McBlog by Bob McCoskrie

The mother of a just-turned-17 year old who died alone in 'emergency accommodation' says it appeared there was "wilful blindness" on the part of professionals in health, education and social welfare, who were so focused on affirming her daughter's transgender identity, but did not pay the same attention to the eating disorder which would kill her. This story is just one of many that we have heard – of the chilling effect and the harm that this ideology and the ‘conversion therapy’ ban is doing to young people, to families and parents, and to counsellors and pastors who want the very best for people.

New Testament theologian NT Wright has held a variety of both academic and chaplaincy posts at Oxford, Cambridge, and McGill University, Montreal. He was Canon of Westminster in 2000, before serving as Bishop of Durham between 2003-2010. He is currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary’s College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. But in his latest podcast, he has confused the pro-life issue, and it needs to be corrected.

There’s a new book on the shelves - a memoir from former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – entitled “A Different Kind of Power”. There has been no shortage of coverage from certain major news outlets in both NZ & overseas. This episode of McBlog is not focusing on the author and her responses in the various interviews (which you may be relieved to hear). What we are going to examine and call out is the woeful lovefest from the so-called news media which is supposed to be the 'fourth estate' – but now is predominantly a cheerleader for the left. Their interviewing of Jacinda Ardern proved just how pathetic they have become. It will also show why Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allen, Sean Plunket and FOX News never stood a chance of being granted an interview.#familyfirst #familyfirstnz #mcblog

This week there’s the so-called ‘Pride’ week in schools – ‘pride’ in extreme sexuality indoctrination and gender confusion – and there’s also Samoan Language week – celebrating a culture. We can learn the words and greetings that are important to Samoans in their language OR we can indoctrinate ourselves with terms such as asexual, bisexual, cisgender, heteronormativity, intersex, non-binary, pansexual, sex assigned at birth, transitioning, transsexual. Not really a tough choice, is it.

A new research report published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research charts new findings in how divorce is not a temporary bump in the road for children. It has long-term, negative effects far into adulthood. This is not a new finding overall, but this important new study does chart some important new ground. We speak to Glenn Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, about this new study.

Have you heard about the terrorist group comprising those who hold a 'traditional' view of wives as mothers and homemakers, focusing on raising children. They’re called tradwives. But the cultural left & the media are very concerned about tradwives. Even Jacinda Ardern’s Christchurch Call expressed concerns about this terrorist group of women – and a couple of months ago the NZ Herald really panicked about it. So much so that they even did a podcast on it. For some light humour, we’re gonna to have a listen to some excerpts.

The five-year review of Jacinda Ardern’s radical extreme abortion law which opened the door to late term abortions was quietly released by the Ministry of Health last month. It’s unapologetically pro-abortion. It celebrates more abortion – not less. It refuses to acknowledge the risks and harms to the women. It makes no recognition of the unborn child – despite other health messages which encourage women to consider the health of the unborn child such as drug use, alcohol use during pregnancy etc. There is no consideration of the benefits of reducing abortions. We do not have a Ministry of Health. It’s a Ministry of Ideas. Dangerous ideas.

An op-ed in the New York Times and reprinted in the NZ Herald this week points to a cultural tipping point. Those who argued that pornography did no harm are now admitting that conservative Christians were probably right. The radical left and libertarians are only now connecting the dots between the role that pornography plays and the harm that it does to attitudes and actions.

UNICEF have released their latest report card on the wellbeing of children and it surveys 43 countries that are members of the European Union (EU) and/or the OECD – high-income countries. Our suicide rate is the highest - almost three times higher than the average for high-income countries. We have the second-worst rate of bullying. Our teens have the 6th lowest rate of 'life satisfaction'. The problem with UNICEF and these reports is that they can identify the problem. That’s the easy part. They just can’t – or won’t – point to the obvious and time-tested solutions. But we will.

One of our longest serving politicians and current Deputy Prime Minister says that our House of Representatives has become a "House of Chaos" due to bad language and bad behaviour. Has this been a recent trend - and can the standard be raised again. We speak to Winston Peters.

We talk to Simon O'Connor about his recent trip to Israel and the Gaza border, including the sites he visited, the people he met, the experiences he heard, and the emotions that he felt during his short visit there.

Virtue signaling, being woke and adhering to diversity equity and inclusion is exhausting. Not only for those trying to meet the expectations, but for the rest of us normal people trying to understand it and trying to figure out why those who shout about “diversity and inclusion” are often the worst at demonstrating both of those. And there were two classic examples last week in the UK.

We speak to Australian commentator Lyle Shelton, National Director of the Family First political party, who breaks down the vote and the implications of the weekend's shock poll result. We also hear comments from political commentator Dr Stephen Chavura from Campion College. Where to from here for Australia.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a major new report urging exploratory therapy for youth with gender dysphoria rather than the chemicalisation and surgical intervention approach. We back up the findings of this report with previous research and analysis. It’s yet another nail in the coffin of the destructive ideology of transing kids.

We speak to our correspondent Wendy Francis about some of the issues (including the controversial moral issues) that Australian voters are thinking about as they head to the polling booth this weekend, & some of the topics which the politicians and media have made off-limits. You may not be surprised by what they are!

Everybody is saying it. The phrase that everyone is using. Well, everyone mainly on the left and the news media is using. We don’t want “imported culture wars”. It’s designed to shut down any debate on the destruction of the nuclear family or moral or Christian ethics and Truth. Any opposition to the radical gender ideology and hedonistic & radical sexuality agenda. The problem is that those saying they don’t want it – these so-called “imported culture wars” - are actually the most guilty of doing exactly that. With the finger they’re pointing at you, there’s three pointing back at them.

NZ First has submitted a Member's Bill for the term 'woman' to be defined in law as "an adult human biological female". We speak to Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of NZ First Winston Peters about his ‘war on woke’, including DEI and the RSE curriculum. We even critique Chloe Swarbrick’s response to the new bill defining 'woman'!

The Ministry of Education have published proposed guidelines to replace the previous explicit, extreme and age-inappropriate 2020 guidelines that were loaded with radical sexuality, gender ideology, preferred pronouns, and also allowed for schools to hide important health information about students from their own parents! The new framework is now available for feedback and insights from concerned parents and community leaders like you. We highlight the good stuff, but also the bad stuff.

The different components of the yummy hot cross bun each tell an aspect of the Easter story.

Many parents are not aware that, while well-intentioned, Pink Shirt Day is being used by activists to indoctrinate gender theory and sexual identity of school children under the guise of anti-bullying programmes, rather than deal appropriately with the issue of school bullying which we’re all concerned about. Pink Shirt Days are predominantly and have always been about promoting an LGBT-narrative. And it’s back for another year. Here’s another reminder why you should avoid it.