Can churches run hospitals effectively ?

Submitted by Ralph

From ABC Local Radio 612 Brisbane

Church sacks hospital directors in abortion row
By Emma Sykes
27 June 2011 , 12:29 PM
 
Nine members of a hospital board here in south-east Queensland have been sacked by the church that runs the hospital.

This raises an important issue - not just for St Andrews in Toowoomba - where this happened, but a wider issue.

If a Church is against abortion, should it dictate policy for a hospital under its ownership?

A board of directors or governors is appointed by the Church. Who does it answer to?

And what does this mean for medicine - what role or limitations are being placed on doctors?

Madonna King spoke to the Right Rev Graeme McKay, who is the moderator of the presbyterian church of Queensland.
 
Download audio from this interview

She also spoke to Dr Caroline Harvey, the medical director of Family Planning Queensland. 

Download audio from this interview 

Source:   http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2011/06/church-sacks-hospital-directors-in-abortion-row.html?site=brisbane&program=612_morning 

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Submitted by Ralph

Tweeted by Leslie Cannold (@LeslieCannold)
28/06/11 12:50
Qld hospital sacks directors who put Drs autonomy & care of female patients over Vatican dictates. Where r u Anna Bligh?

http://www.cannold.com 


 
 

Forewarned is forearmed

Submitted by John & Kevin

From The New York Times

Separation of Church and School
By Katherine Stewart
Published: June 11, 2011

FROM our apartment you can see the front door of our children’s public school. It’s a bright red double door made of solid wood and framed in brown-red brick. Last summer I spent a lot of time looking at that door with anticipation and excitement. We had just moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan from California, and had chosen the neighborhood for its school.
On the second Sunday after classes started, happy and hectic, I glanced out the window and saw a large group of people gathered in front of the schoolhouse door. They had a table, brochures, a tray of lollipops and a four-foot-tall sign. It turned out that they were part of an evangelical ministry and that our school was their church. 

I decided to attend the service. 

“Notice the names of the children on pieces of paper,” the pastor advised his flock. I looked around and saw the posters the kids had made, with their charming snapshots from summer holidays and rambling lists of likes and dislikes. “Pray for them!” the pastor continued. “Pray that the families of this school will come to know Jesus and say, ‘This is a House of God!’ ”

Full article:   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/opinion/12stewart.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

"What's the harm ?", they ask.

Well, here's one example..

Submitted by Graham

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Catholic hospital bars contraception advice
By Julie Robotham 
June 6, 2011

 "It puts me in an invidious position" ... Dr Michael Seldon, a practising

Catholic who works at Newcastle's Calvary Mater Hospital. Photo: Anita Jones 

 CANCER doctors are on a collision course with a Catholic health organisation over new religion-based rules which prohibit them recommending contraception to patients taking a drug derived from thalidomide, which can cause severe birth defects.

Under a clampdown at Newcastle's Calvary Mater Hospital, doctors recruiting patients into clinical trials may no longer distribute information about contraception. Instead they are allowed to offer a ''statement of reproductive risks'', which advises participants to avoid pregnancy but gives no information on how to achieve this.

Full story:   http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/catholic-hospital-bars-contraception-advice-20110605-1fnj3.html

Anglicans celebrate their influence

From the Sydney Anglicans website
  
State teachers positive on connecting
By Andrew Buerger
May 30th, 2011

The Anglican Education Commission says it has been encouraged by the response to this month’s ‘Celebrating Christians in State Schools’ event.

The event, held at Wyndham College in Quakers Hill, was designed as a way of supporting Christian teachers working in state schools, and to encourage them in their work.

“It is vital for Christian teachers to be working in state schools,” Archbishop Peter Jensen told the event via video message.

Dr Jensen’s message was supported by a series of speakers including Bishops Glenn Davies and Ivan Lee.

Bishop Lee told of how he became a Christian while at school, and spoke of the crucial role Christian teachers can play in the lives of young people.

Full article:   http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/news/stories/state_teachers_positive_on_connecting/

7pm Project story on RE/RI/SRE/SRI

Submitted by Ralph 

Here's a clip from Channel 10's 7pm Project recently, as captured by folks at FIRIS (Fairness In Religions In School) , a group based in Victoria "committed to working for inclusive education about religions in school."

No special privileges, eh ?

From the ABC News website

Fury as Baillieu rams through pro-discrimination law

Thursday 2nd June, 2011

Premier Ted Baillieu has been labelled

Jeff Kennett's "Mini-me". (AAP: Julian Smith)  

The Victorian Government has cast the rules of Parliament aside to reintroduce a bill that will allow faith-based groups to discriminate on grounds such as religion, marital status or gender. 

In a historic move, the Government used its numbers to suspend the rules of Parliament and conduct a second vote on the Equal Opportunity Amendment Bill, which was defeated last week.

Despite attempts by the Opposition to stop the second vote on changes to the laws, the bill was passed on Wednesday night.

The controversial amendment was defeated last week when Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge missed the vote.

Full story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/02/3233202.htm

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On the same issue - From The Age

Baillieu: the discriminating progressive 
By Farrah Tomazin 
June 5, 2011

The Coalition has taken a big step backwards in the name of religious freedom. 

YOU could be forgiven for having missed them, but two extraordinary events occurred in the Victorian Parliament over the past few weeks, placing Ted Baillieu's progressive credentials under question. The first happened 10 days ago, when senior minister Mary Wooldridge missed a vote for a government bill. And not just any bill. This one proposed winding back the powers of the state's equal opportunity commission, and allowing faith-based organisations to refuse staff based on sexuality, marital status, or spiritual beliefs - all in the name of religious freedom.

Without Wooldridge, the Coalition didn't have the numbers. It was the first time in more than 30 years a government bill has lost in the Legislative Assembly.

But what happened next is even more astonishing: team Baillieu called for a rematch. In an unprecedented move, the government changed the rules of parliament to allow the bill to be resubmitted, on the grounds that Wooldridge's absence had been an ''accident''. With all MPs present, the government used its slim majority to pass the bill to the upper house.

Full Story:   http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/baillieu-the-discriminating-progressive-20110604-1fm8p.html

Thoughts of an atheist

From ABC Religion and Ethics

Soothsaying in schools? Reflections on the SRI debate 
By Tamas Pataki
1st Jun 2011

There is currently a good deal of public controversy about chaplaincy and the teaching of religion in government schools. Both activities seem to me to be bad public policy, but some of the most fundamental reasons for resisting the current arrangements have not - so far as I'm aware - been made explicit. 

A good teacher does not ask pupils to believe, or help their unbelief;

a good teacher asks them to reason, to think clearly about matters at

hand and to find good reasons for holding their conclusions 

Tamas Pataki is honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne and honorary fellow of Deakin University.  

Full story:   http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/06/01/3232609.htm?topic1&topic2 

A considered opinion piece... with some interesting comments following the article, too. Well worth a read.