The impact of religion on the 2025 election. Sacrilege laws. What exactly are religious attitudes to usury?
It’s a crime many thought was a relic of decades past. But South Australian police have charged a man … with sacrilege.In an election campaign dominated by cost-of-living pressures, energy supplies, and an assertive China, is there any room for religion as a political issue?Paying extra on a loan is also known as usury. It’s an ancient concept with Biblical roots.GUESTS:Professor JOSHUA ROOSE of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation.Dr RENAE BARKER is a senior lecturer specialising in law and religion at the University of Western Australia.PETER KURTI of the Centre for Independent Studies. His paper, co-authored with Ian Harper is Interest, Usury and the Common Good.
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A welfare agency gives their response to the budget. Despite the turmoil roiling in Istanbul, Turkiye's President Erdogan has been in power for 22 years. How?
What’s the verdict on the 2025 budget, announced this week by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, from those who work with Australia’s most vulnerable people? SUE KING is manager of advocacy and research at the faith-based welfare agency Anglicare Sydney.Mass demonstrations have roiled Turkiye’s biggest city of Istanbul. Protesters are angry at the jailing of the popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on corruption charges that they say are concocted. The mayor was shaping up as the strongest rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s been in power for 22 years. While public support for Erdogan has slipped markedly, for much of his rule, he’s been popular. In large measure, that’s because Erdogan’s leaned heavily into Turkiye’s religious culture. David Tonge is author of the new book, The Enduring Hold of Islam in Turkey: The Revival of Religious Orders and the Rise of Erdogan.
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Are clergy staff or office holders? Jubilee year and the pope, and is Trump style conservatism desirable for conservatives?
Why are clergy regarded as office holders rather than staff? We speak to Reverend Chris Bedding, an Anglican priest and executive officer of the Faith Workers Alliance. 2025 is a jubilee year for the Catholic Church, traditionally a time for renewal and the forgiveness of debt and sin. But with Pope Francis still in recovery from double pneumonia, pilgrims are finding new ways to mark the jubilee.And why are Donald Trump, and the United States itself, poor role models for true conservatives. Andrew West speaks with Peter Hitchens, a popular conservative columnist for The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
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Implications of violence in Syria, remembering David Polson, and why the pope's message resonates in the South
What are the implications of recent clashes with loyalists to the Assad regime?The Sisters of Charity ran Ward 17 at St Vincent's Hospital, where they nursed hundreds of HIV AIDS patients. Sister Nolan remembers David Polson and the prejudice he and other patients encountered.And why does the pope's message about poverty and climate change resound loudly in the global south?
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Dealing with the uncertainty of the pope's illness and is the use of the word woke, social justice for the comfortable?
Pope Francis has revealed he's written a resignation letter-without a date ; and how did the word woke go from badge of pride to insult?