RSA Weekly For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia
Saturday 12 April 2025 Hi , With Anzac Day fast approaching, we had been hopeful that the Australian War Memorial would meet with us and representatives of the pro-secular and non-religious community about our
concerns over the imposition of Christianity at the national Dawn Service in Canberra. Regrettably, the War Memorial was of the view that such a meeting would “not add benefit at this time” (see the article below). In recent days, we've also asked organisers of Dawn Services in other capital cities for confirmation of whether their commemorations would again be dominated by one religious
worldview. We'll keep you posted. If you'd like to share your thoughts about articles in the RSA Weekly, email me on sigladman@rationalist.com.au. Si Gladman Executive Director, Rationalist Society of Australia |
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| RSA RSA raises human rights concerns with ABS about biased Census
question11 Apr: The Rationalist Society of Australia has asked the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) whether it weighed the human rights impact in deciding not to accurately count the nation’s non-religious population in the next Census. In a letter to the head of the ABS, Dr David Gruen, the RSA argued that the continued use of a biased religious affiliation question meant that the Census question would be coercive and fail to
accurately count non-religious people. Read the full article |
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| RSA War Memorial turns down request for meeting about Christian
dominance of Anzac Day service8 Apr: The Australian War Memorial has decided not to meet with secular and non-religious community leaders and veterans to hear their concerns about the domination of the Anzac Day Dawn Service by Christianity. Early last month, the Rationalist Society of Australia wrote to the Director of the War Memorial, Matt Anderson, seeking an opportunity for secular and non-religious community representatives and
veterans to meet with him and his staff. Read the full article |
| ABC As a Victorian inquiry delves into claims of coercive control in religion, families are calling for change 12 Apr: University of Melbourne law
professor Jianlin Chen said broader coercive control laws that reached beyond religious settings might gain more support. "A better state intervention would be to deal with coercive control more broadly across all settings and not simply trying to craft a state or regulatory response on religious coercion," Professor Chen said. Read the full article |
| WOMEN’S AGENDA Healthcare leaders call on political candidates to ensure abortion access in Australia 10 Apr: Forty health and medical organisations have
today called on all candidates and political parties running to publicly affirm their support for affordable and accessible abortion for Australian women. These health advocates have released a joint statement with five key commitments to strengthen access to abortion. Read the full article |
| NEWS City’s largest mosque’s proposal to broadcast calls to prayer 9 Apr: Sydney’s largest mosque has proposed plans to broadcast its call to prayer from
speakers once a week in Sydney’s west. Lakemba Mosque has submitted a formal proposal to the Canterbury-Bankstown Council to install four external loudspeakers to its minaret, a tower built into or adjacent to the mosque. Read the full article |
| WOMEN’S AGENDA Coercive control in cults to be examined in Victorian parliamentary inquiry 9 Apr: Survivors of a secretive Christian group in Geelong as
well as survivors of other cults, including Truth 2x2s, Children of God and Family International submitted their experiences of cults and high control groups to the Victorian State Attorney General and requested an inquiry. Read the full
article |
| ABC Melbourne's Catholic churches worth $3.3 billion, Yoorrook truth-telling inquiry told 9 Apr: Melbourne's Catholic church buildings are worth more than
$3 billion, according to documents made public by Victoria's truth-telling inquiry. The estimate — which does not include the value of the land — was revealed in documents published by the Yoorrook Justice Commission last week. Read the full
article |
| SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Uproar over NSW schools chief’s push to reconsider private schools 8 Apr: Premier Chris Minns says his government “fully
supports” parental choice in the education system after the head of NSW’s 2200 public schools questioned whether private schools should exist. NSW Education secretary Murat Dizdar kicked off a fierce row on Monday after he told the ABC the provision of private schools needed to be “debated and discussed”. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN New Liberal candidate for Whitlam claimed ‘Marxist brainwashing’ happening at Australian schools 8 Apr: The new Liberal candidate for the seat
of Whitlam once claimed school students were being “brainwashed” by Marxist and woke ideologies. Nathaniel Smith, a former MP for the NSW seat of Wollondilly and a member of the party’s religious conservative faction, replaces another candidate dumped by the party for his controversial views. Read the full article |
| THE AUSTRALIAN Religious groups demand answers for next term 7 Apr: Jewish, Islamic and Anglican faith leaders have written to Anthony Albanese reminding
him of his promise that religious protections for faith groups would “not go backwards” under his Prime Ministership. Read the full article |
| THE AGE 'She didn’t have to die': Girl’s death in a Queensland cult 7 Apr: The harrowing case of Elizabeth Struhs has left child safety experts baffled,
and in agreement that her death was avoidable, with allegations government failures are as much to blame as the 14 cult members now in jail. Read the full article |
| SYDNEY MORNING HERALD NSW Education Department boss questions existence of private schools 7 Apr: The head of the state’s 2200 public schools has slighted
his counterparts in the private sector by suggesting the education system could be better off without Catholic and independent schools. NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar was quoted as saying the existence of private schools “needs to be debated and discussed”. Read the full article |
| ACNC ACNC confirms it is investigating Brindabella 28 Mar: The ACNC today confirmed it is investigating concerns raised about the charity which operates
Brindabella Christian College in Canberra - Brindabella Christian Education Limited. Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE How to improve your critical thinking
skills Peter Ellerton: Misinformation is on the rise. We’re told we need to think critically when we read things online, but how can we recognise such situations? And what does it mean to think critically anyway? Critical thinking is based on the idea that if all ideas are equal, then all ideas are worthless. Without this assumption, there can be nothing to be critical of. Read the full article |
| ABC NSW schools boss Murat Dizdar is fighting to stop the flood of students to private schools Conor Duffy: As a public school student, Murat
Dizdar was competitive, known to "fight for every mark". Now, as the boss of NSW Education, he's vowing to fight to win back every student who left for the private system. Read the full article |
| ABC RADIO Does religious schooling mean better grades? Dr Anna Halafoff of Deakin University discusses some US research suggesting pious students have
higher grades, and the growth of non-Christian faith-based schools in Australia. Listen to the full episode |
| ABC RADIO Week with Students: Does religion have a place in the modern Australian classroom? Generation Z and Generation Alpha have often come under
fire for being disconnected and increasingly isolated from their peers. Could a decrease in religious education to be to blame? Or is religion fated to lose its grip on the younger generations for good? Listen to the full
episode |
| AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Australia must learn from the United States rollback on abortion rights Whilst there are no bans on abortion in Australia,
and abortion is decriminalised across the country, it isn’t a constitutional right (nor protected in federal law). That means, it could be criminalised if anti-abortion state governments are elected. This has proved especially true as politicians in South Australia and Queensland have proposed restricting abortion rights in recent months. Read the full article |
| THE CONVERSATION What is dehumanisation? Some want it to replace definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia Derya Iner: Muslim and Palestinian
advocacy groups have called for the term dehumanisation to be used by Australian universities, instead of two distinct terms: antisemitism and Islamophobia. They argue that separate definitions would pit groups against each other and risk “suppressing legitimate criticism”. Read the full article |
| PEARLS & IRRITATIONS Vice-chancellors’ cowardly collusion with antisemitism lobby Stuart Rees: In response to a Senate inquiry into supposed
antisemitism on Australian university campuses, the Group of Eight vice-chancellors have produced a definition of antisemitism which is to be enforced on all their respective students and staff. In strict conformity, the other 31 universities then agreed to adopt this definition. No debate; no alternative views? Read the full article |
| THE POST Time for NZ to revisit 400-year-old charitable purposes, tax experts say Rob Stock: Producing health food may have been a charitable
purpose in 1901 when Sanitarium was set up, but New Zealanders wanting healthy food do not need to turn to a charity to buy it in 2025. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN ‘False teacher’: Trump’s pick to head the ‘White House faith office’ roils some fellow Christians Adam Gabbatt: On the campaign
trail, Trump repeatedly promised to “protect religious liberty”, and two weeks after his inauguration he acted: creating a “White House faith office”, which will be led by Paula White, a millionaire televangelist known to speak in tongues who called the Black Lives Matter movement the “Antichrist” and once encouraged people to buy “resurrection seeds” for $1,114. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN The Christian right has set the US on the road to Gilead. Without a fight, other nations may follow Deborah Frances-White: There is
now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN ‘A huge cudgel’: alarm as Trump’s war on universities could target accreditors Alice Speri: Advocates for academic freedom are
bracing for what they expect to be the next phase of the government’s effort to reshape higher education: an overhaul of the system accrediting institutions of higher learning. Donald Trump has made no secret of such plans. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy Julia Carrie Wong: The rightwing movement against empathy seeks to
dismantle and discredit one of the essential tools for any society – our capacity to recognize and respond to suffering. We should see the campaign against empathy by Trump supporters for what it is: a flashing red light warning of fascist intent. Read the
full article |
| THE CONVERSATION Changing the Eurocentric narrative about the history of science – why multiculturalism matters Karen K. Christensen-Dalsgaard:
In the 11th century in Cairo, the foundations for modern science were laid through the detention of an innocent man. The mathematician Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham had been tasked with regulating the flow of the Nile, but when he saw the river that had shaped 4,000 years of human civilization, the hubris of the task became all too obvious. Read the full article |
| THE CONVERSATION A Roman governor ordered Jesus’ crucifixion – so why did many Christians blame Jews for centuries? Nathanael Andrade: It’s a
straightforward part of the Easter story: the Roman governor Pontius Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth killed by his soldiers. But over the past 2,000 years, it was common for some Christians to deem Pilate almost blameless for Jesus’ death and treat Jews as responsible. Read the full article |
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