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Human beings have a bias towards a belief that the world is a fair place in which one's actions have appropriate consequences. This 'just world hypothesis' implies that those who suffer calamity must be at fault. It is the opposite of empathy and poses a serious challenge for those who seek to implement progressive social policies.
'The common law leaves a gap between the mandates of the law and the conduct that we choose to engage in according to our individual moral standards. We call that gap 'freedom'. The challenge is determining the width of that gap for groups bound by religious faith which differs from the Australian majority.' Frank Brennan launches Carolyn Evans' Legal Protection of Religious Freedom in Australia. Full text
Church groups in Australia have vigorously campaigned to protect themselves from particular equal opportunity laws. While there is agreement about a faith community's right to employ practising believers, there is plenty of room for disagreement as to how most prudently and charitably to exercise that right.
In 1978, airline boss Reg Ansett didn’t fancy employing the best qualified pilot because the pilot was a woman. She took him on through the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board and ultimately won. Victoria was a leader in human rights in those days. Sadly the current Attorney General is no defender of the rights of the weak and has gutted the Equal Opportunity Commission.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ's address at the 'Ethics in a Multi Faith Society: Muslims and Christians in Dialogue' Conference, Conference under the auspices of the Fethullah Gulen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, 23 November 2011.
The biblical injunction that Christians 'Give to God the things due to God and to Caesar the things due to Caesar' does not legitimise the separation of church and state. We live in a time when religious voices have returned with greater strength to the arenas of civil discourse.
I am bemused that whenever I agitate questions of Aboriginal and refugee rights I am well received by liberals, who then question my clerical entitlement to speak when I buy into debates on issues like euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. On same sex marriage, I am attacked from both sides.
Speech given by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the 'Law and Religion: Legal Regulation of Religious Groups, Organisations and Communities' Conference Dinner in Melbourne on 15 July 2011.
When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.
The litigation against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt shows the limitation of a court-focused, plaintiff-led approach to racial vilification. There are alternative ways of responding to racial and religious vilification that do not involve litigation.
Labor will tear itself apart unless it realises that a 'yes' or 'no' on gay marriage is less important than the process of reaching a position. It can choose to go down the path of political expedience, or it can adopt an approach of moral integrity.
David Jones acted promptly upon complaints of sexual harassment against its CEO Mark McInnes. But most women pay in blood for making sexual harassment complaints against powerful men in high places.
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