Daniel Panneton claimed, "The rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad-trad') Catholics." Read more

A priest has performed thousands of baptisms incorrectly over more than 20 years because he used the wrong pronoun.

The coverage was largely one-sided and inaccurate. It appeared to be driven by an agenda rather than being an attempt to inform and educate. Read more

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Richard Hunter, communications director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Pacific region has questioned why Mormons were frequently the butt of jokes about religious groups.

"The opportunity for the offence is everywhere but the razor-sharp satire never feels cruel in its attacks," says the New Zealand Herald's entertainment reporter, Ethan Sills.

By targeting every taboo with the same ceaseless disregard, Mormon manages - just - to get away with its unhinged mockery,"

Sills says that it feels like a divine miracle that something as infectiously funny and uproariously entertaining as The Book of Mormon exists.

"Leave your morals at home, open your mind and settle in for what is undoubtedly the funniest musical this century. So far."

"It is "almost impossible not to be offended by the Book of Mormon," Emily Brooks the writer of an opinion piece on stuff believes.

"It's offensive. It's very, very funny, but it's offensive," she says.

Brookes says the musical's target is less specifically Mormonism than fundamentalism.

These are parodied most explicitly in the song I Believe: "I believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob/I believe that Jesus has his own planet as well/And I believe that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri,"

"The song's refrain runs: "I am a Mormon/And a Mormon just believes."

"Swap out "Mormon" for "Jew" or "Muslim" and it works just as well, says Brooks.

"Every religion requires a level of blind faith from its followers; Catholics believe in transubstantiation, Buddhists believe in reincarnation."

"Imagine if a play that was a satire and a parody and in the same vein as this one was based on Judaism or Islam or Catholicism or Anglicanism," he said.

"Would people react (in) the same way? I just think it's an interesting thought as to why we're kind of a little bit of an easy target."

"Dealing with parody and satire is always a tricky thing for churches," writes Michael Otterson, "We can easily appear thin-skinned or defensive, and churches sometimes are. "

"Somewhere I read that the show's creators spent seven years writing and producing "The Book of Mormon" musical. As I reflected on all that time spent parodying this particular target,

I also wondered what was really going on with Mormons in Africa during those same seven years.

The Book of Mormon has cut short its first New Zealand run in Auckland, effective immediately because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org
• Image: mormonwiki.com

She has a history of making derogatory attacks on Twitter, including telling author Cornel West to "f— off and die," and making jokes about Catholics and Catholic priests and pedophilia.

She defended herself by saying "Psychological studies show that people who swear make better friends." Read more

Grimshaw's book shows that the events of 15 March in Christchurch were not simply an appalling aberration.

The cry of ‘This Is Not Us' was heartfelt but much more hope than reality. Continue reading

Australian Kmart customers Anthony Dorsett and his wife, Marelynda, were attempting to print photographs for a church group in a kiosk at Kmart.

They found that certain Christian-related words — including "God," "church," "Jesus," "Jewish" and "Bible" — were deemed to be profanity and replaced by asterisks, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Kmart said that the ban on Christian words was not intentional and was not a targeted attempt to suppress Christian values.

"This is a system error and it will be updated overnight. It in no way reflects our views as a business," the spokesman told The Daily Telegraph.

"At Kmart, we support diversity and inclusiveness irrespective of race, religion, age, gender, ethnicity, ability, appearance or attitude and we want our teams and stores to reflect the communities in which we operate."

Journalists from the Daily Telegraph decided to investigate the supposed glitch to see if words associated with other religions were also banned.

According to News.com reporters found that words including "Islam," "Allah" and "Koran" were allowed.

7 News's Sunrise host Sam Armytage called that excuse "rubbish" and her guest, social commentator Jane Caro, said Kmart should apologise.

"They just need to say 'Wow, stupid, sorry. We've fixed it. We didn't mean to give anybody offence'."

Daisy Cousens from Sky News also condemned Kmart saying blaming it on the software is "a joke" and the word selection highlights a "huge double standard," the Christian Post reports.

She said, "It's like it's a joke. Sure, they've blamed it on a software error but isn't that what you blame everything on when something goes wrong that's somewhat controversial?

"This is just unbelievable. It's such a huge double standard."

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• christianpost.com
• christianheadlines.com
• Image: morefm.co.nz

She was banned from entering the UK in March after antagonising Muslims by displaying flyers reading "Allah is a Gay God" and "Allah is trans."

Unlike in the UK, a hate speech is not a specific offence in New Zealand. It is coded under existing crime categories.

But, should the Human Rights Commision plan to ban hate speech or disharmonious comments that are "targeted at the religion and beliefs of ethnic minority communities" in New Zealand, Southern could be banned from entering the country.

On the other hand, if she confines her hate speech to the Christian religion, she may not experience any problem.

Christianity is not considered to be a religion and belief system of an ethnic minority community.

So, as academic and blogger Paul Moon has recently pointed out, the "open season on attacking Christianity will remain, with its followers responding, as their faith requires, by turning the other cheek."

Moon said the freedom to criticise religion and to try to discover the truth was a burning issue in previous centuries.

"Yet in our more enlightened age, the Human Rights Commission is challenging the notion that we have progressed far enough to discuss, debate and even criticise ideas that are different from our own."

Police and the Ministry of Justice are considering new ways of recording crimes in an effort to combat racism.

But concerns have been raised over suppressing New Zealanders' right to free speech.

The police have started consulting with community leaders to consider the pros and cons of recording the data separately.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: betanews.com

There's no constitutional barrier preventing it. So why hasn't it happened?

The most likely answer is that there remains a residual suspicion of Catholics that dates back to the bloody power struggles between Catholic and Protestant contenders for the throne several centuries ago. Continue reading

The post was put up on De Post Belgian Beer Cafe's Facebook page on Saturday morning advertising a platter and drinks for $45 deal. Continue reading

Yugraj Singh Mahil is pictured on the billboard with another candidate Anna Casey-Cox. Both are first time candidates in the city's east ward, standing as part of the Community Voice group.

He said there needed to be greater awareness of the difference between Sikhism and Islam. Continue reading

The researchers were interested in the drivers of prejudice and tolerance towards Muslims, says Associate Professor Sibley, a member of the research team.

"New Zealand is an incredibly diverse, socially progressive and tolerant country, however levels of extreme prejudice towards Muslims are twice as high as for other minority groups."

Analysis of the data suggests a correlation between a strong religious faith and a more accepting attitude towards Muslim peoples.

When it comes to religion and prejudice, it seems place trumps beliefs.

"In peaceful countries such as New Zealand, religious faith enhances charity and acceptance." says Dr John Shaver another of the researchers.

The researchers found that while secular people are more tolerant than those who only weakly identify with their religion, non-Muslim New Zealanders who identify as highly religious are the most tolerant of Muslims.

This correlation is about as strong as the correlation between having a postgraduate degree and being more accepting of Muslims

Perceptions incorrect

Shaver says several decades of research suggests religious people are more prejudiced to those outside of their in-group.

Research has also suggested that longstanding Christian-Muslim conflicts are self-perpetuating."

"Neither perspective is quite right," Shaver says.

Who are the researchers?

The research team was made up of Auckland University's Associate Professor Chris Sibley, and from Victoria University; Dr John Shaver, Dr Geoff Troughton and Associate Professor Joseph Bulbulia.

The conclusions are based on analysis of data collected from almost 14,000 New Zealanders.

The research was supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and recently published in the international journal PLOS ONE, in a paper titled Religion and the Unmaking of Prejudice toward Muslims: Evidence from a Large National Sample.

Source

• phys.org
• Image: www.theguardian.com

Bennett gave a big thumbs up to Pope Francis, saying, "Whatever Pope 'Tubby' Francis has, we need to bottle it".

But he advises the Pope, and presumably religious people in general, to "ditch theology".

"Leave the scriptural dogma to the mad fanatics of the desert. The wealthy West already has," he says.

In his "reply" on behalf of the Vatican, Peters says "We at the Vatican don't usually read your columns, being tired of the hackneyed anti-religious, straw-man arguments, or as your guru, Dawkins, would say, "meme".

Peters deconstructs some of Bennett's straw men.

He goes on to say that Bennett's guru Richard Dawkins "is an insightful biologist."

But while "he has helped people understand Darwin's theory of evolution and its mechanisms," he "lacks qualifications to expound about philosophy or religion" and he "is clearly quickly out of his depth in those areas..."

Turning the tables Peters advises Bennett to "get ahead of your own game for once."

"Accept that your secular, New Age, post-modern goose is cooked and that if you want to be a serious player in life you must ditch the lot and just concentrate on the stuff that's true and good."

Bosco Peters has an "ecumenical website of resources and reflections on liturgy, spirituality, and worship for individuals and communities"

Source

• liturgy.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: d.justpo.st

According to the Catholic Professionals Society of PNG (CPSPNG) president, Paul Harricknen, the bishop was attacked when he tried to stop some street preachers carrying pictures of the Pope and cardinals and abusing the Catholic Church.

"When the street preachers were preaching, a Catholic nun walked past the crowd, who were listening to the preaching, and they booed at her," Harricknen said.

"She was upset so she went and reported the incident to police and also rang Bishop Christian and told him of what the street preachers were saying."

Harricknen said when Blouin arrived there and approached those street preachers and told them to stop such preaching, the crowd reacted and started throwing stones at the bishop and one hit him on the head.

"This is totally uncalled for and an unprovoked assault, a clear case of people abusing freedom of speech and a breach of the right to freedom of religion of other street preachers."

"Their actions, without doubt, amounted to criminal offence of breach of the peace, assault and spreading false rumours and we want to know what the Lae police has done or is doing with these street preachers."

Subsequently Lae Met Supt Iven Lakatani cautioned the public speakers after he had confirmed that he had received a complaint.

He said street preachers should stick to the Word of God rather than discriminate against or criticise other denominations in public.

"Nobody is stopping them (street preachers) from preaching in public places. But I have been advising them to avoid preaching in places or locations that are risky," Lakatani said.

Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion has called for respect among churches when preaching the gospel.

"Churches need to respect each other's faith,'' said Dion.

"The government needs the churches to work with it in addressing the spiritual and physical welfare of the people and in our development planning.

"Such messages being preached on the streets are disrespectful to the Catholic faith and it's deceitful because it is misleading the public,'' Dion said.

Source

• thenational.com.pg
• the national.com.pg
• looppng.com
• Image: Screenshot youtube.com