Devilish Wildfires

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, I believe there is a linkage between sinful human actions and God’s judgments. The recent wild fires in Australia are, in my mind, a clear demonstration of that linkage especially after Australian Pastor Nalliah’s dream. Many Christians, including myself, believe abortion is evil. How can God be in favor of killing our own children? Jesus taught us to love each other, not destroy our babies. If life is not sacred then why did Great Britain, the United States and other Christian nations abolish slavery, fight Nazism and fascism and end other moral outrages such child labor?

In November 2008, pro-choice activists welcomed new legislation in Australia's southeastern State of Victoria that decriminalized abortion up to 24 weeks gestation. Australia has a complicated set of abortion laws, regulated at the state level with minor federal intervention. In all states of Australia, abortion is permitted to protect the life or health of a woman.

One of the more liberal features of the law allows a doctor to perform an abortion after a woman reaches her 24th week of pregnancy if the doctor reasonably believes that the abortion is appropriate and if they have consulted at least one other doctor who agrees. Doctors are allowed to consider a range of circumstances, including the women's current and future physical, psychological and social circumstances. A registered pharmacist or nurse may also administer or supply a drug to assist a woman to abort an unwanted pregnancy after 24 weeks if they too reasonably believe the abortion is appropriate and they have consulted a doctor who supports that decision.

The law prohibits conscientious objection in cases of emergency where the abortion is required to save the woman's life and requires any doctor exercising conscientious objection to refer the patient to another qualified doctor at any health care institution whom they know does not have a conscientious objection to abortion. This referral requirement sacrifices the rights of providers for the sake of the pregnant patient.

About 94.6% of abortions in Victoria are carried out before 13 weeks of gestation, 4.7% between 13 and 20 weeks, and less than 1% after 20 weeks.

The new law has received significant opposition. In an effort to prevent the bill passing, Catholic Archbishop Dennis Hart stated that the maternity and emergency departments in the 15 Catholic hospitals in Victoria would close if the bill passed. Archbishop Hart described the conscientious objection requirements as "an unprecedented attack on the freedom to exercise fundamental religious beliefs." Yet, Australia's religious community delivered a diverse range of responses. An all-women task force of leaders from central Victoria's Anglican Church diocese stated, "In our view, public acceptance of the reality of abortion, including acceptance of the practice among women of diverse religious communities, indicated that a change in the law is timely."

Some pro-choice advocates are disappointed that the bill does not fully decriminalize abortion after 24 weeks. Previously, under the Victorian Crimes Act of 1958, a woman who had an illegal abortion was liable to receive between five and 10 years imprisonment, while a medical practitioner who provided an abortion could be jailed for up to five years. While women now no longer face criminal charges for having abortions, a medical practitioner who performs an abortion after the 24 week limit may still face criminal penalties if it is deemed that they have incorrectly determined the "appropriateness" of the abortion.

There are an estimated 70,000-80,000 abortions every year in Australia. Current legal gestational limits vary from 14 to 24 weeks. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is the only state or territory to completely legalize abortion with no restrictions in 2002.

Danny Nalliah, an Australian Christian evangelist pastor, is the leader of Rise Up Australia, a prayer organization, and the President of the Australian Christian Churches (Assemblies of God) and Catch the Fire Ministries. Nalliah is particularly known for a case brought against him under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act by the Islamic Council of Victoria. In this landmark case, along with his colleague Daniel Scot, Nalliah was found to have incited hatred under Victoria's religious vilification laws, a decision that has been overturned. He was also a candidate for the Family First Party.

In October 2008 Pastor Danny Nalliah warned the Australian people that they faced God’s judgment by raging wildfires if the State of Victoria enacted new abortion laws. Pastor Nalliah told his congregation that God told him, “My children are dying in the womb.”

Pastor Nalliah is coordinating fire relief, including providing trucks to distribute clothes and food and giving his own blood, but he said he must tell "the truth".

Asked if he did not believe most Australians would regard his remarks as being in appallingly bad taste, he said today: "I must tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear." He said it was no use "molly-coddling" Australians.

Asked if he believed in a God who would take vengeance by killing so many people indiscriminately, even those who opposed abortion, Mr. Nalliah referred to 2 Chronicles 7:14 asserting that that God could withdraw his protection from a nation.
"The Bible is very clear," he said. "If you walk out of God's protection and turn your back on God, you are an open target for the devil to destroy you."2 Chronicles 7:14 states: "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

He quoted a headline describing the fires as "The Darkest Hour for Victoria." Pastor Nalliah said, a few months ago the news media should have reported the darkest hour for the unborn, but unfortunately the abortion bill went through parliament and was passed. Many people call Victoria the baby killing state of Australia. Nalliah previously said drought and the world financial crisis could be partly blamed on human sin.

Bush fires claimed 170 lives in the Australian state of Victoria. Police believe some of the fires were started deliberately. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the arson amounted to "mass murder". One man said, “I hardly had time to react let alone move, so fast were the advancing walls of flames.”

Survivors recounted how they fled walls of flames. Some people died in their cars trying to escape the fires. Some rural towns were completely destroyed. Police have sealed off a number of sites, including the devastated small town of Maryville, as crime scenes.

Victoria State Premier John Brumby said, "We have had whole communities just completely wiped out, completely obliterated, by what people would describe as literally a fireball that just came over the hills and devoured everything before them.” It's the largest natural disaster in Victoria's and Australia's history.

Scorching temperatures, drought, tinder-dry bush and changing wind directions helped fan the blazes, affecting an area of some 1,200 sq miles.
In February, there were around 30 fires still burning in Victoria and several communities were still at risk. More than 700 homes were destroyed.

Shocking stories emerged from survivors. People, who live in the devastated town of Kinglake, said they thought they had hours to save themselves when in fact they only had minutes to escape the fast advancing flames. Some described escaping down roads lined with burning trees, while their cars caught fire in the furnace-like heat. One man said he siphoned off the water from his vehicle's radiator to save the life of a neighbor who had been set alight. Kinglake resident Thomas Legrary found a neighbor with up to 50% burns on his body. We put him in the swimming pool to keep him cool. Elsewhere in Kinglake, Jack Barber and his wife fled just ahead of the flames but found their escape route blocked by fallen power lines and trees.

They took shelter at a school, but that also caught fire. They then ran to a cricket ground ringed by trees where they found five other people. Mr. Barber said, All around us were 100’ flames ringing the oval and we ran where the fire wind wasn't, it swirled all over the place. For three hours, we dodged the fire wind. Hospitals dealt with a number of badly burned people. Karen Farthing, a nurse at a Victoria hospital, said, “It was very busy, we treated firemen with burns and sadly received lots of dead people."

Many residents of fire-ravaged towns desperately searched for missing friends and relatives. The bodies of people were found trapped in the burnt-out wreckage of cars and homes. Investigators fear more bodies will be found when a full search of the charred settlements is carried out.

An emotional Prime Minister Rudd described as "numbing," the numbers of dead, and warned, "I fear they will rise further."

Australia's federal parliament was suspended to mark what Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as "as one of the darkest days in Australia's history".

Australia's head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, said she was shocked and saddened at the number of deaths. She praised the extraordinary work of the emergency crews at the scene.

The blazes eclipsed the death toll from the previous worst fire in 1983, when 75 people died on a day that became known as Ash Wednesday.