Religion News Selection 3 (Jan 14

Religion News Selection 3 (Jan 14 - 28)

(28 January 18)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

January 14 - 28, 2018

A selection of religion news stories from Australia.

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

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 bishop, the priest, and the sins of omission (Sydney Morning Herald)
Jan 28 - On a Winter evening in 2016, dozens of churchgoers gathered at a local primary school in the NSW Riverina to bid farewell to the town’s most-senior religious figure.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Abuse

Pope Francis apologises for ’slap in the face’ to sexual abuse victims (ABC News)
Jan 23 - Pope Francis has apologised for insisting that victims of paedophile priests show "proof" to be believed, saying he realised it was a "slap in the face" to victims that he never intended.

Islam

Islamic anti-vaxxers undermine efforts to prevent diphtheria outbreak in Indonesia (ABC News)
Jan 15 - A child’s graffiti is scrawled on the walls of a Jakarta home: tangled scribbles, simple drawings and the first letters of a five-year-old boy learning to write his name.

Business booming for Indonesia’s ’sharia motorbike taxis’ (ABC News)
Jan 20 - Women in Indonesia are escaping gridlock by jumping aboard a new transport service that is deemed acceptable under Islamic sharia law.

Meet the Indonesian mayor who refuses to bow to hard-line Islamist clerics (ABC News)
Jan 27 - As Indonesia prepares for provincial elections, a moderate Muslim mayor is refusing to bow to hard-line Islamist clerics who insist he has taken his town down a sinful path.

Religious Violence

Sanguma: The belief behind a rising number of murders in Papua New Guinea (ABC News)
Jan 22 - A growing number of Papua New Guineans are being murdered or tortured by their communities after being accused of "sanguma" — a local word that refers to black magic or sorcery

Other

New office will help medical providers deny treatment on religious grounds (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 25 - The Trump administration is creating an office to protect the religious rights of medical providers, including those who may oppose abortion or transgender rights, in a decision that is likely to be a lightning rod for controversy.

Fiji’s Electoral Commission removes number ’666’ from ballot papers (ABC News)
Jan 26 - Fiji’s Electoral Commission has decided the number ’666’ will not be used on ballot papers to identify any candidates in this year’s general election.

ISLAM

Anti-Islam activist mistakes Koran for Bible in court appearance (The Age, Melbourne)
Jan 15 - Anti-Islam activist Neil Erikson has admitted breaching court orders by failing to return a uniform to former employer Toll and publishing online footage and photographs of high-profile confrontations in which his associates are wearing the logistics company’s uniforms.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

If you want kids to be happy, try religion (ABC News)
Jan 24 – (Opinion: Michael Jensen) There’s been a lot of alarmist stuff written recently about the potential detrimental effects of religious teaching on young people.

Margaret Court says euthanasia is ’robbing of life’ (news.com.au)
Jan 25 - TENNIS champion-turned Christian pastor Margaret Court has likened euthanasia to capital punishment and urged a West Australian parliamentary committee not to back assisted dying.

Protect us from anti-abortion protesters, say women’s clinics in (The West Australian) (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 26 - The Western Australian government needs to introduce exclusion zones around women’s health clinics as a matter of urgency, according to clinicians who say anti-abortion protesters are becoming more aggressive, spitting on and verbally abusing patients.

Gods & monsters (The Australian)
Jan 28 – (Opinion: Phillip Adams) Our new deities, enshrined in popular culture and spawned by social media, model banality rather than divinity.


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