Religion News Selection
April 4 – 11, 2021
A selection of religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Gerald Ridsdale: Victorian man abused as schoolboy by paedophile priest given $1.5m Also: settlement (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 10 – A Victorian man abused as a schoolboy by Catholic pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale and two teachers has been given a $1.5m settlement on the eve of the matter going to trial.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Other
‘Allergic reaction to US religious right’ fueling decline of religion, experts say (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 5 – Fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship, a new study shows, but religion – and Christianity in particular – continues to have an outsize influence in US politics, especially because it is declining faster among Democrats than Republicans.
After going ‘free of LGBT,’ a Polish town pays a price (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 11 – Krasnik, Poland: When local councillors adopted a resolution two years ago declaring their small town in south-eastern Poland “free of LGBT,” the mayor didn’t see much harm in what appeared to be a symbolic and legally pointless gesture.
Making sense of conspiracy theorists as the world gets more bizarre (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 11 – In 1999 I sat in a Vancouver café with a group of anti-capitalist activists.
ISLAM
Muslims attending mosques during holy month of Ramadan fear ongoing hate crimes (ABC News)
Apr 11 – For most Muslims around the world, the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is a time for peaceful worship.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Push for investigation into Scientology’s charity status (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 4 – Australia’s charity regulator has been called on to investigate Scientology amid concerns it is abusing its not-for-profit status.
Also: Benefit to ‘open and transparent’ Scientology probe (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 8 – A key figure in the creation of Australia’s charities regulator says the benefit of a parliamentary inquiry into Scientology’s significant wealth in Australia would be public transparency.
The search for meaning doesn’t lead to wealth and happiness (Brisbane Times)
Apr 5 – (Opinion: Ross Gittins) Easter Monday’s a good a time to reflect on what we’re doing with our lives and why we’re doing it.
‘It’s our church’: Land managers aim to rebuild wrecked stone eel (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 7 – Aboriginal land managers are hopeful that they can reconstruct an ancient ceremonial stone arrangement in western Victoria that was damaged by a farmer.
Australian witches and Druids optimistic about paganism’s post-pandemic future (ABC News)
Apr 10 – As the most recent full moon rose over Sydney, a group of pagans gathered on a hill in the western reaches of the city to mark the occasion.
