The proposed legal changes could see organisations owned by religious groups, such as schools, hospitals and aged care facilities, be given the right under federal law to legally expel students and fire staff on the grounds of sexual orientation, trans status or marital status.

A bill in relation to the proposed exemptions that was expected to be passed last month was delayed as a result of opposition from the LGBTQI community.

During the rally the Morrison government will be asked not to "further entrench and broaden discrimination" with new "religious freedom" laws, organisers say.

Speakers will include Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) spokesperson Shelley Argent, Anglican Minister Jo Inkpin, transgender activists and school students.

"After marriage equality was achieved, the right-wing of the government decided Christian rights were at risk," Argent says.

"A religious review chaired by Phillip Ruddock was held, and it found there was very little of concern to Christians.

"But now LGBTIQ people and their supporters fear religious groups and businesses, large and small, will soon be given the right to refuse any retail service, healthcare or employment just because their clients, customers or staff are LGBTIQ."

Although Australia's Attorney-General will probably introduce an as-yet undisclosed Religious Discrimination Act before the end of the year, conservative MPs want broader laws than those they suspect are being developed.

An unseen "omnibus" bill addressing recommendations from the Ruddock "religious freedom" review has also concerned advocates, with Equality Australia warning the legal detail of the bill may undermine federal marriage equality.

"We need to change the conversation around religious freedom", they say.

Anglican priest Father Rod Bower says those pushing for "religious freedom" laws did not represent the majority view of Australian Christians.

"But you need to know, and especially vulnerable young LGBTIQ people need to know, that the Australian Christian Lobby does not represent Christians in this land.

"We need to change the conversation around this because religious freedom is not about discrimination. To be truly religiously free is to be free from the need to discriminate."

Other LGBTIQ anti-discrimination rallies have been planned and will be held in Perth, Melbourne and Canberra later this month.

Source

• QN
• Star Observer
• Image: Star Observer

Never before have there been so many Jesuit-educated men at the heart of Australian politics. The Liberal leader and Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and the Nationals' deputy leader and Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, were students at St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney.

In addition, Treasurer Joe Hockey was educated at the Jesuits' other Sydney school, St Aloysius, Milson's Point, and the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, was a student at the Jesuits' Adelaide school, St Ignatius College, Athelstone.

Particularly in the case of Abbott, this predominance of Jesuit education is much commented on. Sometimes it seems to be just a throwaway line, a curiosity, while at other times it is used as code for Catholic.

But on some occasions it is used against him by those who think that he is failing to stand up for Jesuit ideals and/or the example set by Pope Francis' on matters such as asylum-seeker policy. They call on him to return to his education roots. In all these cases the Jesuit references are greatly overdone.

The rise of Jesuit-educated politicians in Australia is a remarkable conjunction in political leadership: a situation so rare that it may even be a first in the Western world. The Jesuits educate a lot of students in Australia but there has been only one other precedent that I know of at the state level. Former NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner is also an old boy of St Ignatius, Riverview.

The rise of students from these schools is not a fluke but a consequence of the history and sociology of Australian political parties, especially the Liberal and National parties.

In their case, since many Catholics left Labor in the split of the 1950s, it is a logical consequence of the growth of certain strands of Australian Catholicism in the conservative parties. The current crop won't be the last conservative leaders from the Catholic GPS system. Continue reading

Sources

• John Warhurst in The Age
• Image: The Australian
  

John Warhurst is an emeritus professor of political science at the Australian National University. He was educated by the Jesuits in Adelaide.

The way the church's influence plays out varies in different traditions. There is a subtle difference between NZ and Australia, reflecting their differing histories. But there is a dramatic difference between both countries and the USA. The Catholic influence in the Democratic party is a thing of the past, and the recent Republican President Bush managed to claim over 50% of the Catholic vote, but could not deliver on his pro-life agenda.

Read Brian O'Connell's piece in the Marist Messenger

Brian O'Connell is the editor of the Marist Messenger

Millenarian cults are social movements common throughout history. They proclaim for devoted believers the destructive end of one era and the dramatic coming of another more perfect world.

These movements flourish during periods of social, economic and political chaos. Visions of the Nazi new world order or the Marxist classless society are particularly tragic examples of millenarian movements.

Less well-known are the past and present "cargo cult" movements in Melanesia (i.e. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu), in the South Pacific. They also are millenarian movements. It is claimed that specified ritual actions and bizarre practices will suddenly and spectacularly bring their adherents a life of bountiful material goods (called locally "cargo") under messianic leadership. Trust the leaders. Ancestors will come from the skies in planes and boats carrying all kinds of Western goods. The "cargo" message of the messianic leaders is: repudiate the past by dramatically destroying crops and houses as the pre-condition for the coming of the "new heaven" of prosperity. Then sit and wait for the ancestors. When the rituals fail there is great despondency, but new leaders emerge claiming that their predecessors did not have the "right rituals". So the cycle of destruction and hollow promises of impressive prosperity begin all over again.

Surely, readers will say, this cannot apply to New Zealand. After all, we are reasonable people. Think again. We have our own modern millenarian cargo cults, especially at election times. For example, the way in which healthcare reforms have been promoted in quite recent times by politicians at election times have sadly followed the "cargo cult" pattern.

Think back to the 1980s. Proposed healthcare reforms were presented in a populist style. People were enthusiastically assured that the "cargo" of better choice, more efficiency, and updated services would arrive. But there were preconditions. Previous political leaders and the wisdom of the founders of our universal healthcare had to be demonised. Politicians promised that if hospitals were conducted as businesses they would be more efficient and profitable at the same time. That is, healthcare had to be measured in money terms. So, for example, locally elected boards had to be destroyed with lightning speed.

You know the results. We voted for the "reforms". The neo-liberal reforms were introduced into the national healthcare system with incredible speed. The consequences? The promised "heaven" never materialised. Chaos in our much-loved health system intensified.

So in the 1990s local control had to be reintroduced, while the lives of thousands of people had been negatively and needlessly affected by the ideologically led reforms. In England, also, today neo-liberal "cargo-cult reform" continues to follow "reform" with breath-taking speed. In the National Health Service since the mid-1980s there has been some significant form of organizational disruption almost annually, due to policy decisions emanating from Whitehall, with the latest dramatic proposed re-structuring in 2010. Each so-called reform promises "heaven-on-earth" to citizens in the healthcare services. Present structures are speedily destroyed, previous politicians are condemned for having foolish policies. The result - rarely is there any improvement in services. In fact, chaos intensifies. The pattern is the same in Australia.

What is the lesson? Beware of politicians who promise immediate and dramatic benefits if they are elected. Beware of politicians who simplistically condemn anything good done by their opposition parties.

There is a German saying that "the wise person has a long ear and a short tongue." How true! Look for the politician who is prepared to listen, respects the dignity of human life. Do not trust the politician who offers dramatically quick benefits and has no regard for true human values of the past and the necessity of sound planning and sustained hard work. Jesus Christ so wisely warned: "Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits…I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits" (Matt 7:15-16, 20).

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Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, an anthropologist, is the author of Violence, Society, and the Church which further discusses the above theme.

• Image: Society of Mary NZ