If you just watched that video from Play School, you would have met Asera and Wednesday.
They’re two little girls who had the chance to show off their beautiful family in a segment called, “My Family, Your Family”.
“This is my family,” the two happily tell the little people watching Play School.
Throughout the segment, Asera and Wednesday walk us through all the wonderful things they do with their dads.
“Our favourite thing to do with our family is swimming,” they say.
“We love to play games in the water, too. Our dads are always trying to make us laugh.”
As a family, they do yoga together before bedtime, they play games, but the thing they look forward to the most is when they read stories together.
Take a look back at some of our favourite Play School moments. Post continues after gallery:
They tell their story through laughter and with love.
That’s the way any child would want to grow up.
Unfortunately, the Australian Christian Lobby doesn’t seem to like it that way.
Rather, they would prefer Play School to back far, far away from pushing “controversial social and political agendas”.
In a statement written by an ACL campaigner, Wendy Francis, the lobby group implied that by showing the story of Asera and Wednesday, it was now unsafe viewing for children.
“Unsupervised watching of Play School was always considered safe by generations of parents,” Francis wrote. “Now parents can’t be sure if their children are going to be exposed to contested social and political agendas.”
Francis, a grandmother herself, accused the show of displaying “rainbow politics” that millions of Australian parents do not agree with.
“Millions of Australians also do not agree that two men should be allowed to deliberately deprive a child of its mother…
“The ABC should also not assume that producing children through harvested eggs and a rented or donated woman’s womb to meet the desires of two men is a public good.”
Asera and Wednesday. Image via ABC.
FYI, before you read the rest of Francis' comments let's also conduct a quick fact check.
We haven't been able to ascertain the data that substantiates millions of Australian want to "deliberately deprive a child of its mother".
In fact, a Change.org petition that was urging the ABC to not produce the story of Asera and Wednesday gathered a whole 179 signatures.
If Francis is possibly implying that agreeing with marriage equality also means that one wants to "deliberately deprive a child of its mother", then the latest poll on the issue showed an overwhelming majority.
The Fairfax-Ipsos poll showed that 79% of Australians were in favour of marriage equality, across every political party. In researched conducted in 2015, the number of Christians in favour also held a majority.
Anyway. Enough with the boring facts and back to Francis' disgusted comments.
"Many parents will be disappointed with this, particularly as this is a taxpayer-funded program that should refrain from pushing confusing adult messaging to our children.
“Parent’s [sic] shouldn't be forced to have adult conversations about sexuality and bioethics with their kids at such a young age and it certainly should not be the government broadcaster raising the subject with them."
A spokesperson for Rainbow Families, Scott Williams, told the Star Observer the ACL's views were in no way surprising.
Top Comments
With respect though some of the critical comments given on this issue are worthy of consideration. These little girls will... never have a mother. Have the people commenting here thought what it would be like to grow up without their own mums? Sure you may disagree with us Christians, but have you seriously thought about what it would have been like in your own life without a mum (or a dad)? These are serious questions and I for one don't want to see such major position changes in society made lightly. For the record, (see comments below), top Christian thought and teaching was always against slavery, and racism. Conversely today top Christian thinking (e.g. Lausanne Evangelical Covenant) does repeat the Biblical view that although we should indeed all have love for one another, actual sex between the same sexes is not God's plan and therefore we should not countenance men marrying other men and women marrying other women. Thank you for letting me share what will probably seem unpopular views. Sincerely, Greg & Shireen
What this debate has confirmed is that social stigma has always originated in religion. Shame was born in the minds of religious figures who needed to control their flock. Which is clearly why people are abandoning in droves the idea of being sheep in a flock and deciding for themselves what personal freedom means to them. As someone else said, desperate religious organisations will simply shift their shame to someone else to try and retain control and mask their growing irrelevance.