Religion News Selection 10 (Mar 7 - 21)
(20 March 10)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Selection
Mar 7 - 21, 2010
A selection of religion news stories from Australia.
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.
ABUSE
The ultimate betrayal (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 20 – (Opinion: Derryn Hinch) IN JANUARY last year, Mal Garvin was awarded the Order of Australia for ''service to the community'' and for ''the development of social welfare programs that support and guide young people, and as a broadcaster and author''.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
Anglican-Catholic union has a following (The Australian)
Mar 19 - FEDERAL Liberal MP Peter Slipper, the chancellor of the Traditional Anglican Communion, has backed moves for Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Vatican.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Religion minus the rhetoric (The Australian)
Mar 13 – (Review) HAVE you been perplexed, even angered by recent stoushes in the culture wars regarding religion, notably debate about Islam since September 11, and, more recently, the new atheists v all religion?
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Do Twilight, Harry Potter open door to the Devil? (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 21 - THE appointment of a new exorcist by Sydney's Catholic Church precedes a warning by a senior clergyman that generation Y risks a dangerous fascination with the occult fuelled by the Twilight and Harry Potter series.
EDUCATION
You pay $150m for rich schools (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)
Mar 20 - TAXPAYERS have helped fund tennis courts, swimming pools, gyms, playgrounds, green schemes and even an atrium refurbishment at some of the state's richest private schools.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Abuse
Catholic abuse cover-up starts at top (The Australian)
Mar 18 – (Opinion: Christopher Hitchens) ON March 10, the Vatican's chief exorcist, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", and that "when one speaks of `the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true, including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia".
Catholics rocked as shadows cast on pontiff (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 21 - FOR Father Rupert Frania it seemed the best way. His parishioners in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Tolz had just learnt a terrible secret.
Catholic Church
Pope quashes push for celibacy debate (ABC News)
Mar 13 - In the wake of the latest sex abuse claims in the Catholic Church in Germany, a number of senior clergy have called for a debate on the issue of celibacy in the priesthood.
Papal exorcist fights demons like the devil (The Australian)
Mar 15 - "ARE you afraid of the devil?" The world's most famous exorcist levels his gaze at me and then smiles.
Don't be afraid to become priests, says Pope Benedict XVI (Adelaide Now)
Mar 16 - POPE Benedict XVI has urged young people to follow "the call" to the priesthood, as the Catholic Church struggles to shake off the impact of a series of sex abuse scandals.
Islam
Walkout at Islamic website (WAToday.com.au)
Mar 18 - THE future of one of the largest Islamic websites in the world is in doubt after hundreds of staff walked out, accusing new managers of trying to hijack the site in order to promote a hardline, conservative agenda.
Other
Faith not enough for kids' health (The Australian)
Mar 10 - OREGON CITY: A US judge who sentenced a couple to prison for the death of their son says members of their church must stop relying on faith healing when their children's lives are at stake.
New Zealander auctions bottled 'ghosts' (ABC News)
Mar 11 - A New Zealand woman has successfully sold two vials that she said contained the ghosts of an old man and a young girl.
Ireland to vote on blasphemy ban (ABC News)
Mar 18 - Ireland's justice minister has announced there will be a referendum on whether to maintain the country's controversial law against blasphemy.
Sceptic takes on India's fake fakirs (The Australian)
Mar 20 - NEW DELHI: When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly.
ISLAM
Call for parts of sharia law in Australia (ABC News)
Mar 8 - A senior Muslim leader is again calling for elements of sharia law to be legally recognised in Australia.
POLITICS
Q: What do these MPs have in common? (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 14 - IN RECENT years, to declare yourself an atheist has seemed not just acceptable but even fashionable.
Abbott says beliefs will guide decisions (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 15 - He's renowned for his strong religious views, but Tony Abbott insists those convictions don't unduly influence his political decisions.
Looking for the real Abbott (The Australian)
Mar 20 – (Opinion: Paul Kelly) TONY Abbott is a phenomenon, a former trainee priest who wears his conservative Catholicism on his sleeve; Abbott is an experiment for our politics, public attitudes and media coverage.
Scientology claims
Scientology 'putting lives at risk' (ABC News)
Mar 10 - Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry has thrown his weight behind calls for a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, saying the church's teachings are putting Australians' lives at risk.
Scientology insider's nightmare childhood (ABC News)
Mar 12 - A former Scientologist who says she was a "child slave" and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship's hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation.
Not all grievances are created equal in politics (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 19 – (Opinion: Mark Davis) When allegations emerged that shonky insulation installers operating under the Federal Government's home insulation program had exposed householders to the risk of fires and workers to injury or death, the Liberal and National Parties promptly referred the matter to a Senate inquiry.
Cults should be given nowhere to hide (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 21 – (Opinion: Michael Bachelard) THE recent evidence of the psychological harm caused by religious cults could not be more graphic.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Unhappy lefties tend to be too clever by half (The Australian)
Mar 18 – (Opinion: Oliver Marc Hartwich) RECENT news held an unpleasant surprise for the world's conservatives and religious. Luckily for them, they were probably too dumb to understand it.
Global Atheist Convention - Melbourne
By their fruit shall ye know them (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 9 – (Opinion: Barney Zwartz) The jury is coming in on the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne last December: it has produced some good fruit, and may produce more.
Atheist convention's first secular success (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 13 - Even before it opened yesterday, the Global Atheist Convention - claimed as perhaps the biggest-ever atheist convention - had an impact, with the launch of a coalition of atheist groups in universities across Australia.
Mysterious rituals of the atheists (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 15 – (Opinion: Stephen Bullivant And Lois Lee) Those declaring themselves godless provide a fascinating study for sociologists.
Celebrating life beyond belief (The Australian)
Mar 15 – (Opinion: Miriam Cosic) THEY came from everywhere, the true unbelievers: from Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, New Zealand and beyond.
Dawkins preaches to the deluded against the divine (The Australian)
Mar 16 – (Opinion: Melanie Phillips) LIKE revivalists from an alternative universe, 2500 hardcore believers in the absence of religion packed into the Global Atheists Convention in Melbourne last weekend to give a hero's welcome to the high priest of belief in unbelief, Richard Dawkins.
Atheism is a broad church (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 17 – (Opinion: Catherine Deveny) WHAT were we going to talk about all weekend? Nothing? Could we scientifically prove the existence of Richard Dawkins?
The atheist delusion (ABC News)
Mar 19 – (Opinion: Phillip Adams) When I was a child I was the only person who didn't believe in God that I knew.
Atheism: the good, the bad and the ugly (The Age, Melbourne)
Mar 21 – (Opinion: Michael Coulter) There's more to the meaning of life than proving God does (or doesn't) exist.
UNITING CHURCH
Last rites for English at Denistone East Uniting Church (The Australian)
Mar 15 - ENGLISH-SPEAKING parishioners have been forced out of a church whose service is now to be heard solely in Korean.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2010 - 9 (February 28 – March 7)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 8 (February 21 - 28)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 7 (February 14 - 21)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 6 (February 7 - 14)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 5 (February 1 - 7)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 4 (January 24 - 31)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 3 (January 17 - 24)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 2 (January 10 - 17)
Religion News Australia 2010 - 1 (January 2 - 10)
Religion News Australia 2009 - 50 (December 27 – January 2)
