Religion & Society

Is the West experiencing irreversible decline, with other nations and cultures moving to fill the resulting vacuum? This question was considered by Professor Michael Cox of the London School of Economics on 1 September at St Michael’s Uniting Church, Melbourne in the 6th Annual Lecture of La Trobe University’s Centre for Dialogue. Addressing an audience of around 200, Professor Cox began with a challenge. “The consensus is that a significant power shift is taking place,” he said, “but I am somewhat sceptical. Such an approach sees some nations rising while others decline. Isn’t there a better way to think about this?” Speaking of the 1990s, he said “the view was that the West had triumphed over the Soviet Union.” The power shift theory emerged in connection with President George W. Bush’s War on Terror. “Many argued that Bush had gone for broke and had failed.” This foreign policy setback was compounded in 2007/08 with the international financial crisis. “Faith in the American ...

In recent months a Christian-Muslim controversy has preoccupied the population of Sydney. A Muslim outreach group, MyPeace [www.mypeace.com.au/] under the leadership of Muslim Australian activist Diaa Mohamed, has erected a series of large billboards promoting Islam in prominent positions around the city. So far three billboards have been erected, variously declaring “Jesus: a prophet of Islam”, "Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad: Prophets of Islam" and ''Mary and prophet Jesus: read about their lives in the [Qur’an]”. Explaining the motives of MyPeace, Mr Mohamed referred to widespread misunderstanding of Islam among non-Muslims, stating that the billboards were primarily designed to clear away misconceptions. “We've been accused of trying to convert people to Islam and all that sort of stuff. If this was a campaign to do that, I would say it openly,” said Mr Mohamed. “This particular campaign was just to build bridges and extend a hand." Reactions fr...

In 2006 the Australian conservative coalition government introduced the federally-funded National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP). Then Prime Minister John Howard commented at the time: “Students need the guidance of chaplains, rather than just counsellors… To call a chaplain a counsellor is to bow to political correctness. Chaplain has a particular connotation, people understand it, they know exactly what I'm talking about.” [ABC News 29 October, 2006] Interestingly, in August 2010, the newly appointed centre-left Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard pledged a further A$222m toward extending the NSCP to at least 1000 more Australian schools. Currently, the majority of the 633 state schools in the state of Queensland receive federal funding for school chaplaincy. Many schools in other states also receive funding under the NSCP. The Writ A writ was issued out of the High Court of Australia on Tuesday December 20, 2010. A website in support of the Plaintiff, Mr Ronald Williams...