Friday, December 17, 2004
Church ministry found guilty
In a court decision which could have implications for "hate speech" legislation in New Zealand, an Australian evangelical Christian ministry has been found to have vilified Islam.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) today blasted the Catch the Fire Ministries, its pastor Danny Nalliah, and speaker Daniel Scot over a March 2002 seminar in Melbourne and several articles in the church's newsletter.
In a decision handed down today in a major test of Victoria's three-year-old racial and religious vilification laws, Judge Michael Higgins found in favour of the Islamic Council of Victoria, which took the action against Catch The Fire.
Also found in breach was church leader Pastor Nalliah, who was an unsuccessful senate candidate for the Family First party in this year's federal election. The church faces a maximum penalty of a $30,000 fine, while Mr Scot and Mr Nalliah each face fines of up to $6,000 or six months jail.
Judge Higgins said the seminar run by the ministry, a newsletter on its website, and a website article written by an author identified as Richard all breached the Act.
In a summary of reasons for his decision, Judge Higgins said Pastor Scot had throughout the seminar made fun of Muslim beliefs and conduct.
"It was done, not in the context of a serious discussion of Muslims' religious beliefs," Judge Higgins said. "It was presented in a way which is essentially hostile, demeaning and derogatory of all Muslim people, their God, Allah, the prophet Mohammed and in general Muslim religious beliefs and practices." Judge Higgins said that, during the seminar, Pastor Scot had claimed that the Koran promoted violence, killing and looting and that Muslims were liars and demons.
In a court decision which could have implications for "hate speech" legislation in New Zealand, an Australian evangelical Christian ministry has been found to have vilified Islam.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) today blasted the Catch the Fire Ministries, its pastor Danny Nalliah, and speaker Daniel Scot over a March 2002 seminar in Melbourne and several articles in the church's newsletter.
In a decision handed down today in a major test of Victoria's three-year-old racial and religious vilification laws, Judge Michael Higgins found in favour of the Islamic Council of Victoria, which took the action against Catch The Fire.
Also found in breach was church leader Pastor Nalliah, who was an unsuccessful senate candidate for the Family First party in this year's federal election. The church faces a maximum penalty of a $30,000 fine, while Mr Scot and Mr Nalliah each face fines of up to $6,000 or six months jail.
Judge Higgins said the seminar run by the ministry, a newsletter on its website, and a website article written by an author identified as Richard all breached the Act.
In a summary of reasons for his decision, Judge Higgins said Pastor Scot had throughout the seminar made fun of Muslim beliefs and conduct.
"It was done, not in the context of a serious discussion of Muslims' religious beliefs," Judge Higgins said. "It was presented in a way which is essentially hostile, demeaning and derogatory of all Muslim people, their God, Allah, the prophet Mohammed and in general Muslim religious beliefs and practices." Judge Higgins said that, during the seminar, Pastor Scot had claimed that the Koran promoted violence, killing and looting and that Muslims were liars and demons.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Not even immigrants can save Europe
The dependence of Europe on immigration has been highlighted by a United Nations report released November 29. The study predicts that even if Europe gains an average of 600,000 immigrants a year, its population will fall by 96 million by 2050. Without the new arrivals the decline would be an even more spectacular 139 million.
Already immigration is helping offset the impact of declining birth rates. Without it, the continent's population would have shrunk by over four million in the final years of last century.
But the UN says immigration would have to expand "at virtually impossible rates" if there are to be enough people of working age to finance childhood and retirement schemes. France, for example, is expected to receive 3.75 million migrants over the next 50 years, but would need to accept 90 million to achieve a satisfactory budgetary ratio between those in and out of work.
The dependence of Europe on immigration has been highlighted by a United Nations report released November 29. The study predicts that even if Europe gains an average of 600,000 immigrants a year, its population will fall by 96 million by 2050. Without the new arrivals the decline would be an even more spectacular 139 million.
Already immigration is helping offset the impact of declining birth rates. Without it, the continent's population would have shrunk by over four million in the final years of last century.
But the UN says immigration would have to expand "at virtually impossible rates" if there are to be enough people of working age to finance childhood and retirement schemes. France, for example, is expected to receive 3.75 million migrants over the next 50 years, but would need to accept 90 million to achieve a satisfactory budgetary ratio between those in and out of work.
Information overload
There are times in my job when I become overwhelmed with information. There is so much happening, it is hard to make sense of it all. In this blog I try to highlight some of the items I come across that point to a big picture, but oftentimes I find myself in the paradox that there's so much I do nothing.
This week has definitely been one of those times. Help, however, comes in the form of the Christianity Today weblog, which is carrying a huge range of items worthy of attention. Subjects include: does George Bush speak in a special religious code; how the daily media have suddenly become fascinated by the topic of prayer; free speech issues; how Christmas is fighting back against political correctness; same-sex marriage debate; the war on terrorism; has there really been a swing to moral values and the religious right in the USA?
I can't do any better than suggest that you browse through their brilliant compilation.
There are times in my job when I become overwhelmed with information. There is so much happening, it is hard to make sense of it all. In this blog I try to highlight some of the items I come across that point to a big picture, but oftentimes I find myself in the paradox that there's so much I do nothing.
This week has definitely been one of those times. Help, however, comes in the form of the Christianity Today weblog, which is carrying a huge range of items worthy of attention. Subjects include: does George Bush speak in a special religious code; how the daily media have suddenly become fascinated by the topic of prayer; free speech issues; how Christmas is fighting back against political correctness; same-sex marriage debate; the war on terrorism; has there really been a swing to moral values and the religious right in the USA?
I can't do any better than suggest that you browse through their brilliant compilation.
Christmas fight back
Political correctness and strong anti-Christian activists have been having a field day in the Western world the last few Christmases. Sydney's Lord Mayor banned the words "Merry Christmas" from the council's festive cards for fear of offending non-Christians; a Scottish hospital refused to distribute a free CD of Christmas songs because it mentioned baby Jesus; public officials are being told to wish people "happy holiday"; and on it goes.
But an article in The Scotsman points to a fight back. For example, The Sun, Britain’s most popular red-top newspaper, launched its own campaign to save Christmas. It lambasted the Red Cross for not allowing staff to put up Advent calendars if they contained pictures of anything connected with Christmas. It scorned Whitehall officials who decreed there should be no decorations in "customer-facing" offices in job centres over concerns that non-Christians might be offended. Sydneysider Peter Rush has become something of a folk hero by defying civic wrath and writing the words "Merry Christmas" in chalk on Sydney Town Hall. His one-man protest has now attracted the support of the Sydney Daily Telegraph which last week urged its readers to buy chalk and scrawl the message all over the city’s municipal buildings.
We need to vigorously oppose the kill-joys!
Political correctness and strong anti-Christian activists have been having a field day in the Western world the last few Christmases. Sydney's Lord Mayor banned the words "Merry Christmas" from the council's festive cards for fear of offending non-Christians; a Scottish hospital refused to distribute a free CD of Christmas songs because it mentioned baby Jesus; public officials are being told to wish people "happy holiday"; and on it goes.
But an article in The Scotsman points to a fight back. For example, The Sun, Britain’s most popular red-top newspaper, launched its own campaign to save Christmas. It lambasted the Red Cross for not allowing staff to put up Advent calendars if they contained pictures of anything connected with Christmas. It scorned Whitehall officials who decreed there should be no decorations in "customer-facing" offices in job centres over concerns that non-Christians might be offended. Sydneysider Peter Rush has become something of a folk hero by defying civic wrath and writing the words "Merry Christmas" in chalk on Sydney Town Hall. His one-man protest has now attracted the support of the Sydney Daily Telegraph which last week urged its readers to buy chalk and scrawl the message all over the city’s municipal buildings.
We need to vigorously oppose the kill-joys!
New TV show - Who's your daddy?
Every time you wonder just how much more crass TV can get, some channel goes out and proves it. The latest move comes from Fox TV, which plans to air Who's your daddy?, a "reality" show in which a young adopted woman tries to identify her biological father among eight men - seven of whom are impostors seeking to convince her they are the real thing.
In Who's Your Daddy?, which will air in the States as a Fox 90-minute special on January 3, the woman eventually will find out which man is her biological father.
But first she must interview and observe the eight men and guess which one is her birth father. If she's correct, she wins $132,000, but if she picks one of the counterfeit dads, that man gets the money.
Every time you wonder just how much more crass TV can get, some channel goes out and proves it. The latest move comes from Fox TV, which plans to air Who's your daddy?, a "reality" show in which a young adopted woman tries to identify her biological father among eight men - seven of whom are impostors seeking to convince her they are the real thing.
In Who's Your Daddy?, which will air in the States as a Fox 90-minute special on January 3, the woman eventually will find out which man is her biological father.
But first she must interview and observe the eight men and guess which one is her birth father. If she's correct, she wins $132,000, but if she picks one of the counterfeit dads, that man gets the money.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Mass extinctions on the way?
Are we headed for mass extinctions for animal, bird and plant life? According to a news report today, 10%of all bird species are set to disappear by the end of this century -- and with them the services they provide such as cleaning up carcasses and spreading seeds, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The report says a careful study of extinction rates so far, conservation measures underway and climate and environmental change shows that at least 1,200 species of birds will be gone by 2100. And that is a conservative estimate, the team at Stanford University in California said.
In November the World Conservation Union reported that it found 12 percent of all bird species were threatened with extinction, along with nearly one-fourth of the world's mammals, a third of amphibians and 42 percent of all turtles and tortoises.
How real are these threats? A report by the Acton Institute (a US thinktank) says there is a lack of sound data, and when the claims are tested, they are found to be highly dubious.
Whichever view you take, we are called to be good stewards of the environment.There is no room for complacency, but neither should we succumb to hysteria.
Are we headed for mass extinctions for animal, bird and plant life? According to a news report today, 10%of all bird species are set to disappear by the end of this century -- and with them the services they provide such as cleaning up carcasses and spreading seeds, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The report says a careful study of extinction rates so far, conservation measures underway and climate and environmental change shows that at least 1,200 species of birds will be gone by 2100. And that is a conservative estimate, the team at Stanford University in California said.
In November the World Conservation Union reported that it found 12 percent of all bird species were threatened with extinction, along with nearly one-fourth of the world's mammals, a third of amphibians and 42 percent of all turtles and tortoises.
How real are these threats? A report by the Acton Institute (a US thinktank) says there is a lack of sound data, and when the claims are tested, they are found to be highly dubious.
Whichever view you take, we are called to be good stewards of the environment.There is no room for complacency, but neither should we succumb to hysteria.
And supporters say there is no 'slippery slope' argument!?
Britain's best-known bioethicist, Baroness Warnock, has suggested that the elderly should request euthanasia rather than linger on as a burden on their families. In an interview in the London Times, the architect of the UK's fertility laws said that "I know I'm not really allowed to say it, but one of the things that would motivate me [to die] is I couldn't bear hanging on and being such a burden on people. In other contexts sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance. If I went into a nursing home it would be a terrible waste of money that my family could use far better."
In the Times interview, Baroness Warnock also argues that parents who want to keep their children on life-support systems should be charged for it, if doctors do not feel that they will have a healthy life. "Maybe it has come down to saying, 'OK, they can stay alive but the family will have to pay for it.' Otherwise it will be an awful drain on public resources," she said.
Britain's best-known bioethicist, Baroness Warnock, has suggested that the elderly should request euthanasia rather than linger on as a burden on their families. In an interview in the London Times, the architect of the UK's fertility laws said that "I know I'm not really allowed to say it, but one of the things that would motivate me [to die] is I couldn't bear hanging on and being such a burden on people. In other contexts sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance. If I went into a nursing home it would be a terrible waste of money that my family could use far better."
In the Times interview, Baroness Warnock also argues that parents who want to keep their children on life-support systems should be charged for it, if doctors do not feel that they will have a healthy life. "Maybe it has come down to saying, 'OK, they can stay alive but the family will have to pay for it.' Otherwise it will be an awful drain on public resources," she said.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Holy turnarounds! Famous atheist now believes in God
A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.
At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.
Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.
"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."
A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.
At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.
Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.
"I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said. "It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose."
Zimbabwe passes NGO Act to shut down human rights
Amnesty International is outraged at the enactment this week of a new law, which bans foreign human rights organizations from working in Zimbabwe and could be used to close down local human rights groups.
"The law is a direct attack on human rights in Zimbabwe and should be immediately repealed," says Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Program.
The Non-governmental Organizations Act (NGO Act) specifically targets organizations that "promote and protect human rights". The Act also gives the government sweeping powers to interfere with the operations of any NGO in Zimbabwe through a government-appointed NGO Council. Under the Act, Zimbabwean NGOs are prohibited from receiving any foreign funding to engage in human rights work.
"Preventing local NGOs from receiving foreign funding for human rights work would effectively mean the end of many vital human rights programs, as there is so little local funding available," Kolawole Olaniyan said. "This Act is a disaster for victims of human rights violations and human rights defenders. It is wholly inconsistent with Zimbabwe's obligations under international human rights laws to which it is party. We have grave fears that those organizations that have done most to raise awareness of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe will now be targeted for closure," he added.
Amnesty International is outraged at the enactment this week of a new law, which bans foreign human rights organizations from working in Zimbabwe and could be used to close down local human rights groups.
"The law is a direct attack on human rights in Zimbabwe and should be immediately repealed," says Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Program.
The Non-governmental Organizations Act (NGO Act) specifically targets organizations that "promote and protect human rights". The Act also gives the government sweeping powers to interfere with the operations of any NGO in Zimbabwe through a government-appointed NGO Council. Under the Act, Zimbabwean NGOs are prohibited from receiving any foreign funding to engage in human rights work.
"Preventing local NGOs from receiving foreign funding for human rights work would effectively mean the end of many vital human rights programs, as there is so little local funding available," Kolawole Olaniyan said. "This Act is a disaster for victims of human rights violations and human rights defenders. It is wholly inconsistent with Zimbabwe's obligations under international human rights laws to which it is party. We have grave fears that those organizations that have done most to raise awareness of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe will now be targeted for closure," he added.
