One step forward

From the ABC News website

Queensland passes civil unions bill

Updated December 01, 2011 07:45

'Blow against prejudice' - Anna Bligh addresses a gay rights rally

before the vote (AAP: Toby Mann)

The Queensland Parliament has joined Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT in passing legislation recognising same-sex civil partnerships.

As expected, the Opposition voted against the bill as did most independent MPs.

Labor MPs were allowed a conscience vote and four voted against the legislation, but the final result was not as close as expected with a margin of 47 votes to 40.

Inside Parliament, Premier Anna Bligh reflected the views of a majority of her party.

"The bill that is before the Parliament is a bill that seeks to strike a blow against prejudice and strike a blow against discrimination," she said.

Health Minister Geoff Wilson, who initially said he would support the bill, was one of the Labor MPs who voted against the bill.

"The more I have thought about it, about what I personally believe according to my faith, unfortunately I can't support the bill," he said.

Another Labor MP, Michael Choi, was the first to tell Parliament he would not support the legislation.

"This is by far the hardest legislation for the last 10 years I've had to work on," he said.

"I struggled and have argued with myself over and over, but at the end I could not support this bill.

"My conscience does not allow me to go further. I wanted to but I could not."

Mr Choi also thanked Ms Bligh for allowing MPs to make up their own minds.


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-01/queensland-parliament-passes-same-sex-bill/3705444


Congratulations, QLD ! The spotlight on bigotry just got considerably brighter. Well done.

Perhaps Health Minister Geoff Wilson and those other community representatives that voted similarly, need to consider that their government positions aren't pulpits, and the work they do in those positions is not an acceptable opportunity for them to legislate their personal beliefs onto others. Politicians need to represent all of their constituents, not just the majority of them, and so should act accordingly.

How NOT to do it, Lesson 2

From Slate.com

Rule of Lord
The Republican plan to nullify the courts and establish Christian theocracy.

By William Saletan
Posted Monday, Nov. 21, 2011

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Michele Bachmann.

Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

Is the United States sliding toward theocracy? That’s what Republican presidential candidates have told us for more than a year. Radical Islam, they’ve argued, is on the verge of taking over our country through Sharia law. But this weekend, at an Iowa forum sparsely covered by the press, the candidates made clear that they don’t mind theocracy—in fact, they’d like to impose it—as long as it’s Christian.

You can find video of Saturday’s “Thanksgiving Family Forum” on the Web sites of two organizations that sponsored it: CitizenLink and the Family Leader. Here are highlights of the candidates’ remarks.
 

1. Religious Americans must fight back against nonbelievers. To quote Herman Cain:

"What we are seeing is a wider gap between people of faith and people of nonfaith. … Those of us that are people of faith and strong faith have allowed the nonfaith element to intimidate us into not fighting back. I believe we’ve been too passive. We have maybe pushed back, but as people of faith, we have not fought back."

2. The religious values we must fight for are Judeo-Christian. Rick Perry warned:

"Somebody’s values are going to decide what the Congress votes on or what the president of the United States is going to deal with. And the question is: Whose values? And let me tell you, it needs to be our values—values and virtues that this country was based upon in Judeo-Christian founding fathers."

3. Our laws and our national identity are Judeo-Christian. Michele Bachmann explained:

"American exceptionalism is grounded on the Judeo-Christian ethic, which is really based upon the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments were the foundation for our law. That’s what Blackstone said—the English jurist—and our founders looked to Blackstone for the foundation of our law. That’s our law."

4. No religion but Christianity will suffice. Perry declared,

“In every person’s heart, in every person’s soul, there is a hole that can only be filled by the Lord Jesus Christ.”

5. God created our government. Bachmann told the audience:

"I have a biblical worldview. And I think, going back to the Declaration of Independence, the fact that it’s God who created us—if He created us, He created government. And the government is on His shoulders, as the book of Isaiah says."

I won't include the full text of the rest, but I'll list the remaining talking points to entice you to look at the full article - if you thought the first 5 were cause for concern, wait 'til you read the rest !

6. U.S. law should follow God’s law.

7. Anything that’s immoral by religious standards should be outlawed.

8. The federal government should impose this morality on the states.

9. Congress should erase the judiciary’s power to review moral laws.

10. Courts that get in the way should be abolished.

11. The purge of judges should be based on public opinion.

12. Freedom means obeying morality. 

Read what these leaders had to say on these topics by clicking on the "Full Article" link below. The video of the event is also available. 


Full article:   http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/human_nature/2011/11/christian_theocracy_how_newt_gingrich_and_the_gop_would_abolish_courts_and_legislate_morality_.html

Understanding the common human drive

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Religion, ethics may be in new curriculum

By Barney Zwartz
November 21, 2011

Calling the shots ... Professor Barry McGaw. Photo: Eddie Jim

RELIGION and ethics taught from a secular perspective might be included in the new national curriculum, says Barry McGaw, the head of the board responsible for the curriculum.

Professor McGaw, the chairman of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, said religion and ethics would be included in a discussion paper early next year for the civics and citizenship course.

A Macquarie University PhD student, Cathy Byrne, told a forum hosted by the curriculum board in Sydney last week that the approach to religion and ethics in Australian schools was decades behind other leading developed nations.


She told the Herald that Sweden began compulsory core social science teaching on religion and ethics in 1962, while England began in 1988.

Canada introduced it in 2007 with no opt-out provision, a measure upheld by Canada's highest court, she said. When Ireland introduced planned changes next year, it would leave ''only Australia and New Zealand doing 19th-century religious education'', Ms Byrne said.


She said such courses taught the top five or six religions, humanism, nature, religion and indigenous spiritualities, and secular ideologies such as atheism.

 They were particularly valuable in helping children understand their pluralistic world, social inclusion, cohesion, stability and security. They helped children develop critical thinking and understand the search for purpose and meaning, as a common human - not just religious - drive.

Source:   http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/religion-ethics-may-be-in-new-curriculum-20111120-1npdz.html

Just change the name... she'll be right, mate !

Submitted by Ralph

From the  Secular Public Education Lobby

Why Julia Gillard's born-again NSCP is a shameful sham


Saturday, 19th November, 2011

Video narrated by Ron Williams

When you're NOT in the majority..

From the ABC News website

23 killed in bloody Cairo protests
 
By Middle East correspondent Ben Knight in Cairo, wires

October 10, 2011 20:11:32 

Egyption Coptic Christians carry the coffin of a victim of deadly clashes, during a

 funeral at Abbassaiya Cathedral in Cairo on October 10, 2011, a day after 24 people,

mostly Christians, died in clashes with Egyptian security forces.

At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in Cairo as security forces fought angry Christian protesters demonstrating against the burning of a church in the south of the country.

Christians threw rocks and petrol bombs and set cars on fire in some of the most violent scenes since an uprising ousted ex-president Hosni Mubarak in February.

Hundreds from both sides fought with sticks on a Cairo bridge. Protesters carrying crosses and pictures of Jesus later spread to the central Tahrir Square, the focal point of the February uprising.

There were scenes of mayhem at a hospital where many of the dead and injured were taken, and soldiers later enforced a curfew in large areas of central Cairo.

The ruling military council has promised to protect all Egyptians while the country deals with a transition between a revolution and elections, but Egypt's minority Christians say the council is doing nothing to stop attacks on their churches and people by radical Islamists.

Full Story, plus video:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/protesters-killed-in-cairo-clashes/3457784 

ABC Radio:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/cairo-clashes-claim-more-victims/3459396
  
For those in Australia that subscribe to a religious faith that enjoys the privileges and benefits of being in the majority, you might like to think, just for a moment, about what it's like for those with religious beliefs that are not in the majority. Whilst the recent unrest in Egypt is undeniable, as it's people struggle to enact positive change, this story somewhat highlights the aforementioned situation, and helps to demonstrate why church-state separation is so important for equality and freedom of belief.

Doing it right

From The Wall Street Journal's Blog, "Metropolis"

Bloomberg: Sunday’s 9/11 Ceremony a Civil, Not Religious Occasion

By Michael Howard Saul
September 9, 2011, 10:39 AM

NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Photo: Associated Press 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending his decision to exclude religious leaders from New York City’s ceremony commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It’s a civil ceremony. There are plenty of opportunities for people to have their religious ceremonies,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. “Some people don’t want to go to a religious ceremony with another religion. And the number of different religions in this city are really quite amazing.”

Mayoral aides have previously defended Bloomberg’s decision by saying it would be complicated and controversial to choose which religious leaders would speak at the ceremony. But on Friday, the mayor said that isn’t the issue.

“It isn’t that you can’t pick and choose, you shouldn’t pick and choose,” Bloomberg said. “If you want to have a service for your religion, you can have it in your church or in a field, or whatever.”

At one point, the mayor suggested that allowing clergy to speak at 9/11 ceremony would be, in effect, thrusting religion upon the thousands of attendees and the millions more watching, some of whom might object.

Full Article:   http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/09/09/bloomberg-sundays-911-ceremony-a-civil-not-religious-occasion/

Check out some of the comments on this story. I like this one:

1:05 pm September 11, 2011
Mike wrote: 

I think it’s wrong for any elected official to prohibit the free exercise of ANY faith. To tell those who lost loved ones on 9/11 that they can’t express their heartfelt beliefs is insensitive and callous! I’m glad that President Obama and George Bush ignored this arrogant, godless man’s attempt to “prohibit the free exercise” of our right to proclaim our religious beliefs, something that Congress is not even allowed to do! 

Mike's entire objection is based on fallacy. Mayor Bloomberg wasn't stopping anyone from freely exercising their religion - he did, in this instance, however, adhere to the best intention of the US Constitution, and simply not allow his government to favour any one, or group of religions, over any others, or over those with no religion. That's how you correctly include everyone. Mike clearly doesn't "get it".

For his troubles, Mr Bloomberg is labelled a communist, a dictator, un-American, insensitive and callous, a muslim sympathiser, arrogant, godless, and a Marxist tyrant. It's also specifically noted, for some reason, that "he's a Jew".

Shame. 

Levelling the playing field

From The Vancouver Sun

Multi-faith groups want religion out of public schools

By Linda Nguyen, Postmedia News
September 12, 2011

Valley Park Middle School in eastern Toronto, where each Friday, students can attend afternoon

Islamic prayer in the cafeteria. Some feel relgion has no place in public schools.
Photograph by: Tyler Anderson, National Post

TORONTO — With the Ontario election less than a month away, a number of multi-faith groups are calling on the provincial party leaders to take a public stance on religious teachings in secular schools.

"Everyone knows that it is a violation of the Education Act, which bars any religion in public schools," said Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) founder Tarek Fatah on Monday. "But none of them (party leaders) has the courage to say that. They're sitting like cowards trying to please a fictitious block vote."

So far, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty, Progressive Conservative Tim Hudak and NDP leader Andrea Horwath have stayed mum on whether they support public tax dollars funding religious studies in the public school system. Earlier this year, Premier McGuinty said that the issue of religious accommodation is up to the school board to decide, and should align with the Ontario Human Rights Code which promotes freedom to practise religion.

But Fatah says the politicians are passing the buck, afraid that they will lose the Muslim vote if they speak out against the prayer service at Valley Park Middle School in east Toronto. The public school has been permitting an afternoon Islamic prayer service in its cafeteria for its students for the past year.

Full Story:   http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Multi+faith+groups+want+religion+public+schools/5390381/story.html