Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

A weekly public affairs review from the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College

No. 025, 18-24 February 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News reports

Aboriginal issues

Land rights should apply to individuals. Aust 19-20 Feb 05

The Howard Government will today unveil a dramatic shake-up of the Aboriginal work-for-the-dole program, giving big financial incentives to organisations to get indigenous people off subsidised jobs and into real work. Aust 21 Feb 05

Although conservatives will rail against new ideas, we are finally seeing the possibility of practical solutions to the problems of indigenous Australians. Aust 21 Feb 05

Adoption

Having the child you gave up for adoption say “Thanks for having me” the way Daniel O’Connor did to his long-lost father, federal Health Minister Tony Abbott, on Boxing Day is every searching birth parent’s dream, but it may not happen. Aust 23 Feb 05

Aid & development

“Aid is a means of sharing the love of Jesus,” Baptist World Aid director, Paul Montacute, said this week in Bangkok. “I believe you can share the love of Jesus without telling about the love of Jesus.” Montacute is responsible for implementing a three-fold hunger agenda: (1) Relief. “Relief is first stage of saving lives and caring for people,” he said. “People need shelter, food and clean water.” (2) Rehabilitation, Montacute said, “tries to puts people’s lives back together again.” (3) Development “is the longer term goal to help people achieve sustainability.” More.

Anglican Church – Australia

A Brisbane priest has been consecrated bishop in a schismatic church and the Anglican Church at the same time, launching a new crisis for the church in Australia. The Age 20 Feb 05

Bible – texts & versions

A new version of the best-selling NIV Bible not only modernizes verses and passages, but also attempts to be more gender-neutral in an effort to vitalize the Bible for a new generation. But this updated version has drawn sharp criticism from more than 100 prominent evangelicals and scholars who say that the TNIV changes, particularly its gender-inclusive language, alters the context and meaning of Bible teachings. More.

Bioethics – cloning

First there was Dolly the sheep. Now, in a world first, Monash University has produced Brandy the cow. Dolly, born in 1997, was the world’s first cloned animal. She was produced using a cloning technique known as standard nuclear transfer. However, the technique is unreliable as few cloned embryos survive. A different form of cloning called serial nuclear transfer – under which an embryo is effectively cloned twice – may promise a higher survival rate. The Age 18 Feb 05 *

Bioethics – genetics

The first published map of human genetic differences has been released, with scientists declaring it will offer a significant step towards truly personalised medicine, from predicting who will get what disease to finding ways of choosing the best drug for an individual patient. SMH 19-20 Feb 05

Energy

Renewable energy is too expensive and unreliable, writes Annabel Stafford. AFR 18 Feb 05
Environment

At a special Pacific Plenary on Friday, member church representatives of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) voiced their concern over the devastating effect that pollution has had on the natural environment. More.

Euthanasia

On 12 August 2002 Fred Thompson gave his wife six sleeping tablets and placed a pillow over her face. When she stopped breathing he gave her a kiss on the lips and then retired to his sitting room. The love of his life and wife of 43 years, was dead. But the law refused to label him a murderer. In the first case of its kind in NSW he has instead pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a suicide and was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay $63 court costs. SMH 21 Feb 05

Food

Vegans and vegetarians who force their children to adopt their strict diets are inflicting unethical damage on their health. Aust 23 Feb 05

Government – Australia

“In the second century of federation we need to redefine the relationship between the executive, the parliament and appointed officials to better balance modern demands for efficient administration with a need for accountability and transparency. Strong executive government must be subject to strong checks and balances.” AFR leader 21 Feb 05 *

HIV/AIDS

After thousands of AIDS deaths and years of “Safe Sex Is Hot Sex” prevention messages, it has come down to this: many gay men who know the rules of engagement in the age of AIDS are not using condoms. Some veterans of the war on AIDS are advocating a new approach to the spread of unsafe sex, much of which is fueled by a surge in meth-amphetamine abuse. They want to track down those who knowingly engage in risky behavior and try to stop them before they can infect others. New York Times 15 Feb 05

Homosexuality

Spongebob Squarepants may not be soft on gay unions, but Patty Bouvier, Marge Simpson’s chain-smoking sister, has come out of the closet in an episode of The Simpsons just shown in the US. SMH 22 Feb 05

Homosexuality & faith

Conservative Sydney Anglicans have flatly rejected a covenant proposed to repair fault lines threatening to split the international church over gay bishops. SMH 19 Feb 05

Human rights

Even modest morality is missing from the Howard government’s key security and human-rights policies, writes Geoffrey Barker. AFR 21 Feb 05

Judiciary

A year of constitutional turmoil on the High Court has turned Ken Hayne and Michael Kirby into the judicial equivalent of Tweedledum and Tweedledee: one almost never dissents while the other almost never agrees. AFR 18 Feb 05
Justice

Cornelia Rau’s case reminds us that psychiatrists and the police, between them, can get things horribly wrong. But, grim as her plight is, it tends to pale alongside other, run-of-the-mill and easily averted miscarriages of justice in Australia. The everyday horrors I have in mind are the shonky therapists recovering “repressed” memories of sexual abuse, which have in turn triggered ill-considered police prosecutions and devastated hundreds of lives. Aust 21 Feb 05

Obesity

Childhood obesity could cause more death and illness than smoking and lead to the first fall in life expectancy of Australians in more than 100 years. Aust 21 Feb 05

Pornography

Filtering mobile phone content for pornography is fraught with a range of difficulties, writes Laurence Frost. AFR 18 Feb 05

Poverty

Compared with the citizens of most other countries, Australians are rich. Material living standards in this country have clearly been rising through time. Yet only 12 months ago the Senate inquiry into poverty and financial hardship concluded that poverty in Australia is widespread and rising. Indeed, its best estimate was that anywhere from 13 per cent to 19 per cent of the population are living in poverty. So how can so many people be living in poverty in a country that is, on most objective criteria, very well off? Aust 19-20 Feb 05

Privacy

The federal government’s tough response to terrorism has revived the long-dead debate over an Australia Card. But are we already getting one by stealth? AFR 22 Feb 05

Refugees [on Cornelia Rau’s detention]

The detention of mentally ill woman Cornelia Rau at Baxter Detention Centre prompted a strong statement this week from the Acting Anglican Primate and Melbourne bishops, condemning the “systemic failure of the current system to implement accepted Australian best practice in the management of vulnerable people balanced with reasonable compliance mechanisms.” More.

Terrorism

At least 91 people were killed in Iraq over the weekend as suicide bombers targeted the two-day Ashoura commemorations, the holiest days of the Shia religious calendar. Aust 21 Feb 05

Urbanisation

Half the world’s population will live in cities in two years – a huge jump from the 30 per cent residing in urban areas in 1950, UN demographers reported yesterday. About 3.2 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion people live in cities today, and the number will climb to 5 billion – an estimated 61 per cent of the global population – by 2030. Aust 18 Feb 05 *

Violence

Children are more likely to act aggressively or feel upset after watching violent films or television programs. Aust 19-20 Feb 05

War

John Howard, has plunged Australia into a new divisive national debate over Iraq after federal cabinet decided to more than double the nation’s existing deployment of ground troops to the turbulent country. SMH 23 Feb 05

Women – ministry of

The Church of England has edged gingerly towards a decision on whether to appoint women bishops, in the face of male allegations that women either do not really believe in God or are akin to terrorists. SMH 18 Feb 05

Work

Slowly but steadily, the weekend is being abolished in the name of progress. Consider three developments. In NSW, Employers First has applied to the Industrial Relations Commission to have Saturday and Sunday treated as “ordinary working days” under the clerks’ award, with a consequent reduction in penalty rates. SMH 23 Feb 05 *

Workplace relations

The hard part of industrial relations reform is keeping it fair, argues Chris Richardson. AFR 22 Feb 05

A revamp of Australia’s industrial relations framework – including a single national system and measures to cut red tape for small business – has been given the go-ahead by the Howard Government. And in a surprise move, Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has been hired by the Government as a special consultant on welfare reform. Aust 23 Feb 05 *

Other items of interest

Steven Waldman reviews God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, by Jim Wallis. More.

Antony Loewenstein reviews the new provocative book, God Under Howard, by Marion Maddox. More.

The Law Report (ABC): On Australia’s first finding of religious vilification – the case of the preachers who found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Also, Mamdouh Habib – now he’s free from Camp X-Ray, what are his legal options? More.

Anglican minister Mark Durie examines the findings of Judge Michael Higgins in the recent Victorian religious vilification case against pastors Daniel Scot and Danny Nalliah. More.

Encounter (ABC): Through Joyce Carol Oates’ riveting short story, Faithless, this program explores the heart of this best-selling American author’s complex moral vision. More.

The Spirit of Things (ABC): International experts on the new rise of “the oldest hatred” – Antisemitism. More.

Background Briefing (ABC): Gareth Robinson explores the arena of unemployment, where a vast system operates to help and hassle people back to work. More.

“When The World Said No To War” illustrates the scale of the opposition to the war in Iraq and to all war and to inspire people to continue to work for peace. More.

Janis Abrams Springs offers practical comments on forgiveness from the Alban Institute, including steps toward daily, interpersonal forgiveness. More.

Leo Hartshorn provides insights into the Gospels and Jesus, providing the peacemaker and justice-seeker with a vision and model of social and political engagement. More.

READ is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood NSW 2122 AUSTRALIA. Telephone (02) 9878 0201. The content and views expressed in articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College or the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. Subscription is free. To subscribe, email with the words “subscribe to READ” in the subject line. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. An asterisc (*) following an entry indicates that the article contains significant new information or comment.