p>\n

And yet nowhere on her personal website does MTR describe herself as a Christian, let alone of which denomination…<\/p>\n

See also<\/em> : Melinda Tankard Reist, Or: My name is Sue, how do you do? #MTRsues<\/a> (January 14, 2012) | A Cosmopolitan Morality<\/a>, RAW \/ ROAR, January 18, 2012.<\/p>\n