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Advocates want the Australian government to grant Palestinian refugees visas that allow them to work and access Medicare and Centrelink supports, because they face additional hardship otherwise.
Challenges the refugees face include increased trauma, anxiety and the chance of developing mental illness from having no accommodation, work rights, or access to financial help.
The Australian government offered 2273 visitor visas to Palestinian refugees and 2415 to Israeli citizens who met all visa requirements, between 7 October and 6 February this year.
The visitor visas allow people to stay for up to 12 months and are for tourists to visit family and friends or go on cruises.
An alliance of peak Islamic groups has called for Australia’s terrorism laws to be changed, to remove the concept of “religiously motivated terrorism” from the legislation.
It comes as a sixth teenager, aged 15, was charged after counterterrorism raids were carried out in Sydney on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Australian National Imams Council, the Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network said it was necessary to “avoid simplistic attributions that target specific communities”.
The group’s spokeswoman Ramia Abdo Sultan said terrorism was driven by political ideology and not religion.
A woman who claims Hillsong Church breached its duty of care after she was indecently assaulted is on the verge of settling a lawsuit for ongoing psychiatric distress.
Anna Crenshaw is simultaneously suing the church, a college she attended at the time and the man who assaulted her for damages, with a week-long hearing scheduled to begin in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday.
Instead, soon after the hearing began the parties adjourned for several hours of negotiations, after which they returned having reached an undisclosed agreement.
“How are Christians to approach ANZAC Day? We start with repentance. We remember that God’s kingdom is not of this world. And we recommit to proclaiming the gospel of peace,” writes David R Jackon, head of Biblical Studies at a Christian high school in Sydney’s west.
We start with repentance, just like the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled against God, marking the beginning of all human wars. Wars, however, don’t solve problems. Problems are solved from “hearts that are alienated from God”, writes Jackson.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith by the Roman Catholic Church launched its declaration “Dignitas Infinita – On Human Dignity”.
Commentary surrounding this declaration has mostly focused on surrogacy, the death penalty and other ethical issues.
“Yet the most important contribution that this document makes, both to the Church and the world more generally, may be its re-presentation of what has been called a “third way” of considering how our societies should be structured, “writes David Kirchhoffer, director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre at Australian Catholic University.
Bad Faith, a new documentary on the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States, opens with an obvious, ominous scene – the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 – though trained on details drowned out by the deluge of horror and easily recognizable images of chaos.
That Paula White, Donald Trump’s faith adviser, led the Save America rally in a prayer to overturn the results for “a free and fair election”. That mixed among Trump flags, American flags and militia symbols were numerous banners with Christian crosses; on the steps of the Capitol, a “JESUS SAVES” sign blares mere feet from “Lock Them UP!”
There are many factors which affect how successfully a vaccine is rolled out. One of these is the public health communication strategy. Surprisingly, a key factor in determining the success of these strategies is religion. While some religious groups were keen to be vaccinated against COVID-19, others were much more hesitant.
New research, based on surveys of over 12,000 people found that there has been significant difference in vaccine uptake between religious communities.
Members of the Methodist and Church of England denominations are more likely to have been vaccinated, while Pentecostal, evangelical and Muslim respondents have received far fewer vaccinations.
Before Helen Leddy moved to Shell Point Retirement Community in Fort Myers, Florida, last year, she got the lowdown on the place from her best friend, Judy Burget.
Ms. Leddy, 86, wasn’t interested in leaving her condo if it meant adopting one part of the culture Shell Point emphasized on its website: “If you go online, you see they’re built around religion,” she said.
As a Unitarian Universalist who grew up Jewish, Ms. Leddy was concerned that the denomination that founded Shell Point, the evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance, might promote values that did not match hers, and that her new neighbours might proselytize.
Hollywood, the USA Gymnastics team, Penn State, the Boy Scouts: Sexual abuse has proved pervasive across institutions. And when it comes to faith groups, no creed, structure, value system or size has seemed immune.
“We’ve got to stop saying that could never happen in my church, or my pastor would never do that,” said David Pooler, a professor of social work at Baylor University who researches clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse of adults.
With more victims coming forward and more research done on abuse within religious contexts, the evidence has shown that when sexual abuse happens in a place designated not only safe, but holy, it’s a unique form of betrayal — and when the perpetrator is a clergy member or spiritual leader, the abuse can be seen as God-endorsed.
While preparing for HSC many years ago, Anthony Cleary, director of religious education and evangelism for Sydney Catholic Schools had studied Macbeth. He was taught by a Scotsman who left him with a love of Donne, Elliot, Austen and the great Shakespearean tragedy.
Since then, he has taught the play many times and has developed a particular love of the tragedies.
“This is not a pessimistic bent but a genuine fascination with the great internal battles that are part of human nature. One can’t help but ask, “Why do some people succumb to the fatal flaws of their personality?” he writes.
Fortunately, in the Christian community, there is a great sense of hope during tragedy. Hope in Jesus Christ. This is often found through prayer and the sacrament of reconciliation.
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