Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

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

No. 049, 9-15 Sep 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Abortion

Angele Shanahan writes on an apparent link between abortion and breast cancer.
Sunday Telegraph 11 Sep 05

Abuse – sexual

Children are at the greatest risk of sexual abuse in churches when they are members of a youth group, a child protection expert has warned. “Look out for the youth leader who does not have age-appropriate adult friends,” Professor Patrick Parkinson told a National Council of Churches of Australia conference in Canberra. Aust 12 Sep 05

Ageing

Ian Robertson, of Trinity College, Dublin, has told the British Association science festival that cognitive exercises and mental stimulation – such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku – can keep the brain up to 14 years younger.
Aust 9 Sep 05

Aid & development

Massive aid packages to impoverished countries must be strictly controlled to avoid widespread corruption and waste, John Howard will tell world leaders this week. Aust 12 Sep 05

In religious circles and beyond, some see a troubling trend: Compassion is increasingly being reserved for those who appear to have done no wrong. CT 12 Sep 05

The Prime Minister, John Howard, will announce a doubling of Australian aid to developing countries over the next five years, to $4 billion. SMH 14 Sep 05

Alcohol

Scare tactics used to warn women about the dangers of drinking alcohol while pregnant could have a backlash effect and lead to unnecessary abortions, experts say. The warning comes after a national awareness campaign by the Salvation Army, highlighting the dangers of drinking while pregnant.
Sun-Herald 11 Sep 05

The answer to alcohol-related violence is not, as some wowsers and control freaks have urged, for governments to enforce liquor laws more stringently and punish licensees more harshly.
Instead there should be more latitude in licensing laws to allow for human frailty, writes Miranda Devine. SMH 15 Sep 05

Bioethics – cloning

Scientists have called for a ban on therapeutic cloning to be lifted “as soon as possible” because it could lead to treatments for many diseases. An Australian ethicist, Julian Savulescu, also argued yesterday it would be “immoral” not to allow the technique to be carried out here because of its medical potential. SMH 9 Sep 05
The director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at the Australian Catholic University, Dr Bernadette Tobin, has spoken out against calls from scientists for a lifting of the ban on therapeutic cloning. She said that even though embryos created by therapeutic cloning did not involve the union of an egg and a sperm, they were still human embryos. CathNews 9 Sep 05

Bioethics – embryo

In July, journalist Will Saletan wrote a gripping five-part series on “The case for harvesting older human embryos,” in which he reviews the science and policy debates that have begun to press far beyond the question of embryos just a few days old. Slate 25 Jul 05

British scientists have been given permission to create human embryos that will have three genetic parents. Times 9 Sep 05 Also…

Bioethics – stem cells

Erik Leipoldt argues that ethically highly controversial stem cell research is not necessary. OnlineOpinion 14 Sep 05

Capital punishment

No state should try to claim the authority to override the basic right to life. The current era of panic about terrorism makes it especially important that we unequivocally state our opposition to the use of capital punishment anywhere, at any time, by anyone, writes Tony Smith. OnlineOpinion 9 Sep 05

Disaster

At any moment, a pandemic of avian flu could sweep through the country killing 100,000. Are we ready? Age 12 Sep 05

Ecology

“The power of the technologies now at our disposal vastly magnifies the average impact that individuals can have on the natural world. Multiply that by six and a half billion people, and then stir into that toxic mixture a mindset and an attitude that we don’t have to take responsibility for the future consequences of present actions – and you get a collision between our civilization and the earth,” says former US Vice President Al Gore. More…

Environment

Environmentalists condemned the decision by NSW Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, to ditch plans to protect large tracts of land in Sydney’s north-west and south-west, a key plank of the Government’s 25-year program to create up to 160,000 new dwellings.
SMH 10 Sep 05

Ethics – media

A pregnant contestant on the Dutch version of TV’s Big Brother will not be allowed to give birth live on air after the Government intervened on child-protection grounds. With contestants having sex live on television no longer drawing audiences, the Big Brother producers went a step further by inviting a pregnant woman, known only as Tanja, on to the show. Aust 10 Sep 05

Food

The average Australian child is exposed to 11 junk food ads a day with fast food companies twice as likely to advertise in children’s programs than other viewing times, according to new research released today. SMH 13 Sep 05

Freedom of speech

Proposed counter-terrorism laws had the potential to undermine free speech and propel the nation towards a police state, civil libertarians warned yesterday. Aust 9 Sep 05
Also SMH 9 Sep 05

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has left open the inclusion of a sunset clause in the Government’s proposed counter-terrorism laws, amid continuing criticisms that the proposals will turn Australia into a police state.
SMH 10 Sep 05

Genetics

As the stockpile of the public’s genetic information grows, so does the ability of employers and insurers to abuse it, write Leigh Dayton and Karen Dearne. Aust 12 Sep 05

Homosexuality & faith

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has voted to welcome “gay and lesbian persons into its life” and directed pastors and congregations “to discern ways to provide faithful care to same-sex couples,” despite its affirmation of a 1993 statement that found no biblical basis for same-sex blessings. CT 14 Sep 05

Human rights

Moves to deport a US anti-war activist are a serious abuse of power. Age 13 Sep 05

An Australian lawyer in New Orleans talks law, justice, race and disaster management in Louisiana. Law Report 13 Sep 05

Multiculturalism

Move over Pauline Hanson, you’ve been replaced by an aggressive army of professional word-spinners who easily out-offend, out-vilify and out-incite you. They’ll do fine service selling the Howard government’s next war moves and attacks on our democratic rights. More…

Politics – Australia

Donald Horne died still looking for leadership. He never found it. John Howard and Kim Beazley exemplify the vacuum 40 years later. Things have only got worse, writes Alan Ramsey. SMH 10 Sep 05

Politics – US

Hurricane Katrina has destroyed the US Government’s last claim to competence, writes Andrew Sullivan. Aust 12 Sep 05
George W Bush has squandered the public mandate he received after the 9/11 attacks, writes Francis Fukuyama. SMH 12 Sep 05

Politics & faith – New Zealand

New Zealanders have just learnt that an expensive, last-minute anti-Labour Government leaflet campaign is the work of the Exclusive Brethren, an arch conservative group who are forbidden to vote, eschew worldly issues and even technology. SMH 9 Sep 05

Poverty

The waters of Hurricane Katrina are washing away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America, and even the political power of a conservative ideology that, for decades now, has seriously eroded the idea of the common good, writes Jim Wallis. Sojourners 9 Sep 05 [scroll down]

“The Millennium Development Goals do not specifically target Indigenous Peoples but they are often the ones most affected by extreme poverty and usually rank at the bottom of most social and economic indicators,” Graeme Mundine, Executive Secretary of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, said. More…

Racism

Macquarie University academic Andrew Fraser is to publish his contentious views on race and culture in a Victorian university law journal only weeks after his own university banned him from teaching. Aust 14 Sep 05

Refugees & asylum seekers

Illegal immigrants held in detention will be offered taste testing of prospective menus and weekly barbecues in a further attempt by the Howard Government to soften its hardline image on asylum-seekers. Aust 13 Sep 05

Science & faith

A search of prominent US conservative Christian ministries websites by Nick Street yielded not one reference to the top space stories of 2005, but hundreds of features and editorials on evolution and stem cell research. More…

Social justice & faith

Micah Challenge’s Michael Smitheram summarises the key developments, documents and analyses in the lead-up to the World Summit 2005. Watch for daily updates from August 30 to September 17. More…

Suicide

“It’s the worst and most wasteful cop-out, a dismissive gesture – perhaps amounting to a betrayal – to inflict [suicide] on family and friends, an abject moral failure,” writes Christopher Pearson. “Some of the same stern reprobation ought to temper the instinct of sympathy towards failed suicides.”
Aust 12 Sep 05

Tax reform

There’s a good case for cutting the top, 47 per cent rate of income tax that most of the people banging on about the need for a cut aren’t smart enough to think of, writes Ross Gittins. SMH 12 Sep 05

Terrorism

Find the Howard Government’s unprecedented anti-terrorism legislative proposals here…

Terrorism suspects could be fitted with tracking devices and anyone who preaches violence could be thrown in jail under tough anti-terror laws unveiled by the Howard Government yesterday. Aust 9 Sep 05

John Howard’s new anti-terrorism laws are unfortunate, but necessary, argues The Australian. Aust 9 Sep 05

Up to 500 extra spies will be recruited in the next five years as government spending on counter-terrorism soars past $1 billion a year to meet the global challenge posed by Muslim terror groups. Aust 10 Sep 05

Four years after the September 11 attack, the threat from Islamist violence only mounts on multiple fronts as diverse as Iraq, London and Indonesia as Western nations rewrite their security laws and debate how to protect their way of life, writes Paul Kelly. Aust 10 Sep 05

Prime Minister John Howard reflects on the consequences of the September 11 attacks, four years on. Age 11 Sep 05

Al-Qa’ida and its affiliates are constantly able to adapt to concerted international counter-terrorist action and see their struggle as one that will last generations, one of the US’s top terrorism experts has warned. Aust 15 Sep 05

The reaction to the Howard government’s proposed counter-terrorist powers has been a sniggering cynicism, led by the ABC’s Lateline program, writes Greg Sheridan. Aust 15 Sep 05

Transport

There are plenty of alternatives to wasting petrol in cars, writes Alan Attwood.
Age 10 Sep 05

War

With terrorism and this war upon it, what could be of God? What is just, let alone morally good, or even minimally ethically acceptable in this conflict? Bishop James Foley writes.
Catholic Leader 12 Sep 05

Much of the world wonders why the US and the Bush administration have managed to get Iraq so wrong. Aust 12 Sep 05

Welfare provision

Almost 40 per cent of the nation’s richest households are claiming some form of family payment from the Howard Government.
Aust 12 Sep 05

Only John Howard could deliver the socialist dream: a welfare state that supplies more than 14 per cent of household disposable income. Aust 13 Sep 05

People targeted by the Federal Government’s welfare-to-work strategy who find jobs will be working for just $2.27 an hour, according to the first independent analysis of the proposal. SMH 14 Sep 05

Welfare reform

The Howard government’s landmark welfare-to-work package has already cost about a quarter of the budget savings it was meant to deliver from pushing parents from pensions on to the dole. Aust 14 Sep 05

Women – ministry of

Anglican Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn George Browning told his diocese’s annual parliament, or synod, in Goulburn today that he would have no problem with being replaced by a woman when he steps down in three years’ time.
Daily Telegraph 10 Sep 05

Workplace relations

The Howard Government’s proposed workplace relations changes have drawn strong criticism from the Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, the body that sets the Catholic Church’s industrial relations policies. Age 9 Sep 05

The Catholic Church has challenged the Federal Government’s planned changes to wage-fixing provisions and unfair dismissal laws, warning that the proposals would be judged according to “God’s plan” to protect workers from exploitation. SMH 10 Sep 05

The director of the Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, John Ryan, said the Commission remains open to a national industrial relations system. “The Catholic Church has established positions on key areas of the government’s proposals. These social teachings on the dignity of work and workers are essential aspects of the Catholic faith. They are firmly rooted in the Gospel,” he said. CathNews 12 Sep 05

The International Monetary Fund has given a glowing endorsement of the Australian economy, urging the federal government to push on with sweeping changes in industrial relations and welfare-to-work.
AFR 13 Sep 05

Other items of interest

Like many other Australians, I owe a great debt to Donald Horne. As my teacher, mentor and colleague, he opened up a new way of understanding Australian politics and history, writes Mark McKenna. Aust 12 Sep 05

Peter Sellick argues against teaching intelligent design in Australian biology classrooms. OnlineOpinion 9 Sep 05

“The most important civil liberty I have – and you have – is to stay alive and be free from violence and death,” John Howard said recently. Mark Christensen is keen on living, but disagrees. OnlineOpinion 15 Sep 05

Religion & Ethics Australia Digest is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood 2122 AUSTRALIA. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College or the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. To view the full article, click the blue underlined text at the foot of the summary. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; CT=Christianity Today; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. For back issues click here. For a free copy by email each week, email and type “subscribe to READ” in the subject line.