Religion News Australia
May 12 – 19, 2023
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Homo Pentecostus review – a dancer asks, is it possible to be religious and queer? (The Guardian, Australia)
May 17 – The theatre-maker Joel Bray’s new work, Homo Pentecostus, is animated by a series of dichotomies.
EDUCATION
Parents call for US chastity speaker’s talk at Central Coast all-girls high school to be cancelled (ABC News)
May 18 – Parents at a Catholic school on the NSW Central Coast are outraged that a conservative American author and chastity promoter is scheduled to speak to female students this week.
Also: ‘Love or lust’: Backlash over chastity preacher’s school visits (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 18 – The virtues of modesty and virginity will be discussed at the talks, which parents have criticised as outdated.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Religious violence
French police fatally shoot man suspected of trying to set fire to synagogue (ABC News)
May 17 – French police have shot dead a man who they say was planning to set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen.
Other
Why do Bible-bashing Republicans love Trump? Because he won’t do a Nixon (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 18 – (Opinion: Bill Wyman) For the hard right of the Republican Party, Richard Nixon made only one mistake: resigning. Their new hero would never do that.
‘Make America Godly Again’: Why US Christians put their faith in Trump (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 19 – Donald Trump is increasingly leaning into religion, and his support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians.
ISLAM
At western Sydney’s Brotherhood Boxn, young Muslim men find purpose ‘whether in the ring or in life’ (The Guardian, Australia)
May 19 – Boys and men from ‘broken homes’ come to Muhummad Alyatim’s Greenacre gym to train, be heard, and to pray.
POLITICS
Fatima Payman says use of politically charged phrase is not antisemitic (The Guardian, Australia)
May 17 – Labor senator Fatima Payman has rejected claims her use of a politically charged phrase promoting Palestinian freedom is antisemitic, describing these accusations as a “moral absurdity”.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Sorry for the pile-on, ScoMo and Trump, but by Jesus, you send women a warped view of religion (Sydney Morning Herald)
May 17 – (Opinion: Julia Baird) It was the gilt that struck me first.
Yes In Faith’s Backyard lobbies Queensland government to allow new houses on empty church land (ABC News)
May 17 – Homes should be built on vacant church land to ease the pressure of the housing crisis, Queensland housing advocates say.
Former churches converted into homes, holiday accommodation as places of worship are closed (ABC News)
May 18 – From the main road, it looks like many other country churches, with a cross sitting atop the roof at the entrance and classic arch windows.
