Religion News Selection 20 (May 23

Religion News Selection 20 (May 23 - 30)

(29 May 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

May 23 - 30, 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 divine act of forgiveness has cloaked decades of abuse (The Age, Melbourne)

May 26 – (Opinion: Jodi Death) Victims of the clergy must be allowed to find peace by telling their stories.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Religion in the light (The Australian)

May 29 – (Review) [Bill] Maher's documentary Religulous was always going to be an enticing prospect.

EDUCATION

Intelligent design to be taught in Queensland schools (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

May 30 - CREATIONISM and intelligent design will be taught in Queensland state schools for the first time as part of the new national curriculum.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Vatican investigator says hell is harder for paedophile priests (The Australian)

May 30 - THE Vatican's investigator into the Church's paedophilia scandal warned priests that those who abuse children face a harder time in hell.

Islam

Women caught in colliding cultures (The Australian)

May 26 – (Opinion: Michael Gerson) AFTER the British army conquered the Sindh region of what is now modern-day Pakistan in the 1840s, General Charles Napier enforced a ban on the practice of sati - the burning of widows alive on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

Ban on burqa draws line in the sand (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

May 30 – (Opinion: Liam Bartlett) FOR obviously superficial reasons, I've always associated Belgium with expensive chocolates, rather than political acts of bravery. That changed with its decision to ban the burqa.

Other

Playing God? Not just yet (The Age, Melbourne)

May 25 – (Opinion: Michael Jensen) The development of a fully synthetic DNA transplanted into a bacterial cell was hailed by the world's media as "the first creation of synthetic life" and was followed by the usual concern about scientists "playing God".

Culture minister calls for creationism displays (The Age, Melbourne)

May 29 - NORTHERN Ireland's Culture Minister has called on the local Ulster Museum to put on exhibits reflecting the view that the world was made by God only several thousand years ago.

ISLAM

Showing your face in public? The ayes have it (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 26 - MOST voters favour a ban on Muslim women wearing the burqa in public, according to an opinion survey by the polling group UMR Research.

Pollie says keep Cat Stevens out (Daily Telegraph, Sydney)

May 29 - An Australian politician called Friday for the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens to be denied a visa because he once supported an Islamic religious decree against British author Salman Rushdie.

JUDAISM

Copyrighting kosher a sectarian minefield (The Age, Melbourne)

May 28 – (Opinion: Rabbi Yaron Gottlieb) There's more to keeping kosher than avoiding pork chops.

POLITICS

Deliver us from extremist evil (The Australian)

May 29 – (Opinion: Anthony Bergin) The Rudd government's third budget has committed $9.7 million over four years for measures that will counter violent Islamist extremism and terrorism through programs aimed at shaping public attitudes, undermining terrorist propaganda and supporting and diverting those at risk away from violent extremism.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Laws failing against cult brainwashing: Xenophon (ABC News)

May 24 - Tougher laws are being urged to help protect people from manipulation and brainwashing by cults.

Divided by God, united by truth (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 28 - (Opinion: Simon Smart of the conservative Centre for Public Christianity)

Christopher Hitchens, the celebrated author and polemicist, never got on with his younger brother, Peter.

Circumcising young girls is child abuse: Goward (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 28 - A former commonwealth sex discrimination commissioner has called for the prosecution of any Australian involved in the circumcision of young girls, saying the procedure is another form of child abuse.