On Thailand

Brendan Giffney writes: Re. “Death of Thai king leaves fraught power vaccuum” (Friday). I think Professor Kingsbury has misread the situation in Thailand. There is no power vacuum in Thai politics at the moment. The military government is firmly in place and the death of Thailand’s much beloved king is not going to change that for now. Much of Thailand is too taken up in the grieving process to consider any political action. The future may be different but for now Thailand will move towards to crowning of the new king overseen by the military government.

On same-sex marriage 

John Kotsopoulos writes: Re. “The legal trouble with ‘conscientious objection’ to marriage equality” (Friday). I wonder how many people realise that in designing his political wedge on same-sex marriage, Howard not only banned it in Australia buy also explicitly invalidated such marriages legally carried out in other parts of the world.  For example, Elton John’s marriage to David Furnish which was carried out in the UK  is not legally recognised in Australia. This may have been an oversight or just another Howardesque  overreach. Either way it is a powerful reason to change the Marriage Act to what it was before his meddlesome intervention.

On Christianity

Andrew Kube writes: Re. “Not all Christians” (Friday). Nice work Meredith Williams! I agree with her comments about Christians. Being lumped in with the extremist views of those who claim some sort of Christian allegiance makes me rather sick. I come from a long line of Christians, my father was a minister of religion, my mother’s father and an uncle as well.  The way our family see Christianity is that you have to ‘love your neighbour’ (Sometimes referred to as the second commandment after ‘love God’). This requires us to look out for the oppressed, give materially when we can, forgive our enemies, stand up for justice  – especially as it effects the world’s poor.

The issue of same sex marriage deserves some discussion, but is just a smoke screen for those so called Christians who have lost their way vilifying Muslims, asylum seekers and anyone else who doesn’t fit their narrow view of the world. How about Crikey begins to show a bit more care when talking about ‘Christians’,  because I’m a bit sick of being included with the extremists. The ‘Christian lobby’ doesn’t speak for me or my circle, the so called Christians in the LNP are sadly misguided in my view. There are plenty in the Christian world whose example is inspiring. Let’s start hearing about them as well as the nut cases.