Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC

Can't keep an old dog down

17/12/2017, 11:00 AM

Trump and Jerusalem, hunger, and homeless pets

13/12/2017, 17:30 pm

20/20 series (part 5): Remember, regret & rejoice

17/12/2017, 6.05pm

Robin D.G. Kelley

Black intellectual infighting is hardly a new thing ... But social media encourages its rapid devolution, as many 'followers' would rather tweet and retweet than actually read the subject of the latest Twitterstorm ... There is a growing reluctance to read and engage arguments carefully, especially those with which we disagree. Besides, social media always loves a fight; the more personal and vitriolic, the more spectators.

Cornel West

Ta-Nehisi Coates rightly highlights the vicious legacy of white supremacy - past and present. He sees it everywhere and ever reminds us of its plundering effects. Unfortunately, he hardly keeps track of our fightback, and never connects this ugly legacy to the predatory capitalist practices, imperial policies (of war, occupation, detention, assassination) or the black elite's refusal to confront poverty, patriarchy or transphobia. In short, Coates fetishizes white supremacy. He makes it almighty, magical and unremovable.

Noel Pearson

Turnbull, as prime minister, has chosen to lie about his prior knowledge of the proposal for an Indigenous voice, and indeed his endorsement of it as sensible more than two years before he rejected it ... Turnbull supported the Indigenous voice to parliament when he was not prime minister, but then ended up calling it a "third chamber of parliament" when he was, knowing full well that was a gross untruth.

Jonathan Sacks

For Jews, holiness lies not in the way that the world currently is, but in the way that it ought to be. Poverty, disease, famine, injustice and the exploitation of the powerless by the powerful are not the will of God. They may be part of human nature, but we have the power to rise above them. God wants us not to accept - but to heal, to cure and prevent.