Religion News Australia
November 28 – December 5, 2021
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Christian college warned about predator teacher four years before arrest (The Age, Melbourne)
Nov 30 – A Christian college in Melbourne’s east was repeatedly warned by staff about the inappropriate behaviour of former teacher Steven Mellody more than four years before he was charged with dozens of serious sexual assault offences involving female students.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Religious Violence
How covert Taliban agents seized Kabul from within (The Australian)
Nov 30 – Undercover agents — often clean-shaven, dressed in jeans and sporting sunglasses — spent years infiltrating Afghan government ministries, universities, businesses and aid organisations.
Leaked papers link Xinjiang crackdown with China leadership (The Guardian, Australia)
Nov 30 – Excerpts from previously unpublished documents directly linking China’s crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang province to speeches by the Chinese leadership in 2014 have been put online.
Divide and rule: Myanmar junta ‘weaponising’ racial tensions (Sydney Morning Herald)
Dec 4 – Singapore: Myanmar’s military junta is resorting to old tactics, stoking anti-Muslim tension, as fears rise about more atrocities being committed in the strife-torn south-east Asian nation.
Other
Founder of anti-vaccination Christian TV network dies after contracting COVID-19 (ABC News)
Dec 3 – An American televangelist accused of broadcasting COVID-19 vaccine disinformation in Australia has died, weeks after contracting the virus.
POLITICS
Disability advocates worried religious discrimination bill will lead to more discrimination in Australia (ABC News)
Nov 30 – Fiona Strahan remembers the first time she was told she was special.
Religion bill gives faithful a chance to defend themselves (The Australian)
Nov 30 – (Opinion: Jennifer Oriel ) We need to level the playing field to give Australians the chance of a fair fight when zealots attack with the weight of taxpayer-funded commissions behind them.
Labor won’t oppose religious discrimination bill in lower house, if efforts to delay vote fail (The Guardian, Australia)
Nov 30 – Labor will aim to sidestep the religious discrimination stoush by reserving its position on the Morrison government bill until after a committee inquiry, but may wave it through the lower house if the government forces a vote.
I have a masters in theological studies, but some religious schools might rule me out of a job (Sydney Morning Herald)
Dec 5 – (Opinion: Daisy Turnbull) I am taking some time off from teaching in 2022. Call me part of the “great resignation” if you will.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Falun Gong performers blocked from Perth Christmas Pageant over ‘political, security issues’ (WA Today)
Dec 4 – Falun Gong practitioners have been blocked from taking part in this Saturday’s Perth Christmas Pageant after organisers deemed the spiritual movement was too political and could give rise to “security issues” at the event.
‘A new church’: why a Uniting reverend is preaching to Anglicans in a gay couple’s home (The Guardian, Australia)
Dec 5 – On a cool, grey Sunday in November, in a small home on the edge of Armidale, a new church is born.
