Notes: Wednesday, February 13-Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (part 2 of 2)

10. A couple of recent items regarding 'established religion'

10.1 Mr. Rudd on how State agnosticism in Australia promotes multiculturalism, foreign relations, and the 'health' of society

"When people come to this country, I am all for people doing whatever they want to preserve the cultural inheritances they brought to this country."

This was assisted by Australia not having an established state religion, he said.

"We are all equal under the law and on questions of faith there is no preference of one against the other . . . and we have been an extraordinarily healthy society as a result," Mr Rudd said.

He said the diversity of faiths within modern Australia facilitated engagement with the Asia-Pacific, which "relatively monocultural" European countries found more difficult.
[ellipsis in the original,
"Nation's strength is its embrace of diversity, says Kevin Rudd", by Sarah Martin, dated March 7, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/nations-strength-is-its-embrace-of-diversity-says-kevin-rudd/story-fn9hm1gu-1226591936801]

Labels: Confessional State, multiculturalism

10.2 When the Colony of New South Wales had an 'established religion'

On Saturday, March 9, 2013, I read an interesting item in the "ON THIS DAY" section of the "HISTORY" page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph for that day (presumably Vol. 1, No. 2792, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.). Unfortunately, I forgot to rip it out and keep it, so I reproduce it here to the best of my knowledge:

1826 Letters Patent found the Church and Schools Corporation, privileging the Church of England and placing New South Wales government schools under its control, giving it the status of an established religion in the colony.

I could not find the text of that item online, and nor could I find via the "Advanced Search" page of The London Gazette website the text of the Letters Patent in question, but here are some related webpages which I found via Google, listed roughly in, from my point of view, descending order of utility:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-thomas-hobbes-2645

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/broughton-william-grant-1832

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/therry-john-joseph-2722

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=945875

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bathurst-henry-1751

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21634192?q=Corporation+of+the+Trustees+of+Church+and+School+Lands&c=book&versionId=25962366

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/albumView.aspx?itemID=971395&acmsid=0

Labels: Anglicans, colonialism, N.S.W.

11. "In the evening[ of Friday, March 15, 2013], the Governor[ of New South Wales], accompanied by Dr Helen Crane, opened the “Consluencias” art exhibition at the Museum of Freemasonry, as part of celebrations marking the 125th Anniversary of Freemasons NSW & ACT, at The Masonic Centre, Sydney."

The quotation in that headline, including its italics, comes from the webpage titled "Friday, 15 March 2013", downloaded from the "Diary of Engagements" section of the official website of The Governor of New South Wales:

http://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/news/diary-of-engagements/friday-15-march-2013/

(That engagement came to my attention via the Vice-Regal notices on p. 31 in the classifieds section of the "Weekend Business" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, March 16-17, 2013, No. 54738, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Freemasons, Marie Bashir

12. Mr. Salt on family size in Australia

See the article "Big family loses out to work-life balance", by Bernard Salt, dated March 21, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/big-family-loses-out-to-work-life-balance/story-e6frg9jx-1226601970873

See also the article "Mainstream mums: 40, with two children", by Rick Morton, dated March 21, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/mainstream-mums-40-with-two-children/story-e6frg6nf-1226601981073

Labels: demography, families, social trends

13. What Proud Schools events look like

See the article "Colourful day of celebration", by Mel Smith ("a Country Organiser and the Officer attached to GLBTI issues" for the New South Wales Teachers Federation), on p. 13 of EDuCATiON, the Journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation, March 11, 2013, Vol. 94, No. 2:

http://www.nswtf.org.au/journal/education-94-02/index.html

(That article came to my attention via Mr. Muehlenberg's blog post "A Minute To Midnight: Sexual Suicide in the West ", dated March 13, 2013:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2013/03/13/a-minute-to-midnight-sexual-suicide-in-the-west/)

Labels: education, G.L.B.T., Proud Schools

14. More from Prof. Feser on Prof. Krauss's A Universe from Nothing

See Prof. Feser's blog post "Forgetting nothing, learning nothing", dated Wednesday, February 27, 2013:

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/forgetting-nothing-learning-nothing.html

I especially liked this paragraph:

So, “nothing,” Krauss finally acknowledges, is “the absence of something.” So far so good. He’s acquired some knowledge of English over the last few months. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t taken that remedial logic course. For we are also told that nothing is a “physical quantity” which can be studied through “empirical” means. All of which entails that the absence of something is a physical quantity which can be studied through empirical means. Wrap your mind around that. Your couch has length, width, depth, mass, etc. and can be seen and touched. And it turns out that the absence of your couch has length, width, depth, mass, etc. and can be seen and touched. Does the absence of a couch look different from the absence of a cat? Do they weigh the same? And how many absences can you fit in one room? Don’t scoff! It’s sciiieeeeence!
[italics in the original]

Labels: philosophy

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in Holy Week, A.D. 2013

Notes: Wednesday, February 13-Tuesday, March 26, 2013 (part 1 of 2)

1. "Vatican Apostolic Library uploads 256 digitized manuscripts"

See the article "Vatican Apostolic Library uploads 256 digitized manuscripts", no author credited, dated January 30, 2013, downloaded from the Rome Reports website:

http://www.romereports.com/palio/vatican-apostolic-library-uploads-256-digitized-manuscripts-english-8886.html

or go straight to the relevant webpage of the Apostolic Library's website:

http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=mss_digitalizzati

(That Rome Reports article came to my attention via this Catholica thread-starter.)

Labels: books

2. "these two documents, on religious freedom and Nostra Aetate, linked to Gaudium et Spes, make a very important trilogy"

The quotation, including its italics and hyperlinks, in that headline comes from the Vatican website's translation of the Address of H.H. The Pope Emeritus (then gloriously reigning) at the Meeting with the Parish Priests and the Clergy of the Rome Diocese on Thursday, February 14, 2013 in the Paul VI. Audience Hall. (That Address came to my attention via this article from the Vatican Radio website.)

Labels: Dignitatis Humanæ, Vatican II

3. "about one in five students at Sydney Catholic schools comes from other faith backgrounds or is not religious"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "School choice is not just keeping the faith", by Josephine Tovey and Georgina Mitchell, dated February 18, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/school-choice-is-not-just-keeping-the-faith-20130217-2el4a.html?skin=text-only

That quotation is the authors' report of what "the executive director of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Sydney, Dan White", told them.

Labels: Catholic schools

4. Mr. Gutierrez on how, in his opinion, "Dignitatis Humanae, the Council document on religious freedom, represented a development of Church teaching, not a reversal of it."

See the article "Vatican II and Religious Liberty", by Omar F. A. Gutierrez, dated January 14, 2013, downloaded from The Catholic World Report website:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/1883/Vatican_II_and_Religious_Liberty.aspx

(That article came to my attention via this True Catholic thread.)

Labels: Dignitatis Humanæ, religious liberty

5. A couple of recent items regarding the death penalty

5.1 A potentially useful website on the death penalty

See here:

http://tcreek.jimdo.com/

(That came to my attention via this comment.)

Labels: death penalty

5.2 Prof. Feser on the death penalty

See his blog post "Capital punishment lecture", dated Wednesday, March 13, 2013:

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/capital-punishment-lecture.html

(I log that post because Prof. Feser doesn't use subject labels for his blog posts, so if I need to see what he's written on the topic I can refer to that post.)

Labels: death penalty

6. "All [U.S. ]states are within a couple of percentage points of the overall LGBT national average of 3.5%."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota", by Gary J. Gates and Frank Newport, dated February 15, 2013, downloaded from the Gallup Politics website:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx

See also the press release "LGBT Percentages Highest in Washington, DC, and Hawaii", no author credited, dated February 15, 2013, downloaded from the website of The Williams Institute (a "national think tank at UCLA Law", which (think tank) "is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy"):

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/press-releases/lgbt-percentages-highest-in-washington-dc-and-hawaii/

(I found both that article and that press release at this Williams Institute webpage, and the findings originally came to my attention via this or this Sydney Morning Herald article.)

Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.

7. The report, by one of the (Australian) Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, on the Exposure Draft of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 is available here:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=legcon_ctte/anti_discrimination_2012/report/index.htm

(That report came to my attention via the article "Criminals on payroll", by Natasha Bita, p. 19, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Friday, February 22, 2013, Vol. 1, No. 2779, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., available online under the headline "Crime doesn't pay, unless you're promoted", by the same author, dated February 22, 2013, at The Daily Telegraph's website here:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/crime-doesnt-pay-unless-youre-promoted/story-fncvk70o-1226583085494)

Labels: discrimination, human rights, law

8. A couple of recent items regarding the 2013 Sydney Gay Mardi Gras

8.1 "Mardi Gras spending" "has already been given more than $600,000 in funding and in-kind works from the [Sydney City ]council"

(Presumably the $600000 refers to this year's funding, rather than the funding over all the years during which the Council has been funding it. I say that because in this "Facts and figures" post from early 2009 I logged that Sydney City Council was spending $240000 in cash and in-kind support, collectively, on the Mardi Gras that year; even assuming that the nominal value of the support hasn't increased, clearly it would have greatly exceeded $600000 just for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011, collectively.)

The quotations in that heading come from the comment piece "This is a rainbow that's costing us a pot of gold", by Vikki Campion, immediately below her article "$110,000 wasted with gay abandon at Taylor Square", dated February 27, 2013, downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wasted-with-gay-abandon-at-taylor-square/story-e6freuy9-1226586361494

(The information in this Notes item's headline came to my attention via the comment piece "A pot of gold to pay for rainbow" (commenting on the article "$110,000 wasted with gay abandon", by the same author, immediately above the comment piece), by Vikki Campion, p. 16, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, February 27, 2013, Vol. 1, No. 2783, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

8.2 "Gay members of Australia's defence force (ADF) marched in their uniforms for the first time"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Mardi Gras celebrates its founders in Sydney", no byline, dated March 3, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/mardi-gras-celebrates-its-founders-in-sydney/story-e6frg6nf-1226589176589

The article also reports that one of those who marched in uniform, namely the R.A.A.F.'s Squadron Leader Vince Chong

said the decision to allow members to march, reflected the ADF's policy to encourage more workplace inclusion.

“It shows the priority that's been placed on diversion and inclusion in the Australian Defence Force. This is just the start of many things to come under the pathway to change. We will see more and more about generating a culture of inclusion.”

Labels: A.D.F., G.L.B.T., Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

9.1 Dr. van Gend on how "making abortion legal or illegal has never, historically, made the slightest detectable difference to the safety of women", because "medicine alone, not the law, has achieved all the magnificent gains in maternal safety."

See the article "Backyard distortions", by Dr. David van Gend, downloaded from the website of Life Ministries:

http://lifeministries.org.au/internal.php?content_id=125

(That article came to my attention via the comment of 17.2.13 / 3pm by one Philip J. Rayment in the comments section of this blog post by Mr. Muehlenberg.)

Labels: abortion

9.2 Dr. Summers on recent changes in pro-abortion rhetoric:

… the words[ "safe, legal and rare"] were removed from the Democratic Party platform in 2008. No one uses them any more and for a very good reason: women find them offensive.

Dawn Laguens, of US Planned Parenthood, said earlier this year that language about making abortion ''rare'' polled very poorly because women found it judgmental and shaming.

Similarly, Planned Parenthood has made the momentous decision to drop the language of ''pro-choice'' after research that shows most Americans feels the pro-choice/pro-life polarity fails to represent the actual complications of what it's like to find yourself with an unwanted pregnancy. Women complained that the word ''choice'' made the decision seem frivolous.
["Abortion zealots a risk for Abbott", by Dr. Anne Summers A.O., dated March 16, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/abortion-zealots-a-risk-for-abbott-20130315-2g5sn.html?skin=text-only
Dr. Summers' article is also available at the same website and with the same date under the headline "It's a woman's right to choose":
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/its-a-womans-right-to-choose-20130317-2g8d8.html?skin=text-only]

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the headline "Abortion zealots a risk for Abbott", by the same author, on p. 12 in the "OPINION" pages of the "News Review" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, March 16-17, 2013, No. 54738, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: abortion

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in Holy Week, A.D. 2013