Religion & Society

     In a dramatic turnaround, the LGBTI lobby in Australia is proving to be a significant source of support for faith-based schools, including Christian schools.      In 2010, the government of Australia’s southern state of Victoria rolled out the Safe Schools program. The purpose of Safe Schools, according to official government speak, was to develop a mechanism to limit bullying within Australian schools of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) students. This program included professional development activities for school teachers accompanied by materials and recommended activities for the training of students to eliminate discrimination against LGBTI students.      The Safe Schools program was the brainchild of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. Its best-known advocate is Dr Roz Ward, a former faculty member at the University, who has been reported as declari...

The world’s largest Muslim movement is in crisis. Tens of thousands of supporters of the vast international network led by Islamic theologian and philosopher Fetullah Gülen languish in prisons in Turkey and other countries. Gülen himself faces extradition to Turkey from the US to face charges of subversion if Washington accedes to the Turkish request. Ankara is now linking the release of American Pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned on trumped-up terrorism and espionage charges, with Gülen’s extradition. Read on here .

Some things will never change in New Zealand. The spectacular scenery in the South Island, so graphically captured in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of films, will remain for the benefit of future generations, as will the more subtle but equally appealing beauty of the country’s North Island. Similarly, but less desirable, the country’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, will remain for posterity. Rapid change However, society is changing rapidly and with it the religious identity of New Zealand. Census statistics are useful in painting a portrait of that change. Between the censuses of 2006 and 2013, the proportion of New Zealanders declaring themselves as Christian dropped from 51.7% to 44.9%. The greatest challenge to Christian identity in this rapidly secularising nation comes from those who declare themselves to be without religion: 32.2% in 2006 and 38.5% in 2013. It is quite possible that the proportion of those without f...

On 15 September, Malcolm Turnbull became Australia’s 29 th Prime Minister. Incumbents have enjoyed an average of just under four years in the post since Federation in 1901. However, the country has had five prime ministerial appointments in the last eight years, so cynics have been quick to suggest that the country is heading for chronic political instability in line with Italy. Turnbull represents the stereotype of the self-made man. Brought up by his father after his mother left the family, Turnbull achieved well at school and, after completing undergraduate studies in Sydney, he won a Rhodes scholarship to study in Oxford. His widely recognised powerful intellect quickly set him on the path to achievement in a variety of fields. In his 60 years of life, Turnbull has worked as a journalist, lawyer, investment banker and venture capitalist, accumulating a sizeable fortune in the process. His name regularly appears among lists of Australia’s wealthiest people. However, he is no u...

The Australian city of Melbourne has recently been voted as the world’s most liveable city for the fourth year in a row. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual liveability survey had Melbourne leading the top 10 cities, which also included Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Adelaide, Calgary, Sydney, Helsinki, Perth, and Auckland. Indeed, Melbourne is certainly an easy city to live in from a material perspective according to the survey’s criteria: healthcare, education, stability, culture and environment and infrastructure. In matters of Christian faith, however, there are a number of challenges which are not considered by the liveability survey. The Council for Christian Education in Schools, also known as Access Ministries, runs Christian Special Religious Instruction (SRI) on behalf of 12 denominations using volunteer instructors in the state of Victoria’s government schools. In 2011, religious instructors were present in 70 per cent of public primary schools in Victoria. This numbe...

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...