…’The Greens are committed to removing what are called “exemption provisions” from the Anti- Discrimination Act. This would force non-government schools to employ teachers whose views, values and lifestyle are contrary to the religious traditions of these schools, and the hundreds of thousands of parents who send their children to them. This is not about “exemptions” from the law. Church agencies and schools are bound by the Anti-Discrimination Act.’…

except for the “exemption provisions’, which allow publicly funded church schools to sack employees for being queer, or heterosexual and pregnant while unmarried, etc, etc, etc.

Today newspaper reports on 9 September that Singapore’s harmony is threatened by increased religiosity, as if the iteration of the Beware of the God project there is an announcement of the State’s ongoing security alert policy. 

http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20080909

Download your high-res poster pdf here

EXTRAORDINARY new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for “causing annoyance” to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

The laws, which operate until the end of July, have the potential to make a crime of wearing a T-shirt with a message on it, undertaking a Chaser-style stunt, handing out condoms at protests, riding a skateboard or even playing music, critics say.

Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service will be able to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”.

People who fail to comply will be subject to a $5500 fine.

The president of the NSW Bar Association, Anna Katzmann, SC, described the regulations as “unnecessary and repugnant”.

Read the whole piece from the Sydney Morning Herald here.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality are threats to world peace — but so are abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage, Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement released by the Vatican Tuesday Dec. 11 2007.

“The Human Family, a Community of Peace” is this year’s papal message for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1.

Presenting the nuclear family as the “first and indispensable teacher of peace” and the “primary agency of peace,” the 15-page document links sexual and medical ethics to international relations. “Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of new life … constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace,” Benedict writes.

Read the article from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life here.

Here’s the image as a downloadable poster to use and distribute.

It’s a 1.6MB PDF. When it downloads into a new window, use ‘save as’ to put it on your own computer, from where you can distribute and display it.

Male headship has been worshipped across patriarchies for millennia. Divine authority has recently been invoked to justify keeping one sex in power over another in the Sydney Anglican Annual Synod:

“The church’s annual synod last night reaffirmed its support for the disputed doctrine that the “relationship of loving and sacrificial leadership of a husband and the intelligent voluntary submission of a wife was the biblical pattern of marriage”.

However, some men in the church had twisted the teaching for their own ends, said Sydney Anglican, Lesley Ramsay, who has led opposition to the ordination of women priests and bishops.”

Read the rest of Linda Morris’ Sydney Morning Herald article here.

The insurrection in Burma is being documented day by day at Wikipedia.

Over three quarters of a million people have signed the petition here. Addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao, it reads:

To Chinese President Hu Jintao and the UN Security Council:
We stand alongside the citizens of Burma in their peaceful protests. We urge you to oppose a violent crackdown on the demonstrators, and to support genuine reconciliation and democracy in Burma. We pledge to hold you accountable for any further bloodshed..

Keep the monks present where you live: download a stencil design from the just seeds website.

Beware of the God contains straight answers to your burning questions about who governs Australia. Where are our politicians coming from? What are their beliefs, motivations, agendas and allegiances? It is impossible to know the whole truth about politicians’ interests, but much can be gleaned from the public record. Researcher Chloe Martin presents a series of information sheets on the religio-political affiliations of Australian politicians.

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So why did Tony Abbott enter politics? As a way of ‘giving glory to God in the human world’? Or to get in touch with his inner ‘junkyard dog’?

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While coaching Sydney University’s reserve grade rugby team (1988-90), Tony Abbott lost his temper and punched player Joe Hockey, the new Minister for Workplace relations.

Abbott attended an Australian Union of Students conference in the mid-1970s, which had initiated a special “women’s room” for females to discuss political issues. “Tony used to stand outside the women’s room with his right-wing mates and loudly tell sexist and homophobic jokes,” according to lawyer David Patch, who is a Labor candidate in the federal seat of Wentworth.

After a narrow defeat in the university senate elections in 1976 – Mr Abbott’s first year of an economics-law degree – he kicked in a glass panel door.

These are some of the fascinating facts that DIDN’T make it into the newest Information sheet, meticulously researched by Chloe Martin. Check out what DID make the cut here.

Download your handy PDF info sheet on Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott. It’s a small file, so you can easily email it to friends.

Or check out what his fellow students recalled of his university days for the Sydney Sun Herald in 2004.

In the news for citing ‘human rights’ in protecting the shadowy Exclusive Brethren from scrutiny regarding secret donations to guess whose political party, Senator Eric Abetz bears watching.

Beware of the God researcher Chloe Martin has compiled a dossier for your information, covering some of his notable attributes. Here, for your easy download and distribution, is your handy paper on the religio-political background of the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry & Conservation.

He’s only been a senator since 2002. But Guy Barnett is now one of the most visible backbenchers in the Australian government.

Since he entered public life in 1994, arguing against decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania, Guy Barnett’s main claim to fame has been the heterosexuals-only Marriage Act of 2004, which he recently followed up by organising for the ACT same-sex civil unions legislation to be crushed from above.

Parliamentary Convenor of the August 2006 ‘Australian Christian Heritage’ National Forum, Barnett’s interpretation of his Baptist faith brings a very particular emphasis to his political activism.

Where are Australian politicians coming from? What are their beliefs, motivations, agendas and allegiances?

It is impossible to know the whole truth about politicians’ interests, but much can be gleaned from the public record. Researcher Chloe Martin presents an information sheet on the religio-political affiliations of Australian politician Kevin Andrews.

You know he’s the new Minister for Immigration and Citizenship – here’s what you probably don’t know.

Presented in simple, downloadable PDF format, for ease of printing and email distribution.

Beware of the God will return early in 2007 with a fresh report by researcher Chloe Martin. Her newest investigation reveals the phenomenon of religiously-motivated anti-abortion activism which uses feminist language to advance its aims.

In the last decade it was still seen as prudent to publicly state:

‘…[F]eminists have failed to realise that the male gender role (besides paternity) is to pioneer, risk and create.  Once males created aircraft, risked flying in them, and thus ensured that flying was safe, feminists whined and said: “We demand equal opportunity to be pilots”.  It was the same with horses, wagons and cars, medicine, surgery, art and music.  Males pioneer, women follow.  The greatest failure of feminists may be that they have aborted many of their babies and have failed to hold their men.’
 
Babette Francis, ‘Age’, 17 January, 1994

But these days, claims of woman-centredness are more likely to characterise the activities of those who seek to reduce womens’ reproductive choices.

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Meanwhile, there are over 100 essays, images and articles collected here, examining convergences of religion and politics around the world. Check ‘em out!

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And downloadable here, your surprise present: a completely off-topic, free, screen wallpaper, of which the image above is but a tiny detail. It’s ready to use on your computer at 1024 x 768 pixels.

Marjane Satrapi was a little girl in Tehran when the Shah was deposed, and the Islamic Revolution became the theocracy which persists today. Her beautiful book, Persepolis, traverses all of life: history, politics, friendship, war, and wanting to be a prophet when you grow up.

Persepolis and its sequel, Persepolis 2, are graphic novels published by Random House’s imprint, Pantheon. More here.

The two books are newly available in one volume, but that information doesn’t seem to have filtered through to the publisher’s site editor, or even to Amazon.com.

Maybe just ask at your local bookshop!