takeover

Inside the Alleged “Takeover”: Young Christians Mobilise for Pro-Life Reform

5 January 2026

3.7 MINS

When Christians join political parties, media hysteria predictably follows — as seen in The Australian’s recent claims about a pro-life “takeover plot” of the LNP. Yet isn’t grassroots participation the very foundation of democracy?

According to The Australian, Queensland’s Liberal National Party is under threat from a sinister “pro-life takeover plot.” That’s the headline. And like so many headlines these days, it says far more about the journalists who wrote it than the situation they claim to describe.

What actually happened was far simpler: young conservatives and Christians gathered at an event I hosted to learn how to participate in politics — something every Australian should be encouraged to do. But for the Lying Harlot Media, ordinary democratic engagement becomes a “plot” the moment Christians are involved.

Let me set the record straight.

When The Australian published its 5 December piece, the language was predictably loaded — “plot”, “takeover”, “activist”. If you want to villainise someone, just call them an activist and imply they’re hatching a scheme. Never mind that political parties are made up almost entirely of activists. Never mind that the entire premise of our democracy is participation. Never mind that compulsory voting exists precisely because we believe in civic involvement.

But apparently, if you’re conservative, Christian or pro-life, participation becomes “dangerous”.

Democracy or Party Gatekeeping?

The article centred on Barclay McGain, the general manager of CPAC, who — contrary to the journalists’ dismissive language — hasn’t merely “reckoned” he’s been blocked from the LNP. It’s a matter of fact. He has applied again and again, and each time he has been rejected or ignored. If the party wants to contradict that, they’re welcome to simply accept his membership. But they haven’t.

Barclay was forced out in 2019 over a video the Left labelled “racist,” despite the fact that he wasn’t the one making the comments. An interviewee criticised the historical cultural achievements of Indigenous Australians before European settlement. These are matters of historical fact, not racial animus. Calling that racism is simply the undefinition of words — a favoured tactic of the modern Left.

But even if someone disagrees with him — so what? In a democracy, if you don’t like someone’s opinion, you vote against it. You don’t exile them from the political process.

The article also breathlessly reports that Barclay “boasted” of recruiting 200 new members to the Young LNP. If that’s true, he deserves a medal. The real scandal isn’t that he’s promoting participation — it’s that the structure of the LNP unfairly amplifies certain branches, like the youth and women’s wings, giving them extra representation. If The Australian wants to talk about threats to democracy, they’re looking in the wrong direction.

How Grassroots Politics Works

Let me explain what actually happened. I hosted a Church and State event designed to encourage young adults to engage in politics. Three right-of-centre parties were present. I encouraged attendees to join whichever party made the most sense to them. That’s it. No takeover plot. No clandestine operation. Just democracy.

Barclay spoke about the need for young Christians to join the LNP and influence pre-selections — again, something every party encourages (unless the recruits are conservative Christians, apparently). He said the LNP could become a pro-life party if enough members joined. That’s not radical; that’s how parties are supposed to work. The grassroots theoretically shape the direction of the movement — not a handful of power-brokers who ignore their own constitution whenever it suits them.

Let’s be honest: ending abortion is no more extreme than ending slavery was. The moral comparison holds. The Wilberforce generation didn’t apologise for demanding justice; they organised, they recruited, they campaigned. Christianity birthed the world’s first grassroots human rights movement. And it will be Christians again who take up the moral emergency of our age: the systematic destruction of unborn children.

Instead of seriously engaging with that conviction, The Australian’s writers resort to sneering euphemisms and hyperventilating pejoratives. They paint us as extremists, wicked, dangerous — because we believe in the sanctity of life and the integrity of Truth. They call good evil and evil good. Let’s be very clear: God is not on our side; we seek to be on His.

A Party at a Crossroads

The LNP should welcome members who want to defeat the progressive, Marxist drift of Labor and the Greens. But if certain power-brokers feel more threatened by conservatives than by the Left, then it becomes obvious that the real power struggle isn’t ideological — it’s personal. They fear losing their little kingdoms.

And that leads to my warning. If the LNP wants to stop thousands of Christians and conservatives from joining, they will need to turn the party into an open dictatorship. They will need to ban debate and suppress discussion of the health and safety of women and children. They will need to protect abortionists from scrutiny while pretending — dishonestly — that they protect children. People like David Crisafulli can repeat that line all they like, but their actions betray them. They defend not children, but the industry ending children’s lives.

The Truth is simple: mothers must not be given the right to unalive their children. Abortionists must not be shielded by law from the harm they inflict. And the people who call this moral clarity “extremism” are the ones history will judge harshly.

So let me be plain. Join the Liberal Party — not because it is perfect, and certainly not to support it unconditionally — but to save it. Help make it the party it claims to be: democratic, principled, representative of its members, and committed to the protection of the most vulnerable.

My generation will end abortion. And with God’s help, Australia will be renewed.

___

Republished with thanks to Church and State News. Image courtesy of Unsplash.

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7 Comments

  1. 32374d220864b7b23cfcdca7cc54173a20ee2d6ca6ca29804f9bb4eaa3324a20?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Suzanne Langberg 5 January 2026 at 9:28 am - Reply

    Here’s such a prayer point 🙏🏻

    Watchman / prayer warriors rise up and pray.
    ‘The Australian’ newspaper doesn’t not deserve its name ! It’s not the voice of the Australian people but a mere mouthpiece of the left leaning agenda!

    Praying Psalm 2: 4

    “He who sits in the Heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derisions.”

  2. f910f8648b50864a0a4fa9cff6838335a9df65757870ba46526d3fd0fd4d5768?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Ian Moncrieff 5 January 2026 at 11:31 am - Reply

    Great assessment. Thanks Dave.

  3. c9f04e6a2286335a3562407f45431a3a1c481453ecabb64ce69b13cd0d14a5a3?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Col 5 January 2026 at 11:46 am - Reply

    We should join the political party that most aligns with our values.

    We should not be joining political parties to manipulate them, stack their branches and take them over.

  4. 316bad90f9410a4e5e5b27e42b1100c6da2f3c0cca95e47de2c0b52491b961d3?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Gregoryno6 5 January 2026 at 3:01 pm - Reply

    Lying Harlot Media.
    Now that makes an impression, Dave.
    The Mendacious Selective Media will be crying into their Weeties again.

  5. c9f04e6a2286335a3562407f45431a3a1c481453ecabb64ce69b13cd0d14a5a3?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Col 5 January 2026 at 4:57 pm - Reply

    I wonder how he”d react if LGBT people enmasse joined Church and State and turned it into a pro gay movement? Or if prochoice people did the same.

    What he proposes to do to the LNP is exactly the same thing. It’s unethcal, immoral and completely unChristian. Don’t be duped by the abortion rhetoric. If you are anti abortion you can join family first or KAP.

    Please don’t think that infiltrating the LNP and stacking branches and taking over the party is in anyway Godly.

    Sure it’s legal, but that doesn’t make it right. How would you like it if you arrived at church on Sunday and suddenly there was a group of athiests, communists, muslims or whoever who just said we’re all members here now and we’re taling ovet!

  6. 5088d005092eb79d788d2488fd329c398f9d4ca058f62ed38e136b35c84f504d?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Jon D 5 January 2026 at 8:08 pm - Reply

    “So let me be plain. Join the Liberal Party — not because it is perfect, and certainly not to support it unconditionally — but to save it. Help make it the party it claims to be: democratic, principled, representative of its members, and committed to the protection of the most vulnerable”
    Mmm, being urged as a Christian to join the Liberal party. But the Liberal Party is a bit of a fence sitter on abortion.
    Susan Ley.
    “Sussan Ley has voted consistently for increasing the availability of abortion drugs, such as RU486.
    She has participated in significant divisions related to this policy, indicating her support for making abortion medications more accessible”
    Interesting. Nah, not buying this article at all. Liberal Party con job.
    What about supporting those who do better than that!?

    https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/family_first_to_punish_pro-abortion_libs_and_nats

    https://www.onenation.org.au/pro-life

    Encouragement to join a wishy washy party on abortion is not really supporting anti abortion.
    How about supporting those who actually oppose it!?????
    Do some research people instead of being blindly lead about by a Liberal shill.

  7. c9f04e6a2286335a3562407f45431a3a1c481453ecabb64ce69b13cd0d14a5a3?s=54&d=mm&r=g
    Col 7 January 2026 at 8:19 pm - Reply

    2026 marks a new year and year that the Canberra Declaration needs to cut ties with this Pellowe fellow and his Church & State group. They are nothing but trouble.

    They are certainly not Christian – just look at their calls to branch stack, manipulate and bully.

    They are certainly not conservative, just look at their rejection from the LNP (a conservative party) and their calling out by the Australian (a conservative media outlet).

    You know you’re far right and extreme when not even the LNP and the Australian wants to have anything to do with you.

    This whole ‘Pro Life’ spiel seems to be some last ditch attempt from these people to try and dupe Christian conservatives. If you go through their history this was never their main agenda. But all of a sudden it is. If they had’ve been all about Pro-life in the past then they would have been supporting KAP and FF at previous elections. But they never have.

    Instead, they just seem hellbent on infiltrating the LNP with this sudden ‘Pro Life’ agenda, which they were never ever genuine about to begin with.

    All Christians should condemn this sort of activity. And I’m saying all Christians, particularly those of us who are born again and spirit-filled. If Jesus came across this Pellowe fellow he would pick up his group and throw it out of the church, just like he did with the traders in the temple.

    Pellowe has twisted Christianity into this vile obligation that we all need to infiltrate the LNP and due to weight of numbers contort it into something that he wants (Pro Life is just a vehicle to achieve this).

    Watch his video. In it he has people saying “Just join a party so you can change it, you don’t have to vote for the party you join’, ‘Join the Greens so we can change it from within’ it’s all manipulation and contriving. Just like his previous posts on voting.

    So he’s advocating a whole bunch of us joining a political party and pretending to agree with all their policies and philosophies and then once we’re in, bullying them, and changing everything from the inside?

    Is this Christian? Of course it’s not. Neither is Pellowe. Neither is Church & State.

    These are just right wing extremists – so far right wing they are completely rejected by the Australian and the LNP.

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