Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

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

No. 045, 12-18 Aug 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Aboriginal & indigenous issues

Maybe it’s the sight of pregnant women openly sniffing petrol. Maybe it’s knowing that some four-year-old children have sexually transmitted diseases, and that people trade sex for petrol. Or that those unpredictable sniffers wandering the streets with a can of petrol to their faces could turn wildly violent at any time. Aust 13 Aug 05

The latest news about the petrol-sniffing epidemic in remote Australia – that it’s getting worse – means it is high time to ask: Are remote indigenous communities viable? Aust 18 Aug 05

What indigenous people share is the experience of having been robbed of their land, of being subject on a regular basis to racism, of living with the legacy of the Stolen Generations, of high levels of unemployment, high infant death levels, lower life expectancy, high imprisonment rates, and a great deal of poverty, writes Chris Budden. Insights 18 Aug 05

Abortion

The doctor at the centre of the first NSW abortion court case in more than 30 years says she did not agree to perform the abortion that has seen her charged with manslaughter. SMH 13 Aug 05

Abuse – sexual

An Aboriginal elder’s one-month sentence for under-age sex with an Aboriginal girl has been justified on the grounds it was a clash of cultures and generations. Aust 18 Aug 05

Advertising

Australian women are fed up with seeing stick-thin bodies in advertising and want to see models with natural looks and real curves, national survey results to be released this week reveal. SMH 14 Aug 05

Consumers should be wary of corporate claims that products and services are environmentally friendly because an increasing number of companies are “greenwashing” their reputations, environment groups say. SMH 16 Aug 05

Ageing

The most elder-rich period of human history is upon us. How we regard and make use of this windfall of elders will define the world in which we live. More…

Aid & development

There is a way to substantially improve on the basic model for economic development — using a new kind of market and paying for performance, argue Robert W. Hahn and Paul C. Tetlock. More…

Bioethics – IVF

Australian fertility specialists have called for a review of laws that prevent couples choosing the sex of their children after the British Government yesterday announced it would reconsider its ban on sex selection. Last year the Australian Health Ethics Committee prohibited the use of IVF technology to allow parents with several children of the same sex to select an embryo of the opposite sex. Aust 18 Aug 05

Bioethics – sex selection

Sex selection raises a host of ethical issues, for which there is little hope of consensus. Those opposed to it cite the impact on gender equality, psychological harm to the child from living up to gender stereotypes and the slippery slope to eugenic practices as reasons to avoid the technology, and claim that there is no room for sex selection in parent-child relationships based on unconditional love. Those in favour claim instead that couples should have the liberty to decide for themselves whether sex selection is appropriate, so long as that choice does not cause harm to others. More…

Censorship

Mysterious Skin is a profoundly moving film, disturbing and beautiful and painful. How anyone could have wanted it banned is beyond me, writes Paul Byrnes.
SMH 18 Aug 05

Up to 20 Coalition MPs are backing a push for amendments to the Broadcasting Act that would give the Government power to ban programs that repeatedly breach their classification guidelines. The Age 17 Aug 05

Television executives reacted angrily yesterday to a push to allow programs considered offensive to be ordered off the air, as the proposal gathered momentum among MPs. The Age 18 Aug 05

Consumerism

A typical Sydney family spends more than $1000 a week and a growing share is being soaked up by the trappings of the new economy – mobile phones, the internet and pay TV. SMH 12 Aug 05

Criminal justice

The NSW Opposition has pledged to introduce majority verdicts if it wins the 2007 state election, arguing that it would address a “ major flaw” in the legal system – allowing one dissenting voice to determine the outcome of a case. SMH 16 Aug 05

Ecumenism

Hostility to Church teaching on ecumenism was highlighted recently when one of Parramatta Bishop Kevin Manning’s priests reported that a parisioner had compained about his preaching on the Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism. CathNews 12 Aug 05

Employment

Australia will launch the biggest global recruitment drive for skilled migrants since the “ten pound pom” campaign in the 1950s and 60s, as the Howard Government tries to attract 20,000 workers from across Europe and Asia to rescue key industries from labour shortages. Aust 16 Aug 05

Ethics – ministerial

The 79-year-old rector of St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, a leading symbol of Catholicism in the US, has resigned after being accused of having an affair with a 46-year-old married woman, the church has announced. SMH 14 Aug 05

Family

Politicians espouse family values, but they’re looking backwards, argues Hugh Mackay. The Age 12 Aug 05

Food

It could be the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians: fresh meat grown from animal cells without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed. Scientists have adapted the medical technique of tissue engineering, where individual cells are multiplied into whole tissues, and applied it to food production. SMH 15 Aug 05

Freedom of speech

John Howard should come clean on plans to further restrict free speech, writes Geoffrey Barker. AFR 15 Aug 05

Friendship

My personal history has taught me that friendship, no matter how fuzzy, is a cause worthy of political pursuit, writes Masako Fukui. Aust 12 Aug 05

Genetic modification

Jim Peacock argues for GM crops on economic and trade grounds. More…

Jeremy Tager argues that we should not accept the inevitability of genetically engineered crops and food. More…

Homosexual rights

Sheik Khalid Yasin’s recent homophobic outburst on Nine’s 60 Minutes should be condemned, writes David Skidmore. More…

Homosexual marriage is now legal in Canada, but Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) president Bruce Clemenger said, “Evangelical pastors and congregations will continue to celebrate and promote marriage as the exclusive and enduring union of one man and one woman.” More…

Homosexuality

What makes people gay? The debate has always been that it was either all in the child’s upbringing or all in the genes. But what if it’s something else? More…

Housing

A former business executive and executive pastor, Jonathan Reckford says Habitat for Humanity will continue founder’s mission. More…

Islam

Islam needs to go through a new Reformation to bring the faith into the modern era, the novelist Salman Rushdie wrote in a British newspaper yesterday.
SMH 12 Aug 05

Australia is dangerously ignorant about Islamic countries in its region and its own Muslim population, says the head of a new university think-tank that aims to promote a greater understanding of Muslims in Australia and the Indian Ocean region.
Aust 18 Aug 05

Multiculturalism

Since London’s July 7 bombings, the federal Government has been under pressure to address Australia’s rapidly growing Muslim problem. But it clearly still wants to avoid the real issues, argues John Stone.
Aust 15 Aug 05

Parenting

When young women advertise or flaunt their sexuality they are being driven by a force far stronger than the Judeo-Christian ethic. They are driven by the power of peak fertility and a million years of evolutionary biology. Nature has programmed them for pregnancy, genetic diversity and keeping the species going. SMH 15 Aug 05

Pentecostal church

The ministry established by Brian and Bobbie Houston, senior pastors of the dynamic Hillsong Church, has become a $1 million-plus business. SMH 12 Aug 05

In less than six months, the Generation Church has built up a congregation of 600, but it is only the most recent of its type on the Gold Coast, which is fertile ground for such churches. Aust 15 Aug 05

Politics – Australia

Harold Holt, whose achievements were overshadowed by the manner of his death, was a more substantial political figure than Gough Whitlam and had revitalised and modernised the Liberal Party after the long reign of Robert Menzies. That was the view of Peter Costello yesterday. Aust 13 Aug 05

Serious questions are being asked about the latest political organisation to emerge in Australia: the activist website GetUp! , self-described on its home-page as “a new political movement to build a more progressive Australia”. Aust 15 Aug 05

Politics & faith – Australia

What authorises religious leaders to comment on political matters? David Rutledge speaks with Sydney’s Anglican Archbishop, Dr Peter Jensen, and the Federal Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, about industrial relations reform and the role of religious leaders in voicing their concerns. More…

Pornography

As internet pornography becomes increasingly pervasive, making every home computer a potential red light district, Australian parents are becoming alarmed. Sun-Herald 14 Aug 05

Craig Gross has launched a ministry to pornography addicts, attracting criticism from fellow evangelical Christians. More…

Privacy

Business has backed a full debate on a national identity card as well as greater CCTV coverage of urban centres and key transport hubs to thwart possible terrorist attacks. Aust 13 Aug 05

Singlehood

We will all end up paying for the trend among men to remain unwed, says Kenneth Nguyen. The Age 14 Aug 05

Sport

Players could take the unprecedented step of refusing to provide urine samples if the NRL goes ahead with plans to adopt World Anti-Doping Agency provisions. Aust 12 Aug 05

Terrorism

Australia is examining aggressive French-style anti-terror tactics in the wake of the London bombings to crack down on Islamic extremists and clerics who preach hatred. But any move to emulate the French tactics will face a backlash from the Muslim community and civil liberties groups. Aust 17 Aug 05

Vilification – religious

An Australian Muslim says that Victoria’s laws against incitement to religious hatred have sown division, and undermined freedom of speech, thought and conscience. More…

Violence

London police and their shoot-to-kill policy are under acute pressure after leaked documents revealed a chilling series of blunders leading to the killing of an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes.
SMH 12 Aug 05

War

Here is an anniversary story to test your compassion. It is not what you might think, writes Alan Ramsey. SMH 13 Aug 05

The consciousness of Australia has been utterly shaped by the two world conflicts in which we fought during the 20th century. Aust 16 Aug 05

John Howard is appropriating war for his political ends. The Age 17 Aug 05

Wealth

Australia is revelling in wealth, with the standard of living rising sharply over the past five years and income increasing faster than inflation. Aust 12 Aug 05
Welfare

In 1973, the Whitlam government spent 20.4 per cent of its first budget on social security and welfare. This year, the Howard Government set aside 42.5 per cent of its total spending for the same purpose.
Aust 18 Aug 05

Work & leisure

Christian Seibert argues that government should divert some family assistance expenditure towards funding a policy of tax deductible family holidays. More…

Workplace relations

Will John Howard end up doing what he criticised former prime minister Malcolm Fraser for doing and allow recalcitrant Coalition senators to dictate to him a watered-down version of his dream industrial relations legislation? Aust 12 Aug 05

John Howard will pay about $3 billion to complete the sale of Telstra – a reasonable political deal overall – but the price to make his industrial reforms more palatable is less tangible and riskier for Australia, writes Paul Kelly. Aust 17 Aug 05

The Howard Government is considering tougher laws to control bosses who use new workplace laws to bully or exploit workers, in an attempt to reassure nervous voters about the fairness of its industrial relations reforms. Aust 17 Aug 05

Bertie Boxsell was tired of relying on Centrelink payments to meet his weekly mortgage payments, so when he was offered a job at the same abattoir that had laid him off a year earlier, he signed on, agreeing to a 24-hour contract that would be renewed daily. Aust 18 Aug 05

Krispy Kreme doughnut workers were bullied into signing individual contracts that left them thousands of dollars a year out of pocket, two former employees have told a Senate inquiry. SMH 18 Aug 05

Other items of interest

Brother Robert, the 90-year-old founder of Taize, an ecumenical Christian community, was murdered yesterday in the presence of 2,500 horrified pilgrims. More…

How would Jesus address the issues of our day, asks Brian McLaren. More…

Peter Sellick explains why he believes Christianity’s particularity is better than John Lennon’s universalism. More…

Harvard University is launching an initiative to discover how life began. SMH 17 Aug 05

Congregations are losing their religious belief even faster than churches are losing their congregations, according to UK research published today. More…

Fantasy authors JK Rowling and Jacqueline Carey have written new novels about magical realms that are, ironically, more realistic than many US newscasts. More…

Religion & Ethics Australia Digest is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood NSW 2122 AUSTRALIA. Telephone (02) 9878 0201. Back issues are available at http://www.baptistsocialissues.org.au/review.htm. 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. To view the original article or transcript, click on the blue underlined text at the end of the summary. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. For a free copy of READ by email each week, email and type “subscribe to READ” in the subject line.