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As you travel, pause and take a look at airport chapels

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/wendy-cadge-343734">Wendy Cadge</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/brandeis-university-1308">Brandeis University</a> Flying home? It is very likely there is a chapel or meditation room tucked away somewhere in one of the airports you’ll pass through. <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/06/most-of-the-busiest-u-s-airports-have-dedicated-chapels/">Sixteen of the country’s 20 largest airports</a> have chapels, as do many more around the world. I am a <a href="http://www.wendycadge.com/">sociologist</a> of contemporary American religion and have written <a href="http://www.wendycadge.com/publications/airport-chapels-and-chaplains/">two recent articles</a> about airport chaplains and chapels. My interest in airport chapels started as simple curiosity – why do airports have chapels and who uses them? After visiting a few – including the chapel at Logan, my home airport here in Boston – I have concluded that they reflect broader changing norms around American religion. <h2>How airports came to have chapels</h2> The country’s first airport chapels were intended for staff rather than passengers and were established by Catholic leaders in the 1950s and 1960s to make sure their parishioners could attend mass. The first one in the U.S., Our Lady of the Airways, was built by Boston Archbishop Richard J. Cushing at Logan airport in 1951 and it was explicitly meant for people working at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx025">airport</a>. A neon light pointed to the chapel and souvenir cards handed out at the dedication read, “We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us away from all dangers, O glorious and blessed virgin.” Our Lady of the Airways inspired the building of the country’s second airport chapel, Our Lady of the Skies at what was then Idlewild – and is today John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. Protestant chapels came later. The first was in New York – again at JFK. It was designed in the shape of a Latin cross and was joined by a Jewish synagogue in the 1960s. These chapels were located at a distance from the terminals: Passengers wishing to visit them had to go outside. They were <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Exploring_Interfaith_Space.html?id=on5YNwAACAA">later razed</a> and rebuilt in different area of JFK. In the 1970s and 1980s, Protestant chapels opened in Atlanta, and in several terminals of the Dallas airport in Texas. <h2>Becoming more inclusive</h2> By the 1990s and 2000s, single faith chapels had become a <a href="http://www.tciarchive.org/4534.article">“dying breed.”</a> Most started to welcome people from all religions. And many were transformed into spaces for reflection, or meditation for weary travelers. The chapel at San Francisco International Airport, for example, known as the <a href="https://www.flysfo.com/content/berman-reflection-room-0">Berman Reflection Room</a> for Jewish philanthropist Henry Berman who was a former president of the San Francisco Airport Commission, looks like a quiet waiting room filled with plants and lines of connected chairs. A small enclosed space without any religious symbols or obvious connections to things religious or spiritual is available for services. The scene at the <a href="http://www.atlchapel.org/">Atlanta</a> airport chapel is similar, with only a few chairs and clear glass entrances, to provide space for quiet reflection. Some airports, such as JFK, continue with their “Our Lady” names, indicating their faith-based origins. Others include religious symbols and objects from a range of religious traditions. The chapel in <a href="https://cltairportchapel.org/">Charlotte</a>, North Carolina, for example, has multiple religious texts alongside prayer rugs, rosary beads and artistically rendered quotes from the world’s major religions. Pamphlets on topics ranging from grief to forgiveness are available for visitors to take with them at the Charlotte airport. <h2>Different airports, different rules</h2> As these examples show, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx025">no two airports</a> have negotiated chapel space in the same way. What is permissible in one city is often not in another. Often, it is local, historical and demographic factors, including the religious composition of the region, that influence decisions. These could even be based on who started the chapel, or how much interreligious cooperation there is in a city. Certain airports such as Chicago’s <a href="http://www.airportchapels.org/">O'Hare</a> have strict rules regarding impromptu religious gatherings whether inside the chapel or out. Some use their public address systems to announce religious services. Others prohibit such announcements and do not even allow airport chaplains to put out any signs that could indicate a religious space. If they are included in airport maps, chapels tend to be designated by the symbol of a person bent in prayer. But even then, they can be difficult to spot. About half of the existing chapels are on the pre-security side of the airport and the other half accessible only after passengers pass through security. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx025">Only four large American airports</a> – Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York’s LaGuardia – do not have chapel spaces, although opening such a space is under consideration. In the interim, at LaGuardia, a Catholic chaplain holds mass in a conference room. <h2>What’s the future?</h2> The reasons for these spaces and their variations are idiosyncratic and intensely local. These chapels reveal a range of approaches to contemporary American religion and spirituality. So on your travels, keep an eye out for these chapels. Note their similarities and differences and recognize how important local histories are to how church-state issues are resolved – at airports and beyond.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87578/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/wendy-cadge-343734">Wendy Cadge</a>, Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/brandeis-university-1308">Brandeis University</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-you-travel-pause-and-take-a-look-at-airport-chapels-87578">original article</a>. </div>

Travel Tips

Who wrote the Bible?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/philip-c-almond-176214">Philip C. Almond</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead. The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BCE) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement. During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 CE, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up. But who wrote the Bible? Broadly, there are four different theories. <h2>1. God wrote the Bible</h2> All Christians agree the Bible is authoritative. Many see it as the divinely revealed word of God. But there are significant disagreements about what this means. At its most extreme, this is taken to mean the words themselves are divinely inspired – God dictated the Bible to its writers, who were merely God’s musicians playing a divine composition. As early as the second century, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fathersofchurch0000unse/page/382/mode/2up">Christian philosopher Justin Martyr saw it</a> as only necessary for holy men "to submit their purified persons to the direction of the Holy Spirit, so that this divine plectrum from Heaven, as it were, by using them as a harp or lyre, might reveal to us divine and celestial truths." In other words, God dictated the words to the Biblical secretaries, who wrote everything down exactly. This view continued with the medieval Catholic church. Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas put it simply in the 13th century: “the author of Holy Writ is God”. He <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP_Q1_A10.html">qualified this</a> by saying each word in Holy Writ could have several senses – in other words, it could be variously interpreted. The religious reform movement known as Protestantism swept through Europe in the 1500s. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">A new group of churches formed</a> alongside the existing Catholic and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy">Eastern Orthodox</a> traditions of Christianity. Protestants emphasised the authority of “scripture alone” (“sola scriptura”), meaning the text of the Bible was the supreme authority over the church. This gave greater emphasis to the scriptures and the idea of “divine dictation” got more support. So, for example, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924029273996&seq=254">Protestant reformer John Calvin declared</a>: "[we] are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare." <figure class="align-left zoomable"><figcaption></figcaption></figure> “Divine dictation” was linked to the idea that the Bible was without error (inerrant) – because the words were dictated by God. Generally, over the first 1,700 years of Christian history, this was assumed, if not argued for. But from the 18th century on, both history and science began to cast doubts on the truth of the Bible. And what had once been taken as fact came to be treated as myth and legend. The impossibility of any sort of error in the scriptures became a doctrine at the forefront of the 20th-century movement known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>. The <a href="https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy/">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978</a> declared: "Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives." <h2>2. God inspired the writers: conservative</h2> An alternative to the theory of divine dictation is the divine inspiration of the writers. Here, both God and humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible. So, not the words, but the authors were inspired by God. There are two versions of this theory, dating from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">Reformation</a>. The conservative version, favoured by Protestantism, was: though the Bible was written by humans, God was a dominant force in the partnership. Protestants believed the sovereignty of God overruled human freedom. But even the Reformers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin">John Calvin</a>, recognised variation within the Biblical stories could be put down to human agency. Catholics were more inclined to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty. Some flirted with the idea human authorship was at play, with God only intervening to prevent mistakes. For example, in 1625, <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/46/mode/2up">Jacques Bonfrère said</a> the Holy Spirit acts: “not by dictating or inbreathing, but as one keeps an eye on another while he is writing, to keep him from slipping into errors”. In the early 1620s, the Archbishop of Split, Marcantonio de Dominis, went a little further. He distinguished between those parts of the Bible revealed to the writers by God and those that weren’t. In the latter, he believed, errors could occur. His view was supported some 200 years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Henry-Newman">John Henry Newman</a>, who led the Oxford movement in the Church of England and later became a cardinal (and then a saint) in the Roman Catholic Church. Newman argued the divinely inspired books of the Bible were interspersed with human additions. In other words, the Bible was inspired in matters of faith and morals – but not, say, in matters of science and history. It was hard, at times, to distinguish this conservative view from “divine dictation”. <h2>3. God inspired the writers: liberal</h2> During the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic circles, the conservative theory was being overtaken by a more liberal view. The writers of the Bible were inspired by God, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/186/mode/2up">they were “children of their time”</a>, their writings determined by the cultural contexts in which they wrote. This view, while recognising the special status of the Bible for Christians, allowed for errors. For example, in 1860 <a href="https://archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft/page/n359/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=inspir">the Anglican theologian Benjamin Jowett declared</a>: “any true doctrine of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of history or of science”. For Jowett, to hold to the truth of the Bible against the discoveries of science or history was to do a disservice to religion. At times, though, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a liberal view of inspiration and there being no meaning to “inspiration” at all. In 1868, a conservative Catholic church pushed back against the more liberal view, declaring God’s direct authorship of the Bible. The Council of the Church known as Vatican 1 <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm.">declared</a> both the Old and New Testaments were: “written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author.” <h2>4. People wrote it, with no divine help</h2> Within the most liberal Christian circles, by the end of the 19th century, the notion of the Bible as “divinely inspired” had lost any meaning. Liberal Christians could join their secular colleagues in ignoring questions of the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy or infallibility. The idea of the Bible as a human production was now accepted. And the question of who wrote it was now comparable to questions about the authorship of any other ancient text. The simple answer to “who wrote the Bible?” became: the authors named in the Bible (for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the authors of the four Gospels). But the idea of the Bible’s authorship is complex and problematic. (So are historical studies of ancient texts more generally.) This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors. The content of the 39 books of the Old Testament is the same as the 24 books of the Jewish <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew-Bible">Hebrew Bible</a>. Within modern Old Testament studies, it’s now generally accepted that the books were not the production of a single author, but the result of long and changing histories of the stories’ transmission. The question of authorship, then, is not about an individual writer, but multiple authors, editors, scribes and redactors – along with multiple different versions of the texts. It’s much the same with the New Testament. While 13 Letters are attributed to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle">Saint Paul</a>, there are doubts about his authorship of seven of them (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews). There are also disputes over the traditional authorship of a number of the remaining Letters. The book of Revelation was traditionally ascribed to Jesus’s disciple John. But it is now generally agreed he was not its author. Traditionally, the authors of the four <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament">Gospels</a> were thought to be the apostles Matthew and John, Mark (the companion of Jesus’s disciple Peter), and Luke (the companion of Paul, who spread Christianity to the Greco-Roman world in the first century). But the anonymously written Gospels weren’t attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries. The dates of the Gospels’ creation also suggests they were not written by eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life. The earliest Gospel, Mark (65-70 CE) was written some 30 years after the death of Jesus (from 29-34 CE). The last Gospel, John (90-100 CE) was written some 60-90 years after the death of Jesus. It’s clear the author of the Gospel of Mark drew on traditions circulating in the early church about the life and teaching of Jesus and brought them together in the form of ancient biography. In turn, the Gospel of Mark served as the principal source for the authors of Matthew and Luke. Each of these authors had access to a common source (known as “Q”) of the sayings of Jesus, along with material unique to each of them. In short, there were many (unknown) authors of the Gospels. Interestingly, another group of texts, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">Apocrypha</a>, were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments (400 BCE to the first century CE). The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions consider them part of the Bible, but Protestant churches don’t consider them authoritative. <h2>Divine or human: why does it matter?</h2> The question of who wrote the Bible matters because the Christian quarter of the world’s population believe the Bible is a not merely a human production. Divinely inspired, it has a transcendent significance. As such, it provides for Christians an ultimate understanding of how the world is, what history means and how human life should be lived. It matters because the Biblical worldview is the hidden (and often not-so-hidden) cause of economic, social and personal practices. It remains, as it has always been, a major source of both peace and conflict. It matters, too, because the Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has formed, informed and shaped all of us – whether consciously or unconsciously, for good or ill.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214849/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/philip-c-almond-176214">Philip C. Almond</a>, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-wrote-the-bible-214849">original article</a>.

Books

Sinead O'Connor was once seen as a sacrilegious rebel, but her music and life were deeply infused with spiritual seeking

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brenna-moore-1457909">Brenna Moore</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/fordham-university-1299">Fordham University</a> When news broke July 26, 2023, that the gifted Irish singer <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66318626">Sinead O’Connor had died</a>, stories of her most famous performance circulated amid the grief and shock. Thirty-one years ago, after a haunting rendition of Bob Marley’s song “War,” O’Connor ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on live television. “Fight the real enemy,” she said – a reference to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">clerical sex abuse</a>. For months afterward, she was banned, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sinead-o-connor-booed-pope-bob-dylan-concert-1176338/">booed and mocked</a>, dismissed as a crazy rebel beyond the pale. Commemorations following her death, however, cast the protest in a very different light. Her “Saturday Night Live” performance is now seen as “invigorating,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope.html">the New York Times’ pop critic wrote</a>, and “a call to arms for the dispossessed.” Attitudes toward Catholicism, sex and power are far different today than in 1992, whether in New York or O’Connor’s native Dublin. In many people’s eyes, the moral credibility of the Catholic Church around the world <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/245858/catholics-faith-clergy-shaken.aspx">has crumbled</a>, and trust in faith institutions of any sort is <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx">at an all-time low</a>. Sexual abuse, once discussed only in whispers, is now beginning to be talked about openly. I join the chorus of voices today who say O’Connor was decades ahead of her time. But leaving it just at that, we miss something profound about the complexity and depth of her religious imagination. Sinead O’Connor was arguably one of the most spiritually sensitive artists of our time. I am <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/academics/departments/theology/faculty/brenna-moore/">a scholar of Catholicism in the modern era</a> and have long been interested in those figures – the poets, artists, seekers – who wander <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo90478851.html">the margins of their religious tradition</a>. These men and women are dissatisfied with the mainstream centers of religious power but nonetheless compelled by something indelibly religious that feeds the wellsprings of their artistic imagination. Throughout her life, O’Connor defied religious labels, exploring multiple faiths. The exquisite freedom in her music cannot be disentangled from <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/09/16/sinead-oconnor-rememberings-memoir-moore-241369">that something transcendent</a> that she was always after. <h2>‘Rescuing God from religion’</h2> Religion is often thought about as discreet traditions: institutions that someone is either inside or outside. But on the ground, it is rarely that simple. The Catholic Church had a strong hold on Irish society as O’Connor was growing up – a “theocracy,” she called it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/10/sinead-oconnor-pope-visit">in interviews</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/126006/sinead-oconnor">her memoir, “Rememberings</a>” – and for many years she <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oconnor/singer-sinead-oconnor-demands-pope-steps-down-idUSTRE5BA39Y20091211">called for more accountability</a> for the clerical abuse crisis. But she was also open in her love of other aspects of the faith, albeit often in unorthodox ways. She had a tattoo of Jesus on her chest and continued to critique the church while appearing on television with a priest’s collar. Ten years after her SNL performance, O'Connor took courses at a seminary in Dublin with a Catholic Dominican priest, Rev. Wilfred Harrington. Together, they read the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and the Psalms: sacred scriptures in which God’s voice comes through in darker, moodier, more human forms. Inspired by her teacher, she made the gorgeous album “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xncY5WP12BQ">Theology</a>,” dedicated to him. The album is a mix of some of her own songs inspired by the Hebrew Bible – like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/wat,h?v=Kf24-rgyOeI">If You Had a Vineyard</a>,” inspired by the Book of Isaiah; and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh7s5BKphw8">Watcher of Men</a>,” which draws from the biblical story of Job – and other tracks that essentially are sung versions of her favorite Psalms. In <a href="https://wfuv.org/content/sinead-oconnor-words-and-music-2007">a 2007 interview</a> with Fordham University’s WFUV radio station, O'Connor said that she was hoping the album could show God to people when religion itself had blocked their access to God. It was a kind of “rescuing God from religion,” to “lift God out of religion.” Rather than preaching or writing, “music is the little way that I do that,” she said, adding, “I say that as someone who has a lot of love for religion.” <h2>Reading the prophets</h2> In doing so, she stood in the long line of the prophetic tradition itself. The great Jewish thinker <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abraham-joshua-heschel-a-prophets-prophet/">Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s</a> book “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-prophets-abraham-j-heschel?variant=40970012721186">The Prophets</a>” begins with this sentence: “This book is about some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived.” Over and over, the Bible shows the prophets – the prophets who inspired “Theology” – mounting bracing assaults on hypocrisies and insincerities in their own religious communities, and not politely or calmly. To many horrified Catholics, O’Connor’s SNL appearance and her many other criticisms of the church were blasphemous – or, at best, just throwing stones from outside the church for attention. Other fans, however, saw it as prophetic condemnation. It was not just a critique of child abuse but of church officials’ professed compassion for children – sanctimonious pieties <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/26/catholic-church-ireland-child-abuse">as they covered up the abuse</a>. In calling this out and so much more, O’Connor was often seen as disturbing: not just the photo-of-the-pope incident, but her androgyny, her shaved head, her openness around her own struggles with mental illness. But for many admirers, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLy1A4En4U">the documentary “Nothing Compares</a>” makes clear, all this showed that she was free, and like the prophets of old, unashamed and unafraid to provoke. <h2>Rasta to Islam</h2> At the same time, O’Connor’s religious imagination was so much more than a complex relationship with Catholicism. Religion around O’Connor was eclectic and intense. She was deeply influenced by <a href="https://theconversation.com/reggaes-sacred-roots-and-call-to-protest-injustice-99069">Rastafarian traditions</a> of Jamaica, <a href="https://wfuv.org/content/sinead-oconnor-words-and-music-2007">which she described</a> as “an anti-religious but massively pro-God spiritual movement.” She considered Sam Cooke’s early album with the Soul Stirrers the best gospel album ever made. She counted among her spiritual heroes Muhammad Ali – and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45987127">converted to Islam in 2018</a>, changing her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat. Yet O’Connor’s vision was not fragmented, as if she were constantly chasing after bits and pieces. The miracle of Sinead O’Connor is that it all coheres, somehow, in the words of an artist who refuses to lie, to hide or not say what she thinks. When asked about spirituality, O’Connor once said that she preferred to sing about it, not talk about it – as she does in so many songs, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkP-0rnr_Gw">her luminous singing of the antiphon</a>, a Marian hymn sung at Easter services, to her Rasta-inspired album, “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5945-throw-down-your-arms/">Throw Down Your Arms</a>.” In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haYbyQIEgQk">Something Beautiful</a>,” a track from the “Theology” album, O’Connor speaks both to God and the listener: “I wanna make/ Something beautiful/ For you and from you/ To show you/ I adore you.” Indeed she did. To be moved by her art is to sense a transcendence, a peek into radiance.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210540/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brenna-moore-1457909">Brenna Moore</a>, Professor of Theology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/fordham-university-1299">Fordham University</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sinead-oconnor-was-once-seen-as-a-sacrilegious-rebel-but-her-music-and-life-were-deeply-infused-with-spiritual-seeking-210540">original article</a>.

Music

“Please go away”: Grieving mother slams “god-bothering” vandal

A heart-broken mother has slammed a “god-botherer” who superglued a cross to her son’s memorial. Sydney parents Edwina and Anthony Symonds lost their son Sebastian, lovingly known as Seb, when he was just 10-months-old in 2018. After Seb’s death, the grieving parents organised for a memorial plaque to be fixed to a sitting rock located at a popular walk in the city's northern beaches – a place they frequented with Seb before his passing. Edwina told <a href="https://honey.nine.com.au/latest/sydney-baby-memorial-plaque-cross-super-glue-parents-message/348ed1ef-3155-4d56-977e-df84db43715b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">9Honey </a>that she is used to finding well-wishing trinkets people have left behind on Seb’s memorial. "Previously we've had little bibles left there, or small rocks that have been painted by children, or feathers," Edwina said, adding that the family usually takes the items with them as they go along. However, Edwina said one passerby has taken it too far, by supergluing a religious cross to the plaque. "It's obnoxious," Edwina says. She was informed of the unwanted addition to her son's plaque by a friend, and shared a post on a local Facebook page to explain her distress. "To be fair, I'm Catholic and I used to go to church every week when I was younger. I don't have a problem with religion," she said. "I think I captured it well with what I wrote. But don't super glue your religion to me or my son." Her Facebook post read, "To the God-botherer that vandalised our son's plaque by supergluing a cross to it!!! I imagine somewhere in whatever religion you choose to follow, there is some sort of rule that says, 'Don't be a low-life by wrecking other people's property.' If not, there should be.” "Religion is a nice ideal. You are entitled to your beliefs and no-one should take issue with that. I certainly don't.” "I am sure you had some lovely thoughts when you were sitting with Seb like, 'God took this baby to a 'better' place, or that he 'had a plan' for this child, or even the classic 'everything happens for a reason.'” "Cool story, but please go away. Seb doesn't need you to 'save' him. He died already. He can't be saved.” Anthony also commented on the post, not holding back with his frustration over the vandal’s actions. "To the god botherer, Seb is looking down having a laugh at your kooky effort and giving you his swear finger. At 10 months old, his heart was as pure as it gets, though he has subsequently learnt the words f--k you.” "A narrow minded fool, keep away from Seb's little playground. Keep your ideas out of other people's lives unless invited in, the end.” While many of the comments expressed distress at news of her son's death at such a young age, Edwina was quick to explain they are managing to live with their grief, and that Seb's death isn't the issue at hand. "I'm sure they had good intentions, but their execution is s***house," Edwina told 9Honey. "I haven't been down there yet, you have to walk one kilometre along the walkway to see it. I'll have to go to Bunnings to get some bond remover or something. But I have two young kids, so it's just another thing on my to-do list." Image credits: Facebook

Family & Pets

Crude religious joke on The Project sparks wave of backlash

A crude religious joke on The Project has prompted a wave of backlash, with many calling for a formal apology from the panel show. On Tuesday night's episode, the panel were joined by special guest Reuben Kaye: a queer comedian known for pushing social boundaries in his comedy. Reuben, who dresses in drag for his performances, was relaying details of the online hate he receives, particularly from the Christian community, when he made the X-rated remark. "I think it's hilarious when someone messages me and says 'You have to accept Jesus' love or you will burn in hell', because I love Jesus." "I love any man who can get nailed for three days straight and come back for more,” Kaye quipped. Waleed Aly looked stunned by the joke, while co-host Sarah Harris burst into laughter. Some viewers, however, were not amused by the joke, with outraged religious believers taking their criticism online. “Absolutely disgusting comment about Jesus. He just insulted millions of people of faith,” one wrote on Twitter. An upset parent wrote, “Having to explain the offensive joke to my eight-year-old before Survivor kicked in, thanks legends. Shame on you guys. Have some respect and offer a public apology.” Another said, “Having to watch this FILTH during dinner time with a young family. You owe the public an apology & furthermore, this horrible program cancelled.” One outraged viewer wrote, “The three nails sick derogatory joke allowed to air on tour show tonight is you giving permission to mock and ridicule Christianity and my Lord and saviour Jesus.” Despite the backlash from the Christian community, others thought Kaye's joke was "hilarious", and praised the comedian for his blunt delivery. “More of this on The Project please. I p***ed myself,” said one. Another wrote, “I can’t believe Reuben Kaye just said that on national, prime-time television. What an icon!” Kaye is known for his edgy jokes, saying elsewhere during his interview on The Project, when asked about his busy tour schedule, “I’m so thickly spread around this country that I might as well be systemic racism.” Image credits: The Project

Catholic conflicts on marriage continue, even decades after Vatican II

The past 60 years have been a period of change and reflection for many in the Catholic Church, initiated by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and continued by the current synod on synodality. In the autumn of 2021, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.usccb.org/synod" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced a new synod</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-synod-of-bishops-a-catholic-priest-and-theologian-explains-168937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an official meeting of Roman Catholic bishops</a> to determine future directions for the church globally. The <a href="https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/common/phases/continental-stage/dcs/Documento-Tappa-Continentale-EN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first working document</a> issued by the synod was published on Oct. 27, 2022. This document was made public <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2022/documents/20221011-omelia-60concilio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">soon after the 60th anniversary</a> of Pope John XXIII’s 1962 convocation of the Second Vatican Council. During the three years that followed, Catholic bishops from across the globe met in several sessions, assisted by expert theologians. Many guests were also <a href="https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/63-non-catholic-observers-attending-second-session/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited as observers</a>, which included prominent Catholic laity and representatives from other Christian churches. The council called for fresh ways to address 20th-century social and cultural issues and initiated official dialogue groups for Catholic theologians with others from different faith traditions. <div data-id="17"> </div> However, Catholics have become increasingly divided over this openness to contemporary cultural changes. As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">specialist in Roman Catholic liturgy and worship</a>, I find that one important flashpoint where these deeper disagreements become more painfully visible is in Catholic worship, particularly in the celebration of its seven major rituals, called the sacraments. This is especially true in the celebration of matrimony. <h2>Vatican II</h2> In the mid-20th century, the church was still shaken by the repercussions of World War II and struggling to contribute to a world connected by the reality of global communication and the threat of nuclear war. Vatican II was called to “update” and “renew” the church – a process Pope John XXIII called “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/vatican-ii-council-60th-anniversary-video-history-background.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aggiornamento</a>.” One important theme connecting all of the council’s documents was <a href="http://individual.utoronto.ca/hayes/xty_canada/vatican_ii.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inculturation</a>, a more open dialogue with the variety of global human cultures. With the document <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sacrosanctum Concilium</a>, the bishops addressed the need to revisit the centuries-old worship traditions of Catholicism, reforming the structures of the various rituals and encouraging the use of vernacular languages during prayer, rather than exclusive use of the ancient Latin texts. In the intervening decades, however, sharp contradictions and disagreements have arisen, especially over clashes between flexible cultural adaptation and rigorous moral and doctrinal standards. These have become much more visible during the past two pontificates: the more conservative Pope Benedict XVI – pope from 2005 to 2013 – and the more progressive Pope Francis. <h2>The synod on synodality</h2> For the present synod, Pope Francis began with a process of consultation with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-is-increasingly-diverse-and-so-are-its-controversies-189038" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local church communities all over the world</a>, stressing the inclusion of many different groups within the church, especially of <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/voices-of-excluded-in-synod-document-for-continental-phase.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">those who are often marginalized</a>, including the poor, migrants, LGBTQ people and women. However, there <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/is-the-synod-building-a-big-tent-or-a-house-on-sand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has also been criticism</a>. Some feel that the church should more swiftly adapt its teaching and practice to the needs of a variety of contemporary cultural shifts, while others insist it should hold on to its own traditions even more tightly. <h2>Gay marriage</h2> In North America and Europe, a major <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/02/how-catholics-around-the-world-see-same-sex-marriage-homosexuality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cultural shift</a> has taken place over recent decades concerning gays and lesbians, from marginalized rejection to acceptance and support. Over the years Pope Francis has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-endorse-same-sex-civil-unions-eb3509b30ebac35e91aa7cbda2013de2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">come under fire</a> for his comments about homosexuality. He has publicly stated that gay Catholics are not to be discriminated against, that they have a right to enter secular civil unions and that they are to be welcomed by the Catholic community. On the other hand, he has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/setback-gay-catholics-vatican-says-church-cannot-bless-same-sex-unions-2021-03-15/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused bishops permission</a> to offer gay couples a blessing. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/gay-blessings-germany-vatican/2021/05/10/e452cea2-af6a-11eb-82c1-896aca955bb9_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Progressive bishops in Germany</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/flemish-catholic-bishops-defying-vatican-approve-blessing-same-sex-unions-2022-09-20/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Belgium</a>, who had been <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250313/synodal-way-meeting-ends-with-call-for-same-sex-blessings-change-to-catechism-on-homosexuality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proponents</a> of this practice, organized an open protest by setting aside a day just for the bestowal of these blessings. In contemporary Catholicism, discrimination or injustice against gay or lesbian individuals is <a href="https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/568/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a>, because each human being is <a href="https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/life-and-dignity-of-the-human-person" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considered to be a child of God</a>. However, homosexual orientation is still considered “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P85.HTM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intrinsically disordered</a>” and homosexual activity seriously sinful. The Vatican <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/03/15/210315b.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has warned</a> progressives of the danger that these blessings might be considered, in the eyes of the faithful, the equivalent of a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20210222_articolo-responsum-dubium-unioni_en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sacramental marriage</a>. Some might assume that homosexual activity is no longer considered sinful, a fundamental change that conservative Catholics would find completely unacceptable. This doctrinal perspective has led to other liturgical restrictions. For example, the baptism of children adopted by gay parents is considered a “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/committees/doctrine/pastoral-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serious pastoral concern</a>.” In order for a child to receive the sacrament of Catholic baptism – the blessing with water that makes the child a Catholic Christian – there must be some hope that the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann834-878_en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">child will be raised in the Catholic Church</a>, yet the church teaches that homosexual activity is objectively wrong. Despite the current openness <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vatican-synod-gays/gays-and-their-children-should-not-suffer-church-bias-vatican-idUSKBN0F11HV20140626" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to gay Catholics</a>, this conflict could lead to the child’s being denied baptism. Following a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document issued in 2005</a> under Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis in 2018 stated that candidates for the sacrament of ordination – the ritual that makes a man a priest – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-homosexuality/pope-tells-bishops-not-to-accept-gay-seminarians-report-idUSKCN1IP36J" target="_blank" rel="noopener">must be rejected</a> if they demonstrate “homosexual tendencies” or a serious interest in “gay culture.” He also advised gay men who are already ordained to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-homosexuals-book/be-celibate-or-leave-the-priesthood-pope-tells-gay-priests-idUSKBN1O10K7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maintain strict celibacy or leave the priesthood</a>. <h2>Polygamy and colonialism</h2> This recent cultural shift in Western nations has raised difficult questions for Catholics, both clergy and laity. In some non-Western countries, however, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-is-increasingly-diverse-and-so-are-its-controversies-189038" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an older custom</a> that has become an important issue. The culture of many African countries is supportive of polygamy – more specifically, the <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/many-african-catholics-have-more-than-one-wife-what-should-the-church-do/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">practice of allowing men to take more than one wife</a>. While the civil law in some countries might not allow for polygamy, the “<a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/she/v39n1/14.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">customary law</a>” rooted in traditional practice may still remain in force. In some countries, like Kenya in 2014, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/cns/2018/05/11/some-kenyan-christians-support-polygamy-but-catholic-church-says-no" target="_blank" rel="noopener">civil law has been changed</a> to include an <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/01/07/pushed-politicians-polygamy-abounds-among-christians-kenya?destination=/faith/2019/01/07/pushed-politicians-polygamy-abounds-among-christians-kenya" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official recognition of polygamous marriage</a>. Some have argued that monogamy is not an organic cultural shift but a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8827617/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colonial imposition</a> on African cultural traditions. In some areas, Catholic men continue the practice, even those who act on behalf of the church in teaching others about the faith – called catechists. At least one African bishop <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17354/synod-for-africa-ponders-how-to-tackle-polygamy-meddling-by-foreign-interests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has made an interesting suggestion</a>. The openness to alternative cultural approaches has already resulted in one change. Divorced and remarried Catholics were once forbidden from taking Communion – the bread and wine consecrated at the celebration of the Catholic ritual of the Mass – because the church did not recognize secular divorce. Today, they may <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/vatican-cardinal-amoris-laetitia-allows-some-remarried-take-communion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">receive communion</a> under certain conditions. This flexibility might apply as well to Catholics in non-recognized polygamous unions, who are also <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/african-bishop-polygamy-homosexuality-divorce-oh-my" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not permitted to receive Communion</a> at present. As Pope Francis wrote in his 2016 document on marriage, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amoris Laetitia</a>, some matters should be left to local churches to decide based on their own culture and traditions. However, despite the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1988_fede-inculturazione_en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">need for increased awareness of and openness to diverse human cultures</a> stressed during Vatican II and the current synod, this traditional custom is still considered a violation of Catholic teaching. Based on the words of Jesus in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019%3A6&version=NRSVACE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gospel of Matthew</a>, Catholic teaching continues to emphasize that marriage can take place only between <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=6219" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one man and one woman as a lifelong commitment</a>. How the current synod on synodality, in its effort to extend the insights of the Second Vatican Council, will deal with questions like these is still unclear. It is now set to run for an additional year, concluding in 2024 instead of 2023. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/catholic-conflicts-on-marriage-continue-even-decades-after-vatican-ii-192808" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: Shutterstock

Relationships

Iran: protesters call for move to a non-religious state. What changes would that bring?

My friend was in Tehran during protests after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/events-iran-since-mahsa-aminis-arrest-death-custody-2022-10-05/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the death</a> of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police (Gasht-e Ershad). My friend went into a grocery shop intending to buy milk. The seller refused to sell anything to her. “Why are you refusing?” she asked. “I can see that you have milk.” “Because you are wearing a hijab,” the seller responded. This is part of a backlash by those who see themselves as oppressed by the Islamic Republic’s discriminatory hijab law, which prosecutes women for not “covering up”. The term hijab is an Arabic word meaning cover. It’s used to refer to different types of covering, from a long-sleeved coat, pants and scarf to the Islamic government’s preferred form of dress, chador, which is a loose-fitting black cloth worn over the entire body. After Mahsa Amini’s killing in September, mass protests broke out over this law and its enforcement. Wearing hijab became obligatory for all Iranian women from April 1983, after the 1979 revolution. Since then, all women have been forced by law to wear hijab (a covering of hair and or body) in public, even non-Muslims and foreigners visiting Iran. If they don’t they face prosecution. The government of Iran, the Islamic Republic, argues that God commands women to wear hijab. This is a government which has leaders who are members of the clergy and merged religious beliefs into state law. But even some Islamic scholars argue that the Qur'an does not suggest that hijab should be <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300257311/women-and-gender-in-islam/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compulsory</a>. Mahsa Amini’s case is polarising Iran: those who rigorously advocate the hijab and religious law are set against those who prefer a <a href="https://time.com/6216024/iran-protests-islamic-republic-response/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secular state</a>, not run by religious values. This has led the nation to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/26/iran-at-least-15-killed-after-gunmen-attack-shrine-in-shiraz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the current upheaval</a>, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/08/are-hijab-protests-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-irans-regime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vast</a> protests across the country, and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63410577" target="_blank" rel="noopener">people being killed</a>. At many protests the Iranian resistance chant is <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-protests-women-life-freedom-mahsa-amini-killing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zan, Zendegi, Azadi</a> (#WomenLifeFreedom) is heard. The protesters call for life and liberty to be applicable to everyone (religious and non-religious). A big part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-protests-majority-of-people-reject-compulsory-hijab-and-an-islamic-regime-surveys-find-191448" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the motivation</a> behind these protests is to challenge how the current religious law takes away the right of women to choose what to wear. <h2>What is secularism?</h2> Secularism is the idea that states should be <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/1881/chapter-abstract/141631825?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neutral about religion</a>. The state should not <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/16/what-mean-secular-state-neutral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">back</a> a specific religion over others. A secular state <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2011.01117.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provides</a> equal opportunity for religious and non-religious citizens to pursue their lives. The state must respect everyone’s values (including minorities), not just some people’s values. Secularism seems reasonable <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/28394" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to many</a> because it is unusual for an entire nation to believe in a religion as one source of law. Some <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00263206.2019.1643330" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scholars of Islam</a> disagree with the established interpretation of the Islamic Republic about whether God has commanded a mandatory hijab. As a result, they claim that hijab is not about covering hair but about “modesty”. Some others challenge <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/12/iran-hijab-law-protest-ali-larijani" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the way</a> the morality police treat women in the street. While some people might be railing against women being forced to wear the hijab, others continue to feel strongly about its continued use. <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-qom-women-hijab/31929986.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reports</a> say that Iranian authorities have closed some coffee shops because of the “improper” hijab of some female customers. And more <a href="https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/iran-detains-woman-eating-breakfast-without-hijab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently</a>, a woman was arrested for eating breakfast in a café with no hijab. <h2>Iranian history of secularism</h2> Modern debates about secularism in Iran can be traced back to the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/irans-constitutional-revolution-9780755649235/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Constitutional Revolution</a> in 1906. It advocated <a href="https://iranicaonline.org/articles/constitutional-revolution-i" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberalism and secularism</a> and began conversations about a society without religious rules for all. Iranians experienced enforced secularisation shortly after Reza Shah Pahlavi was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Reza-Shah-Pahlavi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crowned</a> in 1925. In 1936 he issued a decree <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/iran-and-the-headscarf-protests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kashf-e hijab</a> that any public expression of religious faith, including wearing hijab, was illegal. Again, this was a leader was telling women what to wear. However, his attempt to militantly secularise and westernise Iran faced <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203060636-22/banning-veil-consequences-dr-stephanie-cronin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resistance</a> from society. The overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979 led to the establishment of a militant Islamic government based on <a href="https://www.icit-digital.org/books/islam-and-revolution-writings-and-declarations-of-imam-khomeini-1941-1980" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shia Muslim teachings</a>. After the hijab became <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/irans-headscarf-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandatory</a>, it became a symbol of compulsory faith. It has also played a significant role in pushing some parts of the Iranian population towards a more secular state. In 2022 Iran is experiencing some dramatic shifts, including what appears to be a shift towards secularism. Some argue that secularism is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/25/archives/khomeini-terms-secular-critics-enemies-of-islam-dictatorship-of-the.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enemy</a> of religion or a product of <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814795644/democracy-in-modern-iran/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">western colonisation</a>. Despite the majority of Iranians considering themselves <a href="https://gamaan.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GAMAAN-Iran-Religion-Survey-2020-English.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">religious</a>, some evidence shows that Iranians are <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-protests-majority-of-people-reject-compulsory-hijab-and-an-islamic-regime-surveys-find-191448" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less religious</a> than before. Since the Islamic revolution there’s been a lot of research about how Iran could work as a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Secularization-of-Islam-in-Post-Revolutionary-Iran/Pargoo/p/book/9780367654672" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secular</a> society and about religious <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/9789047400714/B9789047400714_s006.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tolerance</a>. The current protest movement, led mainly by <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/irans-rising-generation-z-forefront-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gen Z in Iran</a>, is growing partly because of its use of the internet and social media to communicate and share information. People can also learn from other nations’ experiences of secularism through social media. This is why the regime is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2022/oct/06/why-is-the-government-in-iran-shutting-down-the-internet-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shutting down</a> the internet and censoring YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. <a href="https://gamaan.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/GAMAAN-Political-Systems-Survey-2022-English-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One poll</a> suggests that more than 60% of Iranians now want a non-religious state, the question is whether those in power are willing to give it to them. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-protesters-call-for-move-to-a-non-religious-state-what-changes-would-that-bring-193198" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: Sky News

Legal

Religious group members charged over eight-year-old’s death

Members of a religious group in southern Queensland have been charged over the death of an eight-year-old girl earlier this year. Elizabeth Struhs died on January 7 at her home in Rangeville, Toowoomba, after she was allegedly denied insulin for the treatment of her type 1 diabetes for about six days, per the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-05/religious-group-arrests-over-8yo-elizabeth-struhs-death/101208762" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a>. Five men and six women have been charged as a result, with one 60-year-old man being charged with one count of murder and failing to supply the necessities of life, while the remaining eleven - aged between 19 and 65 years old - have been charged with one count of murder. Elizabeth’s parents, Jason and Kerrie Struhs, have previously been charged with murder, torture, and failing to provide the necessities of life. Police allege the dozen involved were aware of Elizabeth’s condition and didn’t seek medical assistance, adding that emergency services weren’t contacted until about 5.30pm on January 8. It is alleged the parents and other members of the religious group prayed for Elizabeth’s recovery instead. The charges laid against them come after six months of investigation by the Toowoomba Child Protection and Investigation Unit, the Child Trauma Unit, and the Homicide Investigation Unit. More than 30 officers conducted a search at a residence in Harristown, where the 12 residents were arrested. Detective Acting Superintendent Gary Watts said the investigation was unlike anything he had ever seen. “In my 40 years of policing, I’ve never faced a matter like this,” he said. “And I’m not aware of a similar event in Queensland, let alone Australia.” According to sources that spoke to the ABC, the religious group is small, tight-knit, and has no ties to any established church in Toowoomba. In a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-brothers-and-sister-of-elizabeth-struhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fundraiser</a> set up to support Elizabeth’s siblings, her older sister Jayde Struhs said her estranged parents were part of a “fear-driven and controlling” cult that took religion to its extremes. She said her younger sister’s death had left their extended family “completely shattered and heartbroken”. “We have faced the brutal reality that the people who should have protected her did not, and we may never know the full extent of what took place,” she said. The people charged in relation to Elizabeth’s death are expected to appear in court on Wednesday, while her parents will return to court later in July. Image: Supplied

Travel Trouble

Abdallah family overwhelmed by incredible invitation

Two years following the tragic loss of their three children to a drunk and drugged driver, the Abdallah family say they have been “humbled” and invited to share their story with the Pope. Danny and Leila Abdallah’s daughters Sienna and Angelina and son Antony were killed alongside their cousin in February 2020. The grief stricken parents largely credit their faith in being able to move forward following the tragedy, starting the foundation ‘i4give’. On Saturday, Leila announced via Instagram that she and Danny had been invited to share their story on a global scale. “Danny and I feel humbled and honoured that our Bishop Antoine Charbel Taraby invited us to attend the WMOF 2022 (World meeting of families 2022) all glory to God always. “Our mission is to serve the Lord and our children for the rest of our lives.” “Please pray that we can have i4give on a global platform starting at the Vatican.” “We thank all our fellow Australians for their love and ongoing support, you have showed Danny and I the true meaning of the Aussie spirit and we are grateful.” The family have welcomed a baby daughter in March, naming her Selina. <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CeFH6e_hkEF/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CeFH6e_hkEF/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Leila Geagea Abdallah (@leila._abdallah)</a> </div> </blockquote> The World Meeting of Families takes place in Rome at the end of June. Image: Instagram

Family & Pets

Priest resigns after botching thousands of baptisms with single phrase

An Arizona priest has voluntarily resigned from his church after it was ruled that he botched thousands of baptisms over the past 25 years - all by using one incorrect phrase.Father Andres Arango left the St Gregory Catholic Church in Phoenix this month <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10511635/Phoenix-Catholic-priest-forced-resign-incorrectly-performed-THOUSANDS-baptisms.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after</a> revealing he used an “incorrect formula” that made the baptisms invalid.Rather than invoking the power of God by saying “I baptise you”, as required by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Father Arango said “we baptise you”, referring to the community.As a result of his phrasing, every baptism he has performed since he was ordained in 1995 until June 2021 has been invalid.This could also mean that subsequent confirmations and First Communions for those baptised by Arango could also be invalidated.The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix said even some marriages could possibly be affected, though they did not expand on how.Father Arango will now work full-time offering spiritual guidance to Catholics whose baptisms have been deemed invalid so he can baptise them again.In 2020, the Vatican issued a doctoral note clarifying that baptisms performed with the phrase “We baptise you in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit” were invalid, prompting church leaders to investigate faith leaders including Father Arango.His invalidated baptisms also came from his time working in churches in Brazil and San Diego.In a letter announcing his resignation, Father Arango apologised to those affected and asked the community for “prayers, forgiveness, and understanding”.<img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/father-arango-letter.png" alt="" width="322" height="826" />Father Arango announced he would leave the church after the Vatican ruled that baptisms he performed over the past 25 years have been invalid. Images: St Gregory Catholic Church Bulletin“It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using an incorrect formula,” Father Arango wrote.“I deeply regret my error and how this affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere.“With the help of the Holy Spirit and in communion with the Diocese of Phoenix I will dedicate my energy and full time ministry to help remedy this and heal those affected.”The Diocese has said Father Arango remains a priest in good standing and that he has not been disqualified from his vocation or ministry as a result of his mistake.Diocese of Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said he didn’t believe Father Arango intentionally harmed or deceived parishioners through his error.“On behalf of our local Church, I am too sincerely sorry that this error has resulted in disruption to the sacramental lives of a number of the faithful,” Olmsted said in a <a href="https://www.stgregoryphx.com/note-on-baptism-validity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.“This is why I pledge to take every step necessary to remedy the situation for everyone impacted.”Image: Padre Andres Arango Phoenix AZ (Facebook)

Family & Pets

School under fire for gender-based enrolment contract

A Christian school in Brisbane has come under fire for requiring parents to sign a contract with new clauses around gender identity and sexual orientation. This has been deemed “utterly disgusting”.Citipointe Christian College in Carindale sent out this updated enrolment contract for parents to sign ahead of children returning to school.The contract stipulates that the school can terminate a child’s enrolment if they do not identify with their birth gender. It also notes that the bible does not make a distinction between gender and biological sex.“Whilst each student is individually valued and equally encouraged to pursue opportunities in both academic and co-curricular activities, I/we agree that, where distinctions are made between male and female (inclusive of, but not limited to, for example, uniforms, presentation, terminology, use of facilities and amenities, participation in sporting events and accommodation) such distinctions will be applied on the basis of the individual’s biological sex,” the contract states.“The Parents acknowledge and accept that, should I/we not share the college’s commitment to fostering these fundamental doctrinal precepts, this will constitute a serious departure from the religious precepts upon which Citipointe Christian College is based and will afford Citipointe Christian College the right to exclude a student from the College who no longer adheres to the College’s doctrinal precepts including those as to biological sex …”The document also dubs homosexuality “sinful, offensive and destructive”, while also lumping it into the same category as paedophilia and incest.“We believe that any form of sexual immortality (including but not limited to; adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual act, incest, paedophilia and pornography) is sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society,” the school document states.The document additionally outlines the schools anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia stance.“We believe that life is created at conception. We believe that every life is sacred and every person has a right to life from the first moment of conception through to the natural end of life,” the document reads.“To take life within the womb or the hasten the end of life through euthanasia is against the word of God.”The contract has sparked outrage since coming to light, with over 27,400 people calling for the school to roll back the amendments.“Citipointe is using their religious beliefs to openly discriminate against queer and trans students, as well as threatening to take away their education,” the Change.org petition started by Bethany Lau states.Ms Lau told The Courier Mail she started the contact to stand up for queer and trans children who are going to be made to feel “less than human” because of this contract.“I hope they feel less alone and they know that there are lots of people on their side and I ultimately hope that Citipointe recalls the amendment to their contract because it is inhumane,” she said.Citipointe Christian College Principal, Pastor Brian Mulheran released a statement on Saturday night saying the school has always held these Christian beliefs and they were trying to be “fair and transparent to everyone in our community” by making them clear in the enrolment contract.“We are seeking to maintain our Christian ethos and to give parents and students the right to make an informed choice about whether they can support and embrace our approach to Christian education,” he said.“Citipointe does not judge students on their sexuality or gender identity and we would not make a decision about their enrolment in the College simply on that basis.”However, Mr Mulheran’s statement appears contradictory with the contract, that clearly states the school has the right to “exclude a student from the College who no longer adheres to the College’s doctrinal precepts” which includes those around biological sex.The principal went on to claim that the school “unequivocally” loves and respects all people “regardless of their lifestyle and choices, even if those choices are different to our beliefs and practice”.Australian comedian and content creator, Christian Hull, is among those who have publicly called out the school for its updated contract, blasting it as “sickening” and damaging to young people.“The new contract is utterly disgusting and dicriminatory. I cannot believe in 2022 we are still here and still fighting these battles,” he wrote on Instagram.“I understand religion brings about a community spirit and there are many faithful people who also highly disagree with the stance that Citipointe is taking.“We need to stamp out this type of blatant bigotry and not allow the school to act in this way."Mr Hull also called out the people who claimed parents didn’t have to send their children to the school if they didn’t like its views.He said this response was coming from people who didn’t understand there are bigger issues at play.Image: Richard Walker / News.com.au

Family & Pets

Catholic Church to meet for first plenary council in 84 years

Representatives from the Catholic Church in Australia are soon to assemble at an historic gathering that will chart a future for a "diminished" institution bruised by the damning finds of a sexual abuse royal commission. The last time bishops and representatives from all the nation’s dioceses gathered for an all-in plenary council was in 1937. The issues now confronting the church could not possibly have been foreseen then – royal commission findings that child sexual abuse ran rampant and was covered up. From this Sunday, 280 ordinary lay members and bishops will convene to consider issues that will have a profound effect on the shape of the church in Australia. Among the most pressing agenda items is how the church plans to reform; 45 bishops will vote on binding resolutions that will be sent to the Vatican for approval. Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who is also the president of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference, pushed for the summit, saying that the royal commission didn’t prompt the event – but that the “great humiliations” it exposed must inform the next steps of a “diminished” church. “We have to ask the questions about what it means to be a poorer church, a humbler church, a simpler church, but a church which is reaching out in all kinds of new and perhaps hitherto unseen ways, into culture and society,” Archbishop Coleridge told the ABC. Former royal commission Robert Fitzgerald says it’s no secret that the church “struggles with transparency” and that some bishops, priests and laity still hold the belief that the church is a private institution. He wants to see the return of pastoral councils to improve transparency and increase the involvement of lay people in decisions taken by priests and bishops. “If the governance of the church is not significantly improved, and the participation of women isn’t considerably enhanced, then .. the reforms we’ve talked about previously in relation to professional standards, the way in which we protect vulnerable people, they will falter over,” he has warned. Archbishop Coleridge says “question of women” will be central to the deliberations of plenary council. Other issues on the agenda include how the church might "open in new ways to Indigenous ways of being Christian" and learn from First Nations peoples. The first Plenary Council assembly begins with a mass at St Mary's Cathedral in Perth on Sunday. The event runs until October 10, and will be conducted online.

Legal

Scott Morrison "called to do God's work" as PM

Scott Morrison has told an audience at a Christian conference on the Gold Coast that he was "called to do God's work" as Australia's Prime Minister. The statement was recorded at the Australian Christian Churches conference last week and shared on Facebook by The Rationalist Society. In the address, Morrison, a Pentecostal Christian, said the misuse of social media was "the work of the evil one" (ie the devil) and had a "corrosive effect on society". “It is going to take our young people... it’s going to take their hope, it’s going to steal their hope,” he said. “Sure, social media has its virtues and its values and enables us to connect with people in ways we’ve never had before, terrific, terrific, but those weapons can also be used by the evil one and we need to call that out.” The PM said he had looked for signs from God during the 2019 election campaign and often prayed while working, as well as practicing the "laying-on of hands" when out visiting people. Morrison said he had asked God for a “sign” while he was at an art gallery in New South Wales. “And there right in front of me was the biggest picture of a soaring eagle,” he says in the video. “The message I got that day was, Scott, you’ve got to run to not grow weary, you’ve got to walk to not grow faint, you’ve got to spread your wings like an eagle to soar like an eagle.” He also revealed that he had practiced the laying on of hands when he visited victims of the devastating Cyclone Seroja in Western Australia. “I’ve been in evacuation centres where people thought I was just giving someone a hug and I was praying, and putting my hands on people ... laying hands on them and praying in various situations,” he said. “God has, I believe, been using us in these moments to be able to provide some relief and comfort and just some reassurance.”

News

Christian school expells 8-year-old for crush on another girl

A girl has been expelled from school after admitting to a fellow student she had a crush on her, according to her mum. 8-year-old Chloe Shelton was expelled from Rejoice Christian School in the US state of Oklahoma, after four years due to the school's beliefs on same sex relationships. Speaking to CNN, Delanie Shelton, Chloe's mum, said the vice-principal told her daughter: “the Bible says that women can only have children with a man”. Ms Shelton said the vice-principal asked her about homosexuality to which she replied saying she has "no issues with it". Chloe was sent home and was told not to return on Friday. The superintendent then contacted the family to let them know they were "ending their partnership" due to differing beliefs, and also expelled Chloe's five-year-old brother. "I was so blindsided. I was angry, hurt, betrayed, sad... so many different emotions. I just couldn't believe it," she told CNN. Superintendent Joel Pepin refused to comment on the issue due to privacy reasons. The school's handbook does state that students should not engage in public displays of affection, and any form of "sexual immorality" such as "professing to be homosexual/bisexual" goes against its beliefs. To compromise on this means students forfeit their enrolment.

Legal

Pope Francis shows support for same-sex marriage for the first time

Pope Francis has defended the right of gay couples to enter into a legally recognised civil union in a documentary that premiered at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday. In the film, Fransesco by Evgeny Afineevsky, the religious leader says that gay people have the right to be in a family. “These are children of God, they have the right to a family,” Francis says in the film, speaking in Spanish. “What we have to create is a law of civil union, they have the right to be legally protected. I have defended that.” According to biographer Austen Ivereigh, the future pope backed civil unions for gay couples while he was still the archbishop of Buenos Aires and known as Jorge Bergoglio. But Francis has been vocal about his stance of gay marriage in the past, saying that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. “‘Marriage’ is a historic word,” he told French sociologist Dominique Wolton in a 2017 book of interviews. “Always among human beings, and not only in the Church, it has been between a man and a woman. You can’t just change that like that.” “Since the beginning of the pontificate the Pope has spoken of respect for homosexuals and has been against their discrimination,” Vatican expert Vania de Luca told RaiNews. “The novelty today is that he defends as pope a law for civil unions.” After becoming pope in 2013, Francis welcomed homosexuals with his now famous phrase, “Who am I to judge?” and has invited gay couples to the Vatican on multiple occasions. The two-hour documentary looks back at the last seven years pf his pontificate and travels. One of the most heartfelt moments in the film os when the Pope called a gay couple, parents of three young children, after they sent him a letter saying they felt ashamed to bring their children to the parish. Francis invited them over regardless, saying to not be concerned of other people’s judgements. In the past, he has regularly said gay people should be accepted in their parishes and urged parents not to reject their gay children. Chilean Juan Carlos Cruz, an activist against sexual abuse within the Church, accompanied the director to the film screening on Wednesday. “When I met Pope Francis he told me he was very sorry about what happened. Juan, it is God who made you gay and he loves you anyway. God loves you and the Pope loves you too,” says Cruz in the film.

Relationships

"Absolutely livid": Mayor furious as 400 allowed to gather at Sydney mosque

A decision made by NSW Health has been slammed by local officials who claim that they weren't told about the latest exemptions as 400 worshippers gathered at a mosque to celebrate EID. Current COVID-19 social distancing restrictions in NSW prevent more than 100 people from gathering in places of worship, but NSW Health gave permission for four times that number to attend the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in western Sydney on Friday for Eid al-Adha prayers, which is a major religious event. The worshippers that attended wore masks but Cumberland City Council Mayor Steve Christou said that he was "absolutely livid" about the government's decision to allow the event. "This kind of behaviour from the state is inexcusable and I am absolutely livid that they would potentially jeopardise the health and wellbeing of our residents and the health of greater Sydney residents," he told<a rel="noopener" href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/parramatta/coronavirus-nsw-auburn-mosque-cumberland-mayor-slams-decision-to-allow-400-worshippers/news-story/611f46da61d8f68c51138cb71d11fbe5" target="_blank" class="_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtflink"> The Daily Telegraph</a>. "We either have a pandemic, which we acknowledge and adhere to the relevant health directives for one and all, or we don’t." Attendees had to sign in and were split into four zones, which included two levels of the mosque, a function hall and a car park. Up to 100 people were allowed inside and attendees also wore stickers to designate the zone to which they'd been assigned. Mayor Christou claimed he found out about the decision through media and said that he would have opposed the exemption had he known about it. "I don’t understand how NSW Health can pick and choose who is at risk and who warrants an exemption," he said. NSW Health said in a statement that the mosque developed a "comprehensive safety plan" and that the government body was on site on the day to ensure procedures were being followed. The mosque's president Abdurrahman Asaroglu had said previously the venue had implemented appropriate measures to reduce the risk of a coronavirus outbreak. "Our community is really understanding and they are OK to follow these measures — no shaking hands, no hugging — making sure that they just pray," Dr Asaroglu told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-31/auburn-mosque-granted-coronavirus-exemption-for-eid-al-adha/12508358" target="_blank" class="_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtflink">ABC</a>. "If everyone does the right thing I don't think there will be any issues."

News

Religion over science: Malcolm Turnbull slams government's climate change response

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has taken aim at the government’s “fundamental problem in dealing with climate change”. The politician was part of the panel on ABC’s final Q&A for 2019 on Monday night, alongside opposition leader Anthony Albanese, and took a swing at the coalition government. Mr Turnbull, who was the first to receive a question from the audience, was asked about the need for a better bushfire crisis management plan in light of the fatalities and hundreds of homes lost around Australia. The former PM agreed there was a better plan that must be put in place and was necessary as the country continues to see “more fires and hotter fires” due to global warming. He agreed a better plan was necessary as we’ll see “more fires and hotter fires” due to global warming. “And will oppose to the point of essentially blowing up a government, my government in this case, if there is action taken to reduce emissions. And we saw that.” Turnbull said the National Energy Guarantee “dared to contemplate that climate change might be real” and became “the lever that the insurgents used to blow up the government”. Another audience member asked the former PM if he regretted not standing by his beliefs on climate change while leading the country and going down “fighting” back in August 2018. “I guess I did go down,” he replied. “I lost the support of the party room.” He further went on to say Mr Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenburg had been “enthusiastic” for the energy policy as he had been but knew the government's position was being “held to ransom by a group of deniers within the party”. This extended to some people in the media and other sections outside parliament, he said. “Therein lies the problem,” Mr Turnbull said. “What the problem is, is that people … on the right, they are treating what should be a question of physics and science and economics and engineering as though it were an issue of religion and belief. And it’s nuts.” Prime Minister Scott Morrion’s christian faith is widely known and earlier this year he invited the media into his Pentecostal Christian church in southern Sydney. In recent months, the politician had been slammed on Twitter for sending “thoughts and prayers” to those impacted by the devastating bushfires. Hundreds of users replied to Mr Morrison’s tweet, with many describing it as doing “absolutely nothing” to fix the situation. Labor leader, Mr Albanese agreed with Mr Turnbull on Monday night that a few people had held the “environment to ransom”. He also went on to say Australia should be pushing to be “the clean energy super power for the world”. “The real tragedy is that good policy on climate change can create jobs, can reduce prices, as well as reducing emissions at the same time,” he said. Mr Albanese mentioned he had written to Mr Morrison three weeks ago, urging that a national response was needed. “He wrote back to me saying it wasn’t required,” Mr Albanese said. “I agree with Malcolm this is an issue that needs leadership but it also needs co-ordination. “Yes, the state governments will be responsible for emergency services, but fires don’t recognise state boundaries.”

News

Peter FitzSimons slams Israel Folau’s “absurd” claims

Peter FitzSimons has laid waste to Israel Folau’s claims he could have captained the Wallabies to a World Cup win. Earlier this year, Folau was let go from his contract with Rugby Australia for anti-gay comments made on social media, and is in the process of demanding $14 million in damages, further claiming he could have been a Wallabies skipper The star lodged an updated statement of claim in the Federal Circuit Court, where he has upped his compensation demands from $10 million to $14 million. Former rugby star turned journalist and author FitzSimons has laid waste to Folau’s claims and has Gina step further to slam his “worrying” beliefs about gay marriage and bushfires. “It just gets ever more absurd,” FitzSimons incredulously told TVNZ. “From a distance, I just thought, ‘What? Captain?’... but Michael Cheika, who was the Wallabies coach of course, he moved through seven vice-captains. “Now, if Michael Cheika had seven vice-captains and Israel Folau wasn’t one of them, I think by definition he was a very unlikely man to be captain.” FitzSimons said he and a current Wallaby team member, who he decided not to name, discussed Folau’s captaincy claim and the player “burst into laughter”. "The last time Australian rugby had a fullback as captain was in 1980. It was Paul McLean, it was one Test, and after that the theory in Australian rugby was that fullback was too far from the main game to be the captain, so the tradition in Australian rugby is we don’t have a fullback as a captain,” FitzSimons said. “I find the claim absolutely absurd.” Folau made headlines again recently for claiming Australia’s bushfires, which took six lives over its tenure, were a result of legalising same-sex marriage and abortion - a claim FitzSimons has labelled as worrying. “It doesn’t have the closest grip on reality and I worry about that kind of stuff,” he said. “If he actually believes that, then I respectfully submit his remaining friends need to sit him down, give him a hug and say, ‘C’mon mate, we’ve got to get you some help here. This is not real’.” Folau said his contract termination will cost him $4.2 million from 2019-2022, as well as $300,000 in match payments from 2019-2021. He also has made claims he stood to make up to $1.5 million a season with an overseas club for two-to-three years when his contract with RA was up. Lost sponsorship dollars, the missed revenue of competing at World Cups and the possibility of captaining the national team were also used to justify the controversial star’s new $14 million demand.

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Calls for radio host Kyle Sandilands to be sacked after saying Virgin Mary was a “liar”

People of faith are protesting outside KIIS FM’s headquarters in Ryde, Sydney after Kyle Sandilands joked that the Virgin Mary was a “liar” who got “knocked up behind a camel shed”. “I thought Mary was his (Jesus’) girlfriend but apparently it was the mother,” he said. “And the mother lied obviously and told everyone, ‘Nah I got pregnant by a magical ghost’. Bulls**t.” He then called anyone who believed in the Bible story “dumb”. “You might believe everything that was written down 2000 years ago to be absolutely accurate. Good on you, you’re dumb. Dumb as dog s**t,” he said. Sandilands has apologised for the video and did so last week. He told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/kyle-sandilands-slammed-over-disgusting-video-on-virgin-mary/news-story/143daedd71a1651a7d4a3912a496de0a" target="_blank">The Daily Telegraph</a> that everyone is “entitled to their own religious beliefs” and that he’s “sorry if I offended anyone with my comments”. However, this isn’t enough for protesters. Protest leader Georgie Clark told <a rel="noopener" href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/protestors-want-kyle-sandilands-sacked-for-virgin-mary-blunder-002654337.html" target="_blank">Yahoo News Australia</a> about their thoughts on the incident. “We live in a country that has double standards because in the commercial code of conduct clause 214 states that a radio station cannot offend, discriminate against religion, sex, gender,” protest leader Georgie Clark said. “Rugby Australia have the same code of conduct and he [Israel Folau] got sacked for quoting something he didn’t even write. “Kyle from 106.5 KIIS FM went and discriminated against not only one religion but two. He discriminated and said things from his own heart. He called us dumb, he called us stupid, he called Muslims and Christians who believe in the Virgin Mary liars,” Clark said. “What is the difference between offending a homosexual or a thief or a liar or an adulterer or a fornicator like Israel Folau did? But when it comes to religion they just want to sweep us under the carpet.” Folau was sacked in April this year for sharing an image on his Instagram account which said ‘hell awaits drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters’.

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Why are people religious?

The quick and easy answer to why people are religious is that God – in whichever form you believe he/she/they take(s) – is real and people believe because they communicate with it and perceive evidence of its involvement in the world. Only <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/">16 per cent of people worldwide</a> are not religious, but this still equates to approximately 1.2 billion individuals who find it difficult to reconcile the ideas of religion with what they know about the world. Why people believe is a question that has plagued great thinkers for many centuries. Karl Marx, for example, called religion the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/26/religion-philosophy">opium of the people</a>”. Sigmund Freud felt that god was an illusion and worshippers were reverting to the childhood needs of security and forgiveness. A more recent psychological explanation is the idea that our evolution has created a “<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631561-000-effortless-thinking-the-godshaped-hole-in-your-brain/">god-shaped hole</a>” or has given us a metaphorical “<a href="https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_god_engine">god engine</a>” which can drive us to believe in a deity. Essentially this hypothesis is that religion is a by-product of a number of cognitive and social adaptations which have been extremely important in human development. Adapted for faith We are social creatures who interact and communicate with each other in a co-operative and supportive way. In doing so we inevitably have stronger attachments to some individuals more than others. British psychologist John Bowlby demonstrated <a href="https://www.learning-theories.com/attachment-theory-bowlby.html">this influence of attachments</a> on children’s emotional and social development, and showed how these can suffer when they are threatened through separation or abuse. We continue to rely on these attachments in later life, when falling in love and making friends, and can even form strong attachments to non-human animals and inanimate objects. It is easy to see that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508619.2012.679556">these strong attachments could transfer</a> to religious deities and their messengers. Our relationships depend on being able to predict how others will behave across situations and time. But the things that we form attachments to don’t necessarily need to be in front of us to predict their actions. We can imagine what they would do or say. This ability – known as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=R5c4AAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=decoupled+cognition+development&ots=EguvU5WaPt&sig=vFzsPLOgvR-DVKo45otxPToTL-s#v=onepage&q=decoupled%20cognition%20development&f=false">cognitive decoupling</a> – originates in childhood through pretend play. It is a small leap from being able to imagine the mind of someone we know to imagining an <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271772">omnipotent, omniscient, human-like mind</a> – especially if we have religious texts which tell of their past actions. Another key adaptation that may help religious belief derives from our ability to to anthropomorphise objects. Have you ever seen the outline of a person only to realise that it is actually a coat hung on the door? This capacity to attribute human forms and behaviours to non-human things shows we also readily endow non-human entities, such as gods, with the same qualities that we possess and, as such, make it easier to connect with them. Behavioural benefits In addition to these psychological aspects, the ritual behaviour seen in collective worship makes us enjoy and want to repeat the experience. Dancing, singing and achieving trance-like states were prominent in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958132/">many ancestral societies</a> and are still exhibited by some today – including the <a href="https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/sentinelese">Sentinelese people</a>, and <a href="https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/aboriginal-ceremonial-dancing/">Australian aborigines</a>. As well as being acts of social unity, even more formal rituals also <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/01/04/this_is_your_brain_on_religion_uncovering_the_science_of_belief/">alter brain chemistry</a>. They increase levels of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin in the brain – chemicals that make us feel good, want to do things again and provide a closeness to others. These cognitive adaptations are facilitated by educational and household norms which don’t tend to dispute religious ideas. While we are encouraged to challenge other ideas presented to us early in childhood that may not have a strong evidence base – such as Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy – this is not the case with religion. These challenges are often discouraged in religious teachings and <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/billy-graham-its-sin-in-the-eyes-of-god-to-criticize-your-pastor.html">sometimes regarded as sinful</a>. Regardless of your point of view, the impact of religion and religious thinking on human functioning and evolution is a captivating intellectual debate that shows no sign of ending. Of course, one might argue that god creates everything outlined above but then this leads us onto another, bigger question: what is the evidence for god?<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108647/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> Written by Nick Perham, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Republished with permission of <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-people-religious-a-cognitive-perspective-108647" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.

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