Media Coverage: SMH mention of NSL election launch
Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Elizabeth Farrelly, attended NSL’s ‘election launch’ in Sydney on 29.4.19. The intention was to include NSL in an upcoming opinion piece she was writing. SMH published this on 11.5.19.
“Why news of a Christian-Muslim alliance sent a chill up my spine”
A historian friend emailed me recently, concerned that his nine-year old grand-daughter had come home from school “asking questions about God”. Personally, I think nine-year-olds should ask questions about God, and parents should answer unflinchingly.
My friend, though, was worried about public schools sowing early seeds of fear and oppression. Because, the previous day, I’d attended the National Secular Lobby media conference and, the day before that, Scott Morrison’s Horizon church, my friend’s anxieties resonated.
. . . Elizabeth went on quote NSL Ambassador, Chris Schacht – keynote speaker at the NSL launch.
As a nation, we’re especially conflicted over religion (I’m trying not to use the word hypocritical). Our Constitution (s.116) forbids the Commonwealth from establishing any religion or requiring any religious observance, yet our head of state is also the head of the Church of England. No religious test may be imposed for public office, yet we allow chaplains in schools and our children lose teaching time each week to “scripture” or its content-free alternative (if volunteers aren’t available to teach ethics classes).
Although we’re an avowedly multicultural and multi-faith country, our parliaments open daily with The Lord’s Prayer. And although half of us are irreligious (the 30 per cent who tick “no religion” on census-night plus the 20 per cent who, says the Secular Lobby, automatically tick their childhood faith), we appoint an official ambassador to the Vatican, as if the Holy See were a country, not a seething snake pit of intrigue.
. . . full SMH article here . . .
National Secular Lobby