David Marr is in the pulpit but Christians should expect no mercy

He said, they said. The Sunday Telegraph yesterday:

A public firestorm has erupted around Malcolm Turnbull over accusations he pledged millions of taxpayer dollars to Australia’s most senior church leaders to fund their campaign against same-sex marriage.

The root of all evil. David Marr on ABC’s Insiders yesterday:

Demanding money of government is a fundamental impulse of churches, and the other fundamental impulse is to put the boot into gay men and ­lesbians … the LGBTI community said they don’t want public funding — they don’t want the plebiscite ­either — but of course, the Christians want money.

Sound familiar? The Anti-­Defamation League website, 2013:

One of the most damaging and lasting anti-Semitic myths involves the relationship between Jews and money. Stereotypes about Jews hoarding money, rich media moguls exerting undue influence, and a disproportionate amount of wealth and control in the hands of the Jewish community are not only false, but also dangerous.

And let’s not forget, it’s not only the No camp that has a money fetish. PwC website, March 14:

A stand-alone plebiscite with a compulsory vote on marriage equality could cost the Australian economy $525 million, according to modelling released by PwC Australia (which) was Australia’s top LGBTI employer in 2015, as ranked in the Pride In ­Diversity Australian Workplace Equality Index.

Each way bet. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Jacqueline Maley on what toddlers tell us about penology, ­yesterday:

If only Premier Mike Baird and his Corrections Minister David Elliott would read Robin Barker, the mummy’s companion, most famed for bestseller Baby Love. Perhaps they would learn, in simple, common sense language, that being “tough on crime” delivers zero results ... and that locking people up — the harshest punishment Australian society has available to it — only fuels demand for more people to be locked up.

Published on the same page, Garry Linnell on the minimum 7½ years handed down to Sevdet Besim, 18, who had planned to behead a policeman on Anzac Day:

Sevdet Besim should have been jailed for life, without the prospect of parole.

Instead, we simply confirmed what Islamic State and its delusional followers have suspected all along. We’re soft. And we’re ripe for the picking.

Great moments in euphemism. ABC News on a man charged over a terror attack in Sydney, yesterday:

... the ABC understands the man is known to the local community for his religious beliefs.

Anything to do with those public ­utterances that puzzled the SMH when reporting the murder of police staff member Curtis Cheng in October last year?

The teenager shouted religious slogans before firing one shot in the back of the head of a police finance worker as the employee was heading home on Friday afternoon.

But it’s still hard to beat the effort by outgoing US President Barack Obama, The Washington Post, July 20, last year:

This is the same president who called the 2009 Christmas Day bomber an “isolated extremist”; whose administration insisted that the Fort Hood, Tex., shooter (who killed U.S. troops while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” and was in direct contact with al-Qa’ida leader Anwar al-Awlaki) had committed “workplace violence”.