Religion News Selection 21 (May 30

Religion News Selection 21 (May 30 - June 6)

(05 June 10)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

May 30 – June 6, 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

Still breathing (The Age, Melbourne)

June 1 - IT HAS taken most of her life to discover, but Noreen Wood knows now she is a fighter.

ANGLICAN CHURCH

Bishop attacks asylum seeker policies (ABC News)

June 3 - Newcastle Anglican Bishop Brian Farran has condemned what he calls an inhumane approach by both the major political parties towards asylum seekers.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Leaving the Cult (Sydney Morning Herald)

June 2 - Given their pathological religiosity and curiously durable naivety, it's no wonder Americans have made their country the world capital of cults.

A director's guide to religious tolerance (The Age, Melbourne)

June 1 – (Review) Peter Brook is 85 and his voice quavers, I notice, in a way it didn't three years ago.

EDUCATION

Religious education teaches tolerance too (ABC News)

June 4 – (Opinion: Michael Jensen) When I went to primary school in the early 80s, my friends included a Vietnamese Catholic, a Pakistani Muslim, a Greek Orthodox and an Anglo-Australian whose parents were not religious at all.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Priests' 'wives' speak out against celibacy (ABC News)

June 2 - Pope Benedict XVI, still struggling to repair the damage wrought by a wave of paedophile scandals, now faces a fresh challenge - from women loved and abandoned by Catholic priests.

Israeli occupation unjust, says Vatican (Adelaide Now)

June 2 - A VATICAN document leaked overnight calls the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories a "political injustice".

Islam

Bangladesh blocks Facebook over prophet drawings (The Age, Melbourne)

May 30 - Bangladesh has blocked the social networking website Facebook over a page urging people to draw images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, joining Pakistan to become the second South Asian nation to ban the popular site over religious concerns.

Religious Violence

Blasphemy laws to blame for Lahore mosque attacks (The Australian)

May 31 - AN attack on two mosques that killed more than 90 members of a "heretic" Muslim sect has thrown the spotlight back on extremists in southern Punjab and prompted calls for Pakistan to repeal controversial blasphemy laws.

Afghan child brides lashed as officials turn a blind eye (The Age, Melbourne)

June 1 - THE two Afghan girls had every reason to expect the law would be on their side when a policeman at a checkpoint stopped the bus they were in.

Other

God made animals for testing: Malaysian minister (Sydney Morning Herald)

June 1 - A Malaysian minister has defended an Indian company's plans to build an animal testing medicine lab in his state, saying that God created monkeys and rats for experiments to benefit humans.

Sex scandal: disgraced pastor forms new church (Sydney Morning Herald)

June 3 - Former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard said on Wednesday that he will launch a new church from his US home, three-and-a-half years after he resigned from his ministry amid an embarrassing and devastating sex scandal.

Regular guy Jesus comedy under fire (News.com.au)

June 5 - A COALITION of religious and conservative leaders is trying to stop a proposed US cartoon that puts Jesus Christ in a modern-day context.

ISLAM

Peace prize winner in bid to save sheikh (Sydney Morning Herald)

June 2 - THE Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu is among international human rights leaders who have condemned Australia for its impending deportation of a Muslim cleric, whose battle will draw 1000 protesters to Canberra in a convoy of buses tomorrow.

Beneath the veil (The Age, Melbourne)

June 6 - UMM Yusuf, an Australian convert to Islam who lives in suburban Fawkner, is finishing her afternoon prayers.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Who is an atheist? (Sydney Morning Herald)

May 31 – (Opinion: Dick Gross) I somewhat provocatively refer to myself as an ''atheist Jew''.

Fair Work Ombudsman looked into Church of Scientology (Adelaide Now)

June 1 - THE industrial inspectorate has confirmed it is investigating the employment practices of the Church of Scientology.

Hills folk reject oldest profession (Sydney Morning Herald)

June 3 - JESUS may have welcomed prostitutes into the kingdom of heaven, but the reception in Sydney's ''Bible belt'' is distinctly less friendly.

Court orders Jehovah's Witness boy be given blood transfusion (The Australian)

June 5 - A HOSPITAL has won the right to give a child potentially life-saving blood transfusions despite the religious objections of the boy and his family.

The portals to sacredness are anywhere (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)

June 6 – (Opinion: Bryan Patterson) I KNOW a woman who describes her old wooden kitchen table as "sacred space".

Celebrity converts do religions a fatwa lot of good (The Age, Melbourne)

June 6 – (Opinion: Anson Cameron) There's something very cynical about using stars like Cat Stevens to sell faith.