Media Watch - various relevant articles in the media

[DanDare]

There are articles about things we care about appearing on the web all the time. Often we should be there commenting and applying pressure but we don't even know things are happening. This is the thread for people to let us know about recent online articles that are just waiting for our reasoned input.

What To Do:

• Search this thread to see if your article has already been raised.
• If not give us the title and brief description of the online article you want us to know about.
• Then give us the link to the article. We will do the rest!
• Check back with this thread to see what is new that needs your wonderful input.
• This thread is for links to articles, not discussion of the articles. If you want to comment on an article, then search to see if there is a thread about it. If not then make a new thread. This thread will (hopefully) become a useful resource in keeping up with what is going on "out there", and we don't want clutter.

OK minions, go out there and find what we need to look at, bwahahahahaaaaa!

[DanDare]

The National School Chaplaincy Program Simon Crean posted Sunday, 8 August 2010

Our schools should be welcoming places, where all students can feel at home. For Australia’s children to get the best education possible, the wellbeing of students is absolutely critical, including making sure they get the support they need.

Travelling around Australia, speaking to principals, teachers, parents and students, I’ve found many value the National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP) as a way to develop and implement practices that promote general student wellbeing and help our kids perform better at school.

That’s why a re-elected Gillard Labor Government will ensure that up to 1,000 additional schools will benefit from school chaplains, with an extension of the program until at least the end of 2014.

This announcement gives school communities certainty that this program will continue.

Participation in the school chaplaincy program is open to all schools – government and non-government – and is voluntary.

If re-elected, the Gillard Labor Government will ensure even more schools can benefit from the program.

While the original program has been very beneficial for 2,700 schools, some schools in rural, remote and disadvantaged locations missed out.

Schools in rural and remote areas often don’t have access to the same pastoral care services that city schools do. This additional funding will help them benefit from additional chaplaincy and pastoral care support.

This could include developing cluster models or pooled funding so a chaplain or pastoral care worker in a rural area has sufficient funding to service a number of schools.

The additional round will also focus on disadvantaged school communities, ensuring they are provided with the necessary support to benefit from a chaplain.

Chaplains and pastoral care workers provide general personal advice, comfort and support to all students and staff, regardless of their religious denomination and irrespective of their religious beliefs.

Chaplains can help build the sense of community in the school, support the school ethos and provide additional support for vulnerable children. Federal Labor believes this is an important way we can improve school for many of the nation’s students and that’s why we’ll continue to support this valuable program.

Posted on Australian Labor Blogs
Simon Crean posted prior to the election, but comments still rolling in.

[DanDare]

The whale in the bay of Australian politics

By Max Wallace - posted Monday, 4 October 2010

There’s an old whale in the bay in Australian politics. It’s been there since 1901. Few know it’s there. They prefer not to talk about it. Political life goes on without reference to it, even though its absence affects the whole raison d’être of our politics.
It is the fact, mostly thanks to a 1981 High Court decision, that there is no constitutional separation of church and state in Australia. That is when the Court interpreted s.116 of our 1901 Constitution to say that it does not mean separation of church and state. The Court’s decision in the Defence of Government Schools case flew in the face of what the founding fathers intended when they adopted the ideas of the American First Amendment to their Bill of Rights, which s.116 imitated.

More at Online Opinion. Max may need some comment support.

[Fearless]

Just saw this posted on the AFA Facebook group:

Fighting talk in church

At a family baptism I was appalled when the congregation was called to combat aggressive atheists – I don't want to fight...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...-church?ref=nf

This sort of church fearmongery leads to the contempt and ignorance we have seen here on these forums and experienced in our own lives. What we fear, we try to destroy. Peaceful religions bah!

[Fearless]

Hundreds Quit Church following News Programme on Homosexuality

Hundreds of people have renounced their membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland following a programme on homosexuality featured on YLE's current affairs show Ajankohtainen Kakkonen. A total of 222 people left the church over the internet during the two-hour programme on Tuesday. In a normal day, the total number leaving the church ranges from 140 to 150.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/10/h...tml?origin=rss

I think it was Phillip Adams who said at the GAC something like 'if religions have no one else to focus on, they start to destroy themselves'

[DanDare]

Gillard still backs internet filter. Go and comment vociferously!

[rosiemacduck]

Originally Posted by DanDare

Gillard still backs internet filter. Go and comment vociferously!

We've doubled up - I posted this one under the internet filter thread yesterday (or day before I can't remember)

[DanDare]

Oh Lord, MacKill-op Me Now

My self-righteous atheistic blogging aside, our elected officials’ love affair with the canonisation of Australia’s first saint should be troubling to anyone living in our secular democracy, regardless of their theological persuasion. As I’ve said, I think the acknowledgement of Mary MacKillop’s achievements upon this mortal coil is super dooper; but the sinking of $1.5m into this exercise and the sending of a delegation to Rome for the proceedings, thereby effectively endorsing the nonsensical beliefs inherent in the canonisation process, are the actions of a government equivocating on the separation of church and state. Critics of this kind of thing are often labelled as party poopers; we’re asked to “lighten up” and to recognise the cultural significance (and perhaps the marketing opportunities) of this historic day for Australia. But that’s just not how the system should work. Would the same effort be made if an Australian was given a recognition of equal importance in Islam or Buddhism or Judaism or Baha’i or from the Jedi Council? What about the annual Astrologers’ Society Awards, or the winner of The One, or that psychic crocodile – do they all deserve that money over our hospitals, our education system or scientific research?

Go, read, provide comment.

[AUSloth]

Has anyone found the english translation of the 18/10 issue of "L'Osservatore Romano"? I can only find 13/10 but I've been rolling on the floor laughing because apparently press in Europe have it and the vatican have come out and claimed the Simpsons as catholics!!!
A desparate attemp to reach young minds and be seen as "cool" or has benny really flipped because all the pressure from the pedophile priests.
Where willthey stoop next?

laughing too hard forgot the link
http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2010/...-homer-simpson

[Bik]

Lance Wallnau's Reclaiming the seven mountains theology is basically christian world domination. It's gaining ground here in Australia. Do some research into this rubbish. These guys are militant self-righteous nuts.