Since 1901, Australian Parliamentary Standing Orders have required the House & Senate to open daily with a Christian prayer, to the exclusion of all other beliefs and disbeliefs.
The Vatican has attempted to redirect growing criticism over its handling of child sex abuse by claiming that such abuse occurs elsewhere too. (This is true, but is it relevant? This can hardly be a defence.)
Sex abuse rife in other religions, says Vatican [The Guardian, via RichardDawkins.net]
Teachers say private schools get too much [news.com.au]
Teenagers watch online porn ‘by accident’ - Government study [news.com.au]
Yes. An accident. <roll eyes>
Religious lobby groups (Jim Wallace and company, we’re looking at YOU) will no doubt use the study to further prop up their feeble, hysterical and outright dishonest push for Internet censorship. Oh, speaking of which…
More smoke, more mirrors [EFA]
Tame the Tube ["Make a Stand" campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby]
(For what it’s worth, there may be many - parents and others - who are unhappy with the standard of content on Australian television… but not necessarily for the same reasons as members of the ACL.)
At the next election, please seriously consider voting for minor parties. Put the major parties (Labor, Liberals, Nationals) last. Every vote counts no matter who you vote for, and if enough people demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the status quo by making themselves heard at the ballot box then eventually politicians of all persuasions will need to take notice - or find themselves unemployed. Minor parties are important. Minor parties and independents can be powerful! (Think Brian Harradine, Family First, Nick Xenophon…) You can send a message to politicians that their behaviour and attitudes are unacceptable and need to change; all you need to do is change your vote…
Below - in no particular order - are a couple of minor parties you may consider voting for. We do not necessarily endorse all of the policies of these parties, nor the comments of their representatives, but encourage you to learn as much about them as you can and make your own informed decisions. There are other parties too, and independent candidates run in most electorates at most elections. Do your homework. Google is your friend.
From ABC Online:
Arthritis Tasmania has condemned the actions of a church in north-west Tasmania which has cancelled a senior citizens’ Tai Chi class.
The Wynyard Baptist Church says the martial art goes against the Bible.
Full article here.
From an article on the ABC site:
Religious groups are furious Tabcorp has decided to open for gambling on Good Friday for the first time.
The decision to allow punters to place bets at agencies and hotels comes as New South Wales authorities consider an application by big retailers to open on Easter Sunday.
There appear to be 3 separate issues here:
A new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) has found that almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.
Some excerpts from this article (emphasis added):
So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, “the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion,” the report concludes.
A sad story, with no redeeming features, just gets worse - thanks to the Catholic church.
The first part of this article:
Brazil’s influential Catholic Church has raged against an abortion carried out on a nine-year-old girl who had been pregnant with twins after allegedly being raped by her stepfather.
An archbishop for the northern region where the termination was conducted, Father Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, told reporters the church was excommunicating all those responsible for the abortion: the medical team and the girl’s mother.
The operation - carried out on Wednesday because of doctors’ fears the slender girl might die if she carried the foetuses to term - was a crime in the eyes of the church, he said.
“God’s law is above any human law. So when a human law … is contrary to God’s law, this human law has no value,” Cardoso told the news television network Globo.
So apparently God’s law says that if a girl is raped by her stepfather from the age of 6 and is pregnant with twins at 9, she must carry the foetuses to term. Doesn’t matter that there’s very little chance they will survive, and that their 9 year old mother could die. Apparently the girl’s welfare and the way she became pregnant in the first place are minor considerations.
More recent articles regarding the Australian federal government’s proposal to introduce a mandatory Internet filter:
Grass roots activism group GetUp! are running a campaign against the proposed filter. As of writing more than 93,000 people have signed their online petition calling on Communications Minister Senator Conroy to abandon the proposal. (The widget below shows the current number of signings.)