Australia Archives - Heather's Homilies

Israel Folau and Christian Morality

Heather Hastie — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 07:10:14 +0000

I wasn’t sure what to write about today, then I got The Author’s weekly email. The Author is the brilliant Jesus and Mo cartoonist. His strip this week is about religious morality, and it brought to mind the big news story in New Zealand and Australia at the moment. It began on 9 April when […]

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15 Nov 2017: Heather’s Homily (Marriage Equality in Oz) and Tweets

Heather Hastie — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 04:45:34 +0000

The fantastic news in this part of the world, seen in multiple tweets, is that the Aussies have come out in support of marriage equality. Anyone who thought that the result would be otherwise was dreaming of course. It’s been obvious for years that the majority of Aussies want same-sex marriage to be legal. This […]

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My Picks for Top Tweets: 13 September 2017

Heather Hastie — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:34:44 +0000

Today, the US lost one of its LGBTQ icons, Edie Windsor, who was a champion of marriage equality in that country. There’s a short video about her in the Political Tweets section below. However, it’s the situation in Australia I want to talk about. Despite being one of the most socially advanced countries in the […]

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My Picks for Top Tweets: 1 September 2017

Heather Hastie — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 01:05:14 +0000

Australia is finally having a referendum on same-sex marriage. I haven’t got any tweets on it, but I want to mention it all the same. Polls show that a majority of Australians favour marriage equality, but getting it into law has been difficult. Since New Zealand legalized same-sex marriage four years ago, roughly a third […]

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Australian Columnist Says Atheism Wrecks Liberal Democracy

Heather Hastie — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 03:54:49 +0000

Prior to the latest census in Australia (2016) the Atheist Foundation of Australia ran a campaign. It was to urge people to mark the “NoReligion” option on the census form. The number that did so was 29.6%, almost double the 16% of 2001, just fifteen years earlier. Christianity is still by far the largest group […]

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The Cancellation of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Trip to Australia and New Zealand

Heather Hastie — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 05:37:32 +0000

joint post by Jerry Coyne and Heather Hastie New Zealand is dealing with the tail-end of Cyclone Debbie at the moment. (It made a huge mess of north-west Australia recently.) There’s very heavy rain all across the North Island and the north of the South Island. Several places are receiving a month’s worth of […]

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More Delusions About Religion: A Follow-Up

Heather Hastie — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 04:58:59 +0000

Back in August last year, I wrote the post ‘More Delusions About Religion‘. It was my response to a Letter to the Editor that a Chris McColl had sent to his local newspaper in Australia. I saw the letter because George Takei posted it on his Facebook page. Yesterday, Chris himself came across my post […]

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Widespread Child Sexual Abuse in Australia’s Catholic Church

Heather Hastie — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 05:39:34 +0000

The Australian government set up the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2013. There were ongoing revelations in the media of institutions moving alleged abusers moving from school to school rather than reporting them to the police. Further, some people, usually senior church, government, and law enforcement figures, allegedly hadn’t tried […]

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Winner of the Week – 20 September 2015: Malcolm Turnbull

Heather Hastie — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 03:04:02 +0000

Australia has a new prime minister – the fifth in five years, and his name is Malcolm Turnbull. His predecessor, Tony Abbott had “led” Australia’s Liberal Party to thirty consecutive losses in the polls since his election in 2013. Turnbull has previously put himself forward as leader, losing to Abbott by one vote. This time […]

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Saint of the Week – 6 September 2015: Victoria, Australia, State Government

Heather Hastie — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 02:13:00 +0000

Unbelievable! Two weeks in a row I’m complimenting the Aussies! But credit where credit’s due and all that, and if I’m nice about them now, I might not get accused of racism if I abuse them during the upcoming Rugby World Cup. 🙂 But first an update. In “Saints and Sinners” on 16 August 2015, […]

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