Religious charities & tax; religious public hospitals; Steve Woodford debunks Dennis Praeger

Published: Wed, 04/19/23

RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Rationale, the magazine of the Rationalist Society of Australia

Good morning ,

A petition calling for an end to "Tax-free financial rorting" by Australian churches has already gathered over 25,000 signatures. This religious rort was agreed to years ago through a series of back-room deals, just one example of the invisible privileges handed out to the churches most people don't even know about. Time for transparency.

Lead stories

RSA calls for review of religious charities' financial reporting exemptions | Rationalist Society of Australia

We've been monitoring Senate Estimates (where bureaucrats, grilled by senators, are held to account ..) Did you know that 94% of 'basic religious charities' take advantage of their government-given right to not report any of their financial affairs? That includes Hillsong! RSA is onto it. Sign the petition below.

Sign the Petition

Tax-free financial rorting is rife in Australia's churches: their TAX-FREE status must be revoked.…

Inquiry into Canberra abortion access scathing of Catholic-run hospital's limited reproductive healthcare, delivers 18 recommendations

In Canberra, Calvary public hospital is funded by the ACT government but run by the Catholic church. It refuses to provide the full suite of legal health services. It's bad enough that governments have, for years, handed over public services to the private sector, assuming (wrongly) that anything done by the private sector is more efficient (not necessarily so - believe me, I worked for years in the private sector) but to hand them over to religious interests is doubly galling.

Steven Woodford is a self-taught philosopher with strange haircut and a warm personality. In his latest set of videos, he destroys (Youtubers love using that term) the smug and pompous but ultimately inconsequential Dennis Praeger, an American religionist so puffed up with himself that he established a whole university named after .. himself. Worth getting acquainted with Steve's gentle but effective debunking.

Other stories of interest

Australia finally has an electric vehicle strategy. How does it stack up?

I bought an electric car 3 years ago, realising there were as yet insufficient public charging stations but trusting 'they will come'. Not yet, it seems.

What Australians think about freedom of speech

Ha! Conservative think-tank the Centre for Independent Studies commissioned a report, no doubt hoping to confirm that the public is really, really concerned about freedom of speech in Australia. Nope.

Sex and the single gene: new research shows a genetic 'master switch' determines sex in most animals

Those who stubbornly claim there are multiple sexes ought to read this.

"It's armageddon, but not as we know it"

Q: "Why are tens of millions of Christians supporting the expansion of Israel and the oppression of the Palestinians? A: American Dominionism.

Got a comment on any of these stories? Write to me at president@rationalist.com.au