Sydney’s Anglican church is reportedly set to debate a policy which would prohibit buildings owned by the diocese, including schools, from hosting same-sex wedding ceremonies and receptions, or to be used for lgbt advocacy or transgender ideology.
Chair of the diocese’s Religious Freedom Reference Group, Bishop Michael Stead, said the policy “consolidates and codifies” what has always been the practice.
“The principle is simple – churches should not be compelled to use their property for purposes contrary to their doctrine,” he told SBS News.
“Along with almost 40 per cent of the Australian population, we maintain the historic position that marriage is between a man and a woman and we also maintain that freedom of religion in Australia should allow us to use our property in accordance with this belief.”
The proposed policy specifies it would be inappropriate to use church-owned property for “advocacy for transgender ideology (e.g. gender-fluidity)” and “advocacy for expressions of human sexuality contrary to our doctrine of marriage”. It also bans local Anglican boards from allowing property – such as school halls – to host same-sex marriages or receptions associated with same-sex weddings.
Religious authorities should not be banished from engaging politically in the public square, said a prominent Church of Ireland Bishop.
Speaking at a civic service in Limerick on Sunday, Dr Paul Colton, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, said that the separation of Church and State did not mean “no religion in the public space”. It did not mean that religious bodies should stop engaging in national debate or conversation, formal or informal, with civic authorities or that they should not be engaged politically.
He said with many of the issues involving both parties “much of the discourse is bluntly, or simplistically driven by megaphone non-dialogue on social media.”
“There the cry goes up: ‘Get the churches out of it all; it’s none of their business.’ But that is not what separation of church and state means,” he said.
He specifically criticised the manner in which political change tends to occur in Ireland. “We tend, too often, to drift reactively into it. Typically, aggrieved people identify an injustice which they feel strongly, and they protest and pursue change: a good example is the issue of admissions to schools and religious patronage of schools,” he said.
He proposed that there needs to be structured dialogue between the government of the day and religious entities about issues of mutual interest, facilitated by the Department of the Taoiseach. This would, he said, strengthen the proper separation of Church and State.
Bishop Colton favoured the introduction of same-sex marriage in civil law and voted for repeal of the Eighth amendment.
The careful planning of a blunt challenge to Pope Francis by Minister Katherine Zappone that bypassed the Archbishop of Dublin and went beyond Government policy has been revealed through a freedom of information request by the Sunday Independent.
Ms Zappone was the Government representative who greeted Pope Francis at Aras an Uachtarain on August 25 at the start of his visit to Ireland. She wrote to her advisers on August 18 that she wanted to tell him about Tuam, ask for an apology and insist the Vatican share in costs to excavate and re-bury the babies and grant access crucial church documents.
“So, [the] message is – will he: offer [an] apology, share in costs, provide access to relevant information,” she told her advisers.
Ms Zappone asked if she should press the Pontiff for a response. It was suggested she learn the Italian for “Is that a ‘yes’, Pope Francis?” Her advisers warned that looking for a commitment on something not yet sanctioned by Government was “risky”. The minister asked what role Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin would have in her meeting with the Pontiff but advisers told her to focus on the Pope. “If there are issues with the Dublin Archbishop – then the Pope is his ‘boss’. We are going to the top,” said one adviser.
A Fianna Fáil TD has changed his mind about supporting abortion legislation going through the Oireachtas. Marc MacSharry had said after the referendum result that he would support the proposed legislation but he announced in the Dáil yesterday,“I am not sure that I can do so”.
His change of heart came “out of fear, quite frankly”. The Sligo-Leitrim TD said “I fear that this will become the contraceptive of choice for people down the line; not today, next week or even next year, but in time. Abortion will become something that is the norm rather than for the hard cases. That is a concern for me.”
The Minister for Health berated him in a scolding response from across the floor of the Dáil. “Unfortunately some people talking about the issue in this House are using language that gives an insight to a mindset that is worrying”, said the Minister.
Such talk showed a “lack of understanding of the very difficult decision-making process a woman goes through before accessing termination. To equate in any way termination to contraception shows a fundamental lack of respect for women. It also shows a fundamental lack of understanding about termination and contraception.”
Meanwhile, another Fianna Fáil TD Eamon Ó Cuív told the Minister he should correct the use of the term “pregnant woman” that appears in the Bill, because “we have various genders and transgender” and the term was out of line with other legislation.
Under 18s should not be able to self-define their gender, according to a major new poll in the UK.
The survey of over 2,000 people found that a majority believe young people under 18 should not have the legal power to self-identify their gender. Just one in five thought they should.
The poll also found just five per cent would be pleased if their child wanted to officially change their gender. Four in ten (42 per cent) would not.
Incredibly, the poll also revealed significant support for those who want to self-define their race (32 per cent), their age (19 per cent) and even their species (ten per cent). Among young people, these figures were higher in every category.
Responding to the figures, Coalition for Marriage Chairman, Colin Hart, said: “These results show that the public is deeply concerned at the Government’s obsession with pushing transgenderism on all. There is after all nothing progressive with children who are so ashamed of their bodies that they think they must change gender, something that has risen at an alarming rate in recent years.”
He added that people recognise that children need to be protected from unnecessary puberty blockers and genital surgery.
Children of separated parents are more likely than those from intact families to have problems with their health, education and emotional wellbeing at age 13, a new ESRI report says.
The report draws on data from the Growing Up In Ireland longitudinal study, based on interviews with more than 7,400 young people and their families when the children were 13 years old in 2012, and when they were nine years old in 2007/08. It exposes considerable differences in childhood experiences and outcomes depending on family background.
Children who were growing up in one-parent families and those who came from families with lower levels of maternal education, were more likely than others to be classified as being at risk of socio-emotional and behavioural problems. Specifically, the report says, ‘Parental separation between 9 and 13 years of age was associated with double the chance of the 13-year-old being classified as being at risk of socio-emotional and behavioural problems (21% compared to 10% of those not experiencing parental separation)’.
The report was launched on Wednesday.
The majority of women in Northern Ireland believe that Westminster should not impose abortion laws on the North, a new poll from ComRes has revealed.
The polling showed that 64% of the general population in Northern Ireland agree that changing the law on this issue should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives with an even stronger majority of women, 66%, reject interference from Westminster.
Dawn McAvoy, of the Both Lives Matter organisation in Northern Ireland, said a Labour Party sponsored bill in the House of Commons to decriminalise abortion in the North is an attempt to “override devolution in Northern Ireland and to impose abortion laws on the Northern Irish people”.
“This polling clearly shows that this is not what the people of Northern Ireland, and in particular women, want,” she said.
“100,000 people in Northern Ireland are alive today because Northern Ireland did not accept the same abortion law that was introduced into Britain in 1967. We urge British MPs to respect the people of Northern Ireland and our elected representatives.”
The city of Atlanta has agreed to pay its former fire chief, Kelvin Cochran, $1.2 million compensation for wrongful dismissal. A court ruling had found that some of the city’s policies, restricting non-work speech, that led to his termination were unconstitutional.
Cochran wrote a 162-page devotional book on his personal time that briefly mentions his Christian views on sex and marriage. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed suspended Cochran for 30 days without pay and announced that he would have to complete “sensitivity training.” Reed then fired him, even though a city investigation concluded that he did not discriminate against anyone.
“The government can’t force its employees to get its permission before they engage in free speech. It also can’t fire them for exercising that First Amendment freedom, causing them to lose both their freedom and their livelihoods,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who argued before the court on behalf of Cochran last year. “We are very pleased that the city is compensating Chief Cochran as it should, and we hope this will serve as a deterrent to any government that would trample upon the constitutionally protected freedoms of its public servants.”
New poll findings by Amárach Research show 80% of respondents say doctors and healthcare workers should not be forced against their conscience to carry out abortions while 60% of respondents opposed tax-payer funding for abortion.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Ruth Cullen of the PLC said: “The Government’s abortion Bill contains no positive right to conscientious objection from having to perform abortions. If the Bill passes in its current form, doctors, nurses and midwives could be forced to carry out abortions regardless of their deeply held personal views on the issue. It’s clear from the poll findings that the public do not wish to see healthcare workers being compelled to act against their conscience.”
Dr Cullen said: “Another revealing finding in the poll is that by a slim majority of the public don’t believe doctors opposed to abortion should be forced to arrange for another doctor to carry out the procedure. This is a particularly encouraging result given that there has been virtually no public debate on the very real and serious concerns many GPs have at being forced by the Government to arrange for the abortion to take place if they seek opt outs from performing the procedure itself.
Commenting on the overall results of the poll, Dr Cullen said: “Simon Harris promised there would be ‘ample time’ after the referendum to scrutinise any proposed legislation but like so many other things he has completely reneged on his promise and is now railroading the Bill through the Dáil for fear the cracks in his proposals start to show. Minister Harris likes to portray his Bill as enjoying the overwhelming support of the public but it’s easy to see from today’s poll findings that this is simply not the case. He can pretend that the very real concerns of doctors and others don’t exist but I can assure him they will not go away until they are addressed, regardless of how long it takes.”
Women who have a chemically-induced abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy will be able to obtain abortion drugs directly from their GP or hospital doctor. This means they will not have to fill a prescription in a pharmacy. This will avert the need to have to produce a prescription in public.
Meanwhile, the option of contracting private clinics to provide an ultrasound service to women seeking an abortion, under proposed new legislation, is being considered.
However, doctors have queried how they will source the required expertise, given that there is a shortage of sonographers.
Dr Mike Thompson, a GP member of Start (Southern Taskgroup on Abortion and Reproductive Topics), said private clinics had not previously provided routine pregnancy scans, so it was “unclear how they can now offer a very specialised scanning service”.
A specialised service of early medical ultrasounds would be needed to ensure that a pregnancy is not gone beyond 63 days, the cut-off point for when abortion-inducing drugs could be administered.
