Religion News Selection
January 9 – 16, 2022
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Religious Violence
Indonesian woman flogged 100 times for adultery, man gets 15 lashes (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 13 – An Indonesian woman has been flogged 100 times in Aceh province for adultery while the male involved, who denied the accusations, received just 15 lashes.
POLITICS
‘Unelectable’: Victorian Liberals seek to dump Mormon candidate (Brisbane Times)
Jan 12 – Moderate Liberals want the party to dump a preselected candidate for a key eastern suburbs seat, with one senior party official saying her recruitment of Mormon members and religious-right views make her unelectable.
Teachers can be sacked over sexuality under bill, A-G’s department confirms (Sydney Morning Herald)
Jan 13 – The Attorney-General’s department has confirmed religious schools’ right to sack teachers for their views on sexuality under the federal government’s revised Religious Discrimination Bill and signalled protections for LGBTQI students will be delayed.
Also: Attorney general defends religious schools’ right to sack teachers for views on sexuality (The Guardian, Australia)
Jan 13 – Michaelia Cash’s department has defended religious schools’ right to sack teachers for their views on sexuality and appeared to confirm safeguards for gay students will be delayed until after the religious discrimination bill.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Hillsong Church slammed over singing, dancing at Hunter camp amid music festival cancellations (ABC News)
Jan 13 – New South Wales Health has demanded Hillsong Church immediately stop singing and dancing at a Hunter youth camp.
Faith in self and purpose to withstand ill-fortune (The Australian)
Jan 13 – (Opinion: John Carroll ) In times like ours of instability, uncertainty and indeterminate threat, the fundamental questions press for attention. How is it possible to make sense of life in this post-Christian epoch?
Toowoomba girl whose parents are accused of murder allegedly denied medical care: sources (ABC News)
Jan 13 – An eight-year-old girl who died after her parents allegedly denied her medical care for a non-life-threatening illness was hospitalised two years earlier, it can be revealed.
