Religion News Australia 2009 - 39 (Oct 11

Religion News Australia 2009 - 39 (Oct 11 - 18)

(17 October 09)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

October 11 - 18, 2009

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

abuse / anglican church / education / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society / uniting church / other

ABUSE

Clergy stood down amid police probe (ABC News)

Oct 13 - The Anglican Church has stood down three members of the clergy in Newcastle and called in police.

Also: Bishop quick to suspend priests amid allegations (ABC News)

Oct 14 - The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle says he was compelled to act swiftly against three priests once allegations were raised against them.

Also: Anglican priests suspended over criminal allegations (ABC News)

Oct 14 - There is a deepening scandal for the Anglican Church, with three priests in the Newcastle area in New South Wales suspended on full pay.

Principal faces eight years' jail (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 - A FORMER school principal who sexually abused a student, and who told a court yesterday that he believed he was in love with her, faces up to eight years' jail.

Also: Child sex school principal in court on new sex charge (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 - A former high school principal facing sentencing for having sex with a 16-year-old student in 2007 has been charged with the aggravated sexual assault of another pupil one year earlier.

ANGLICAN CHURCH

Anglican Church slashes staff, programs (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 - AUSTRALIA'S richest Anglican diocese will slash staff and ministries after revealing it lost $160 million on the sharemarket - $60 million more than reported at the height of the global sharemarket downturn.

EDUCATION

Schools back chaplain program (ABC News)

Oct 13 - It has been two years since the Federal Government's controversial plan to fund chaplains in schools was implemented, and now there is some evidence it is actually working.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Pope canonises lepers' apostle (ABC News)

Oct 12 - Pope Benedict has canonised five new saints, including a man who dedicated his life to lepers in Hawaii and another considered one of the greatest mystics of the 20th century.

Holocaust-denying bishop charged (Adelaide Now)

Oct 16 - GERMAN prosecutors have filed a complaint against a British bishop, Richard Williamson, for inciting racial hatred after he said "not one Jew" was killed in Nazi gas chambers.

Islam

Christian convert girl fears parents will kill her (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

Oct 14 - A 16-YEAR-OLD girl who fled her home fearing her Muslim parents would kill her for converting to Christianity must go back to her home state of Ohio, a judge says.

Judaism

Religious extremism is not exclusive to Islam (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 – (Opinion: Jason Koutsoukis) It was a masterful piece of self-deception. Benny Begin, Israel's fiercely secular Minister Without Portfolio, turned up to Jerusalem's King David Hotel on Tuesday to brief the foreign press corps on the threat to Israel posed by the fusion of religion and politics in Lebanon and Iran.

Extremist days in Jerusalem (The Australian)

Oct 17 - YOEL Weber jokes that he's "a ghetto-mentality guy".

US Politics

Now Barack Obama walks the line (The Australian)

Oct 16 - BARACK Obama is not a regular churchgoer, but he appears to have a habit of getting caught up with trouble-prone pastors.

Religious Violence

48 arrested in UK anti-Islam protests (ABC News)

Oct 11 - Police have arrested 48 men during skirmishes between a far-right group and opponents in the northern English city of Manchester.

Hadron Collider worker exchanged emails with al-Qaeda contact (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 12 - A French physicist arrested last week while working at the world's largest atom smasher has acknowledged to investigators he corresponded over the internet with a contact in North Africa's al-Qaeda branch, a judicial official says.

Gunmen abduct Irish priest in Philippines: police (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 12 - Gunmen believed to be Islamic militants have kidnapped a 78-year-old Irish priest in the troubled southern Philippines, police say.

Pakistan provinces hotbeds of Taliban recruitment (The Australian)

Oct 14 - IT does not take long to find the Taliban in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Jewish settlers banned from West Bank (ABC News)

Oct 14 - In a rare move, the Israeli military has banned three Jewish settlers from entering the West Bank for six months, including the settlement where they live.

Lahore hit by three Taliban attacks (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 16 - The Taliban has stepped up its assault on Pakistan's security establishment with synchronised commando-style raids on three law enforcement agencies in the country's second-biggest city, Lahore.

Quiz champs win guns, ammo (ABC News)

Oct 18 - The winners of a quiz organised by Islamist rebels in Somalia have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes.

Pakistan launches anti-Taliban operation (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 18 - Pakistani troops backed by fighter jets have launched a major operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan, sparking deadly clashes with heavily-armed rebels, officials say.

Other

Pentecostal church told it cannot amplify its hymns or sermons (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

Oct 12 - A CHURCH has been told by a local council to turn the volume down on its hymns and sermons.

Holmes wins Scientology battle with Cruise (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 12 - Katie Holmes has reportedly enrolled her daughter Suri in a Catholic school despite intense arguments with her Scientologist husband Tom Cruise.

Sweat lodge where two died did not have permit (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 13 - Authorities say a sweat lodge outside Sedona, Arizona, where two people were overcome and later died lacked the necessary building permit.

Also: US sheriff probes sweat lodge deaths as homicides (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 - The deaths of two people during a sweat lodge ceremony led by self-help expert James Arthur Ray are being investigated as homicides, authorities said.

Global mass wedding attracts thousands (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 14 - Some 40,000 people from South Korea to South America have participated in the Unification Church's largest mass wedding in a decade.

Gorilla crucifixion 'not meant to offend' (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 16 - An artist has defended his installation of a lifesize gorilla on a crucifix in a former London church, saying it is designed to highlight a threatened African species.

Also: Ape crucifixion in former London church (ABC News)

Oct 16 - An artist has defended his installation of a lifesize gorilla on a crucifix in a former London church.

Maths whiz, gardener and bully: the many sides of bin Laden, family man (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 18 - OSAMA bin Laden's first wife has given a revealing insight into the complex character of the world's most wanted terrorist.

Hundreds of thousands protest abortion reforms in Spain (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 18 - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid Saturday to condemn plans by Spain's socialist government to liberalise abortion laws in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Beggars banned from churches in Assisi, Italy (Adelaide Now)

Oct 18 - BEGGARS have been banned within 500m of churches in Assisi, Italy.

ISLAM

Don't jeopardise rise of Afghan women (The Australian)

Oct 14 – (Opinion: Ida Lichter) IN a nation where women are traded for animals, female literacy is 13 per cent and medieval tribalism ensures religious and male domination and domestic violence, it is not surprising that the West associates Afghanistan with women cowering terrified in their homes.

Five guilty in Sydney terrorism trial (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 16 - Five Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to do acts to prepare a terrorist act.

Also: 10 months, 300 witnesses: Inside Sydney's terrorism trial (ABC News)

Oct 18 - This was a case like no other.

Also: Five guilty of plotting Australian jihad (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 16 - Five Muslim men were found guilty on Friday of plotting a violent jihadist attack in Australia using guns and explosives after the country's longest terror trial.

Also: Homegrown terror cell guilty of plot against Australia (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Oct 16 - THEY claimed the explosive chemicals found in their homes were for testing cosmetics or their children's science projects.

POLITICS

Forget the Ruddbot - pray for Canberra's demons (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 13 – (Opinion: John Birmingham) The Devil has taken up residence in Canberra and where Diablo leads, homosexuality, emissions trading schemes which sounds like something those homosexuals would get up to, and inequitable tax reform are sure to follow.

Sex Party plans counter-demo to prayer (Adelaide Now)

Oct 15 - THE Australian Sex Party is planning a demonstration in response to a "prayer offensive" launched by a religious group to counter what it says are the dark forces at work in Canberra.

Law and order's headline-grabbing minister (The Australian)

Oct 17 - MICHAEL Atkinson is among the nation's most eccentric public figures, a pedantic state attorney-general who is obsessive and whose dislike for lawyers and journalists borders on the pathological.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Beyond belief (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 11 – Tarot cards, aura-cleansing, little green men: it's not only the easily duped and poorly educated who believe in things wild and wacky.

Vulnerable need help on climate (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 12 – (Opinion: Tim Costello) The Asia-Pacific region has been in the boxing ring over the past fortnight, with blow after blow having landed on communities from Indonesia and Samoa to the Philippines, Vietnam and India.

Miracles: fact, fiction or figment of the imagination? (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 13 – (Opinion: Barney Zwartz) What is a miracle? Is it a contravention of the laws of nature? A supernatural intervention by a personal deity?

How the Irish rose above Australia's social apartheid (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 14 – (Opinion: Siobhan McHugh) To a Lebanese Muslim at Cronulla being beaten up by a sandy-haired youth draped in an Australian flag, the term "Anglo-Celtic" undoubtedly has meaning.

Thou shalt not fleece: scammers target Christians (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 15 - Online romance scammers are trawling Christian websites in search of lonely hearts and generous souls to "suck the life out of".

By George, that floored them (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 17 – (Opinion: Catherine Deveny) At a festival of dangerous ideas, you can't let Cardinal George Pell off without a Safran-esque question.

Live ten years longer (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Oct 17 - WHETHER you're a smoker or a stress-head, a few key lifestyle changes can reverse the health sins of the past.

And now for all the Good News (The Age, Melbourne)

Oct 18 - Australia gets a new national newspaper with a difference tomorrow — it's free and it concentrates on good news. The catch is that you have to go to church to get it.

Brides in rush to registry (Sydney Morning Herald)

Oct 18 - CIVIL wedding ceremonies are outstripping religious weddings, with brides and grooms keener than ever to get hitched away from church.

UNITING CHURCH

Governments accused of delaying Opal rollout (ABC News)

Oct 15 - The Uniting Church agency Uniting Care Wesley is warning that petrol sniffing will surge at Yalata, on South Australia's far west coast, if state and federal governments do not give the community access to non-sniffable fuel.

OTHER

Katy Perry's love for Russell to be Brand tested (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

Oct 13 - KATY Perry may be besotted by womanizing Russell Brand, but there's one sticking point: she's got to run him past her church minister parents.

From the Archive…

Religion News Australia 2009 - 38 (October 4 - 11)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 37 (September 27 – October 4)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 36 (September 19 - 27)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 35 (September 6 - 19)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 34 (August 30 – September 6)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 33 (August 22 - 30)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 32 (August 16 - 22)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 31 (August 9 - 16)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 30 (August 2 - 9)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 29 (July 26 – August 2)

Religion News Australia 2009 - 28 (July 19 - 26)