I have a dual purpose to this post. The first is to strongly encourage you to make submissions to both the Senate and the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiries into same sex marriage. Clickity-click those links and make your submissions. It’s so easy even Wendy Francis could work it out.

Now, obviously, I really wish the Greens and Labor could get their shit together enough work WITH each other in order to maximise the chances of getting a bill through the Parliament. So this isn’t exactly the most ideal way to achieve equality. But yeah, lemons and lemonade and all that.

My other purpose is to highlight the fact that groups like the Australian Family Association and the Australian “Christian” Lobby are a thousand times better at organising their minions than the pro-equality lobby is. They suck at putting together a coherent argument, but when it comes to exploiting the anti-gay paranoia of the credulous megachurch-types in Australia, they take the gold, silver and bronze.

This is from an email that was sent around to their supporters last week. It shows they are still trying to stir up fears that churches will be forced to perform same sex marriages.

It is important to make the point that same-sex activists have a history of seeking to remove protections for religious freedom. Even though the bills are designed to allay concerns, ministers will be forced to conduct same-sex ‘weddings’. We need to make the point that we have no confidence this will hold in the long-term.

Wrong on all counts. They know this, but they’re counting on their followers not knowing the truth, and they’re not above telling bald-faced lies to prop up their case. I guess the ninth commandment is really more of a suggestion than a rule.

And this bit, also from one of their emails, doesn’t really have any bearing on anything except that it’s funny and dumb and it gave me a chuckle.

ACL operates in the public square using reason, research and hopefully sound arguments to present Christian values as attractive to decision makers. But as Christians, we are also aware of the necessity of prayer. This is something people who don’t share our faith will not always understand.

We see time and time again evidence of God’s hand in events that unfold. Unexpected doors open, views change and opportunities arise seemingly out of the blue. Too much of this happens to be written off as coincidental. We know many of you pray and we do have a committed team of people in each State who pray for our work.

Because, what the smug atheists cannot understand, is that God takes sides in earthly debates about marriage equality, and he’s actually on the side of the Australian Christian Lobby.

You’d think that being all powerful might make Him capable of stopping gay marriage, if that’s so high on His agenda (higher, apparently, than cancer, AIDS, torture, slavery and mass starvation), but what’s a bit of inconsistency between friends?