ACCESS Ministries is a 12.6Million dollar parachurch that gets about 1% of its funding from its member churches, and most of rest from you, the taxpayer.   Since in this regard you are a shareholder of ACCESS, you’ll want to have a read through their 2010 Annual report on line:

The annual report details the militant campaign to keep the pressure on government to fund ACCESS, and keep the rules in place to use our schools as “mission fields”.

In the Report, CEO Evonne Paddison tells her shareholders (i.e. us) that that the opposition to the SRI program in Victoria is coming from a special interest group she refers to as the Humanist Society, which will of course come as a surprise to parents like you who have endorsed FIRIS and done the “opposing” and “campaigning”.  Oh, yeah, and people like, the VIC branch of the AEU … Evonne is quite happy to lay this all at the door of something she calls “Humanism”.  Whatever that is.

What it is, honestly, is a huge distortion of reality – and something that tells us a lot about ACCESS and their grasp of the facts and their regard for you, the parents.

Here is the quote:

The Victorian Humanist Society is running
a strong campaign against the provision of
CRE classes in state schools, challenging
the Education Act 2006 in relation to Special
Religious Instruction (SRI) in our State
Schools as well as seeking the elimination
of CRE altogether. Currently, the Act and
regulations require schools to have CRE for
30 minutes a week, though parents can ‘opt
out’ of the program should they wish.

 

The aggression on display here is all stuff we’ve seen before from Evonne,  ACCESS means to keep the law between them and you … it also is demanding that “opting out” makes the discrimination go away.  How nice of ACCESS to let you opt out!

We know differently.  We also know who is behind the effort to stop the development of support for “General Religious Education” … which would be a fair and balanced way to present religion in schools … but ACCESS isn’t about this, it is a program to evangelize in schools and spread the gospel.

Well it used to be, until ACCESS hired some consultants who told them to dial back on the truth in advertising.

It is very telling to see the reworking of the language ACCESS uses to talk about what it does.  Jesus, no longer in the mission, the Gospel, well that’s gone too.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Now none of this will be taken as an admission of guilt on their part, it will be asserted as your inability to understand the context.

You can bet that the “mission” remains the same, because the missionaries remain the same, and if there is one thing ACCESS will do to keep the money flowing, it is cover its true intentions … fortunately for us, the internet is still there, even when you press the “delete” key.  We will soon have a video up of the amazing evolution of ACCESS’s mission, from the Jesus, to … just plain ol’ stuff, you know, stuff.  Whatever.  Wellbeing, yeah, that’s the ticket.

ACCESS from 2007:

This is real frontline ministry – you can transform a nation with this work!

Our vision is to reach every student in Victoria with the Gospel.  Join the vision and help us transform this nation for God.

Or this from 2010:

Mission

ACCESS ministries leads the Church in its mission to reach students and school communities in Victoria and beyond with the transforming love of God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Today 2011, ACCESS’s website simply says:

Mission

Transforming the lives of young people and their communities

 

 

Hey, wait just a minute …

I guess when 12 million dollars are at stake, the details of this thing don’t matter too much.  What really counts is the transformation … the transformation of your tax dollars into their mission, which, as you can see, keeps getting transformed.