Religion News Selection
July 19 – 26, 2020
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
EDUCATION
Student with Down syndrome has enrolment ‘cancelled’ by Launceston school (ABC News)
July 22 – The family of a 15-year-old girl who lives with Down syndrome says she had her enrolment at a Launceston Catholic school “cancelled” after her parents refused to sign off on the learning plan proposed by the school and submit her to a psychological test.
Most expensive private schools qualify for JobKeeper (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 26 – Some of the state’s most expensive private schools have been accessing the JobKeeper subsidy to keep staff amid deep financial uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
The power of Falun Gong (ABC News)
July 21 – They’re a familiar sight exercising and meditating in suburban parks.
Gomeroi custodians lose bid to protect sacred sites from NSW Shenhua coalmine (The Guardian, Australia)
July 22 – The Gomeroi people have lost their legal bid to protect significant areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage within the footprint of the Shenhua Watermark open-cut coalmine on the Liverpool Plains in north-west New South Wales, but said they will fight on a new front.
What young South Asian Australians have to say about arranged marriages (ABC News)
July 23 – When Manimekalai*, a 31-year-old Indian Australian, was choosing a husband through the traditional arranged marriage process, the main thing on her mind was not personality, looks or career.
Concerns for churchgoers amid growing western Sydney coronavirus cluster (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 26 – A growing coronavirus cluster in western Sydney is responsible for more than half of NSW’s15 new cases announced on Saturday, with concerns for attendees of five funeral and church services who may have been exposed to a woman who tested positive during the past week.
Seventh-day Adventists advocate a vegetarian diet — but it’s not because of animal ethics (ABC News)
July 26 – Paul Rankin has spent his life as a vegetarian.
