Religion News Selection 31 (Sept 9

Religion News Selection 31 (Sept 9 - 16)

(15 September 18)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

September 9 - 16, 2018

A selection of religion news stories from Australia.

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

Inclusion here does not endorse the veracity or quality of any particular item – it just means
I found it worth reading and reflecting on (even if badly conceived or poorly written).

If you’re after the unexpurgated (and reasonably unbiased) version,
see Religion News Australia which appears weekly on our website.

[The next roundup of religious news will be posted on Sept 2, 2018]

ABUSE

Push for jail time for priests who fail to report child sexual abuse 'not needed' (ABC News)
Sept 11 - A push to jail priests who fail to report suspected child abuse when its revealed through confession has been called "unnecessary" and "discriminatory" by South Australia's Attorney-General.

Church's 'wall of silence' saw Boystown Beaudesert boys abused (Brisbane Times)
Sept 14 - The Catholic church oversaw a "wall of silence" at a south-east Queensland youth home where boys were abused, a court has heard.

Anglican Church horrified over how redress scheme calculates payments to victims (ABC News)
Sept 16 - As preparations are made for next month's national apology to survivors, the Anglican Church of Australia says it is deeply disappointed with parts of the National Redress Scheme, describing it as unfair.

ANGLICAN CHURCH

D.W.B. Robinson and the puzzle of Sydney Anglicanism (ABC News)
Sept 12 - Donald William Bradley Robinson, AO (1922-2018), Bishop in Parramatta (1973-1982), Anglican Archbishop of Sydney (1982-1993), could appear to observers as something of a puzzle.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Dancing Shiva at Art Gallery of South Australia was stolen from India (ABC News)
Sept 13 - A 600-year-old Dancing Shiva owned by the Art Gallery of South Australia has been identified as stolen from India, with authorities there commencing a bid for its return.

EDUCATION

Malek Fahd, Australia's largest Islamic school, has funding restored (ABC News)
Sept 10 - Australia's largest Islamic school has had its funding permanently restored by new federal Education Minister Dan Tehan, after several years of court battles.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Catholic Church admits 'shameful' legacy after study details thousands of sexual abuse cases (ABC News)
Sept 13 - The Catholic Church in Germany has acknowledged a "depressing and shameful" legacy of sexual abuse after a leaked study said clerics had abused thousands of children over a 70-year period.

Anglican Church

Gig economy denounced as 'evil' by Archbishop of Canterbury (Sydney Morning Herald)
Sept 13 - Washington: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, denounced the gig economy as "evil" and accused Amazon and other tech companies of "leeching off" the UK by avoiding taxes.

Catholic Church

Pope Francis tells Sicily’s mafia: ‘You cannot believe in god and be Mafiosi’ (news.com.au)
Sept 16 - POPE Francis denounced the mafia’s “blasphemous” existence on Saturday during a brief trip to Sicily to honour a priest murdered by the mob 25 years ago while trying to save youngsters in poor neighbourhoods from falling into their hands.

Judaism

'You didn't get our message': key Trump aide Stephen Miller condemned by childhood rabbi (The Guardian, Australia)
Sept 11 - The childhood rabbi to Stephen Miller, special adviser to Donald Trump and a key architect of his “zero-tolerance” immigration policies, criticized his former charge on Monday as a purveyor of “negativity, violence, malice and brutality” who had learned nothing from his Jewish spiritual education.

Religious Violence

Seventeen years after 9/11, al-Qaeda stronger in Syria and elsewhere (Brisbane Times)
Sept 11 - Beirut: In the days after September 11, 2001, the United States set out to destroy al-Qaeda.

Indonesia’s troubled minorities (The Age, Melbourne)
Sept 13 - Meiliana, a 44-year-old Buddhist mother of Chinese descent, sat crying in disbelief in a North Sumatra court in late August.

'My soul, where are you?': families of Muslims missing in China meet wall of silence (The Guardian, Australia)
Sept 14 - An estimated 1 million Muslims are being held in re-education camps in Xinjiang.

Other

China’s war against religion: ‘Unauthorised’ churches stormed (news.com.au)
Sept 11 - BEIJING officials have stormed one of China’s largest “underground” Protestant churches for operating without a licence, part of a widespread move to impose state control over religious worship.

China cracks down on 'chaotic' religious information online (The Guardian, Australia)
Sept 11 - China has drawn up new draft guidelines to crack down on the “chaotic” and illegal online promotion of religion, the official Global Times reported on Tuesday, part of a tough state campaign to bring religious worship into line.

Uygurs call for sanctions over mass internments (The Saturday Paper)
Sept 15 - In a theatre in Parramatta, about 400 people from Australia’s tiny community of Uygurs – the Turkic people of China’s far western region of Xinjiang – are gathered for a rare moment of recognition as their culture is included in Sydney’s two-week festival of sacred music.

POLITICS

Scott Morrison's claim to be 'on God's side' is fraught with danger (The Guardian, Australia)
Sept 10 – (Opinion: Geoff Thompson) Everyone, it seems, has a take on the faith of Australia’s new prime minister.

What is the 'religious freedom' debate about, and why are we having it? (The Age, Melbourne)
Sept 11 - One of the loudest voices calling for better protection of religious freedoms in recent years has been the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The real test of religious freedom today (The Age, Melbourne)
Sept 12 – (Opinion: Robert Forsyth) Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s pledge to take action to protect religious freedom should not be interpreted as caving in to Liberal Party’s conservative base, let alone as serving the vested interests of the Pentecostal community of which he is a member.

Scott Morrison's Christianity doesn't spell the end of democracy (ABC News)
Sept 13 – (Opinion: Simon Smart) Scott Morrison's religious faith has come under scrutiny and, in some quarters, derision of late.

The Liberals’ religious right (The Saturday Paper)
Sept 15 – (Opinion: Mike Seccombe) Mal Washer is no longer a federal Liberal MP, which is probably just as well for him, because it’s really not his party anymore.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Harper is not an impudent child, she is hope (Brisbane Times)
Sept 15 – (Opinion: Wendy Squires) I was around nine years old when I found my voice as a free-thinking human being with every right to be so.

Jewel in Sydney's heart fighting back against big and boring (The Age, Melbourne)
Sept 15 – (Opinion: Elizabeth Farrelly) If it’s religious freedom we’re talking, you know what Sydney needs now?

From the Archive…

Religion News Australia 2018 – 31 (Sept 9 - 16)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 30 (Aug 19 - 26)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 29 (Aug 12 - 19)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 28 (Aug 5 - 12)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 27 (July 29 – Aug 5)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 26 (July 22 – 29)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 25 (July 15 - 22)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 24 (July 8 - 15)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 23 (July 1 - 8)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 22 (June 24 – July 1)

Religion News Australia 2018 – 21 (June 17 - 24)