Religion News Australia 2015 - 24 (June 28 - July 5)
(05 July 15)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
June 28 – July 5, 2015
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
arts & entertainment / anglican church / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Justin Bieber arrives in
Sydney for Hillsong conference with Hailey Baldwin (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - Justin Bieber has come to Sydney to attend the Hillsong Church
Conference.
Also:
Justin Bieber seeks help
from on high at Sydney's Hillsong church conference (The Guardian, Australia)
June 29 - Justin Bieber’s unrelenting bid to rebrand himself has already seen
him call in favours with Comedy Central and Carly Rae Jepsen but now he’s
seeking help from on high.
Awake review: admiring
portrait of a guru (Brisbane
Times)
June 29 – (Review) George Harrison
credits Ravi Shankar for a gift that transformed him: it was a book called The
Autobiography of a Yogi, and without it, Harrison says, he "probably
wouldn't have had a life".
Festival almost gave in
to Scientologists (The Australian)
June 29 - Michael Bodey The Sydney Film Festival almost buckled to pressure
from the Church of Scientology to ban a film about the religion.
Christianity a good
force in Australia, says Roy Williams in Post God Nation? (The Age, Melbourne)
July 5 – (Review) Roy Williams has, in
Post God Nation?, accumulated a substantial body of wide-ranging research to
support his deeply felt conviction that Australia, and the world more broadly,
has benefited from Christian teachings and action far more than is usually
acknowledged.
ANGLICAN CHURCH
St Paul's Cathedral goes
green (The Age, Melbourne)
July 4 - How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb?
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Catholic priests
celebrate combined 125 years of service in western Queensland (ABC
News)
July 5 - Three Catholic priests have celebrated a combined 125 years of
priesthood in western Queensland.
EDUCATION
Education experts say $2
billion has been wasted on private schools (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - A new report has argued that state and federal governments would have
saved $2 billion annually over the past four decades had they educated private
school students in the public school system.
Adelaide Islamic College
student forced to get haircut, protesters say (ABC
News)
July 2 - A teenage student was taken to a barber for a forced haircut by staff
at Adelaide's Islamic College, protesters say.
Christian sex education
program tells schoolgirls that too much sex will break their 'chemical bond' (The Age, Melbourne)
July 2 - Year 7 girls have been warned not to have multiple sex partners or
risk becoming like overused sticky tape, in a Christian sex education program
at a public Victorian high school.
Also:
Christian church
apologises for information taught in sex booklet (The Age, Melbourne)
July 4 - A Melbourne Pentecostal megachurch teaching Year 7 girls that too much
sex could put them at risk of becoming like overused sticky tape has apologised
for the material.
Ethics check box removed
from school enrolment form (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 3 - Providers of ethics classes in NSW primary schools have responded with
outrage to a change to the school enrolment form which removes a clear choice
between ethics and scripture.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Catholic Church
Climate change
demonstrators march to the Vatican in inter-religious support of Pope Francis'
stance (ABC News)
June 29 - Several thousand demonstrators from various faiths marched through
Rome to the Vatican to demand action on climate change in light of Pope
Francis' recent call to action.
Pope Francis takes
message to forgotten corners of home continent (The West Australian)
July 3 - Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis embarks Sunday on an eight-day visit
to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, three of South America's 'peripheral'
countries which share common challenges in addressing poverty, inequality and
the legacies of past authoritarian regimes.
Islam
Gay rights celebrated in
US, cracked down on in Turkey (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - Istanbul: The same week the Supreme Court backed the lawfulness of
gay marriage in the US, Turkish police fired water cannons and rubber pellets
to disperse a gay pride parade in central Istanbul.
Judaism
Jewish global population
approaches pre-Holocaust levels (The
Guardian, Australia)
June 29 - The world’s Jewish population has grown to be nearly as large as it
was before the Holocaust, an Israeli thinktank said in its annual report.
Religious Violence
Tunisia terror attack:
the radical mosques that bred gunman Seifeddine Rezgui (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - Tunisia: On the dusty streets of Hay Ettadhamen, long-term
unemployment and grinding poverty has left many families struggling to keep
their sons away from the radical mosque that has taken hold in their tight knit
community.
Terrorist Khaled
Sharrouf likely still alive (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - Notorious terrorist Khaled Sharrouf most likely escaped the drone
strike that killed his friend Mohamed Elomar.
I beheaded boss for
telling me off (The Australian)
June 29 - The victim beheaded in Friday’s terror attack was killed after
reprimanding his attacker for dropping a box of equipment.
Also:
French beheading:
suspect confesses to boss's murder but motives unclear (The Guardian, Australia)
June 29 - Yassin Salhi, the French lorry driver who decapitated his boss before
ramming a vehicle into a chemical plant near Lyon, has confessed to the murder
– but his motives remain unclear.
Islamic State claims
Yemen attack on Faycal and Hamid Jayache (The Australian)
June 29 - Islamic State claimed an attack on two Houthi rebel leaders in Sanaa
yesterday that medics said had killed at least 28 people, including eight
women.
Court overturns death
sentences in mob killing of Afghan woman falsely accused of blasphemy (ABC
News)
July 2 - An Afghan appeal court has overturned death sentences given to four
men for the mob killing of a woman falsely accused of blasphemy in Kabul.
Suspected Boko Haram
militants kill nearly 150, including children, in attacks in north-east Nigeria (ABC News)
July 3 - Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed nearly 150 people in
north-eastern Nigerian villages, mowing down men and children while they prayed
in mosques and shooting women preparing food at home, witnesses say.
Islamic State threatens
pyramids, sphinx, as it begins attack on Egypt (news.com.au)
July 3 - ISLAMIC State has launched a bold new attack — this time in Sinai
against Egypt. Are the Pryamids and Great Sphinx — along with countless other
treasures — next on their hit list?
Kuwaitis show unity
after Shiite mosque blast (The
West Australian)
July 3 - Kuwait City (AFP) - Kuwait has moved to ward off sectarian tensions
following a deadly bombing at a Shiite mosque and taken measures to try to
prevent another attack by the Islamic State group.
Indonesia’s Jihadis
returning home from Syria pose a threat to Australia (news.com.au)
July 4 - UP TO 500 Indonesians are now believed to be fighting in Syria.
Iraq splits along
sectarian lines (The Australian)
July 4 – (Opinion: Jonathan Spyer) Shia militias on the front line seem to
believe their Sunni jihadist foes are backed by the US.
Iceland decriminalises
blasphemy after Charlie Hebdo attack (The West Australian)
July 4 - Reykjavik (AFP) - Iceland's parliament on Friday voted widely in
favour of decriminalising blasphemy, in the name of freedom of expression in
the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
Islamic State releases
video appearing to show Syrian soldiers being executed by teenagers (ABC
News)
July 5 - Islamic State militants have released a video that appeared to show at
least 25 Syrian government soldiers being executed by teenagers in the ancient
city of Palmyra.
Two London schoolgirls
marry Islamic State fighters in Syria, lawyer says (ABC
News)
July 5 - Two of three teenage girls who travelled from Britain to Syria
sparking criticism of the police response have married Islamic State (IS) group
fighters, the lawyer for their families says.
Iraqi jets drop leaflets
over Mosul promising to recapture city, launch new radio station (ABC
News)
July 5 - Iraqi jets dropped leaflets over Mosul telling residents Islamic State
(IS) fighters would soon be driven from the northern city, saying details of
the operation would be broadcast on a new radio station.
Car bombs kill 11 in
Baghdad at end of Ramadan fast (The
Age, Melbourne)
July 5 - Baghdad: Two car bombs killed 11 people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad
on Saturday, police and medical sources said, striking as many people were
ending their daily Ramadan fast.
Families in Tunisia
fight back against Islamic State radicalisation and terror recruitment (The Age, Melbourne)
July 5 - It took some effort but the chief ISIS recruiter was eventually found
to be the local dentist who had blackmailed young clients to join groups, Ruth
Pollard reveals.
Other
US Mormon leader Boyd K
Packer dies at 90 (news.com.au)
July 4 - MORMON leader Boyd K Packer, president of the faith's highest governing
body, has died at the age of 90.
Facegloria: Facebook for
Brazil's Evangelicals (The West
Australian)
July 4 - Sao Paulo (AFP) - Fluffy clouds waft across a blue sky as you log in
and while you chat with friends, Gospel music rings out: welcome to Facegloria,
the social network for Brazilian Evangelicals.
Dalai Lama to celebrate
80th birthday in California (The
West Australian)
July 5 - Los Angeles (AFP) - The Dalai Lama launches three days of celebrations
Sunday in California for his 80th birthday at what is billed as a Global
Compassion Summit but which is expected to draw protests.
ISLAM
Terror threat ‘will
outlast ISIS’ (The Australian)
June 29 – (Opinion: Mark Schliebs, Dennis Shanahan ) IS’s influence in
Australia is so powerful that the threat of terrorism will long outlast the
conflict in Syria and Iraq.
Man accused of recruiting
Australians allowed to live in Sydney mosque during Ramadan (ABC
News)
July 2 - A judge has agreed to allow a man accused of recruiting Australians to
fight with terrorists overseas to live at a Sydney mosque so he can mark
Ramadan.
Logan family invites
Queensland Police chief to Ramadan feast in bid to break down cultural barriers (ABC News)
July 2 - The daily family ritual of sitting down to dinner together has taken
on a new significance for about half a million Australian Muslims observing the
holy month of Ramadan.
POLITICS
Khaled Sharrouf's family
still in Islamic State-controlled Syria after AFP refused to help (ABC
News)
June 29 - The mother-in-law of Australia's most notorious Islamist militant,
Khaled Sharrouf, says she approached the Australian Federal Police last year to
help get her daughter and her five grandchildren out of Syria, but they
ultimately refused to help.
Minister called a
‘tinkering Jew’ (The Australian)
June 29 - A Brisbane financial adviser has refused to apologise for a stream of
anti-Semitic tweets targeting Josh Frydenberg.
Rod McGarvie abandons
LNP, joins Family First, over gay marriage and 18C (Brisbane Times)
July 2 - The LNP candidate who nearly toppled former treasurer Wayne Swan at
the 2013 federal election says he abandoned the party because of its internal
struggle with same-sex marriage and racial discrimination laws.
Jacqui Lambie likens the
Greens to Islamic State in joke to mining industry (Brisbane Times)
July 3 - Maverick independent senator Jacqui Lambie has deepened her attack on
the Greens, likening the party to the terrorists of Islamic State.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
‘At the pub or in bible class’ (news.com.au)
June 29 - Former Suns players say there is a split in the AFL club between
those who drink and a so-called ‘God squad’.
Hillsong conference
shows interview with controversial US Pastor, Mark Driscoll (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 29 - Hillsong has played an interview with controversial US pastor Mark
Driscoll at its national conference on a giant screen in Sydney this week
despite Church organisers saying they had cancelled his appearance.
Also:
Hillsong conference at
Sydney Olympic Park: 30,000 flock for enlightenment (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 4 - Olympic Park is an unlikely place to seek spiritual enlightenment.
Homophobia claims rock
Salvation Army's Oasis Youth Support centre (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 4 - An internal investigation has been launched at The Salvation Army's
much-praised Oasis Youth Support centre in Surry Hills amid claims of
homophobia after a young woman was advised to "pray" away her
attraction to other women.
Making sense of
terrorism and IS (The Age,
Melbourne)
July 4 – (Opinion: Mark Dapin) "Terrorism expert" Greg Barton might
well be the most interviewed person in the Australian media this year, and is
almost certainly the most cited academic in the press.
Crumbling church in
Newtown sells for $2.55 million at auction (The Age, Melbourne)
July 4 - A Sydney investor made a $500,000 windfall on Saturday selling a
crumbling church in Newtown just months after buying it.
Pilgrims to disrupt
Australia-US war games (The Age,
Melbourne)
July 4 - Religious peace activists are again planning to disrupt joint
Australian-US military training exercises.
Lessons in faith from
the football field (The Age,
Melbourne)
July 5 – (Opinion: Paulyne Pogorelske) My first memory as a fan of Australian
Rules football more than 50 years ago was that it was enshrined as a
"religion" in this town, where worship of the oval ball out-marked
the powerful prayers from the pulpit.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2015 – 23 (June 21 - 28)
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