This is, indeed, disturbing. More even for the hypocrisy it exposes than for the substance of the matter. I am ambivalent on the issue of religion, but believe strongly in freedom of choice.

I wonder whether this article's author and OLO could publish ASL's letter, detailing their objections to the current. Let the Minister and his acolytes respond publicly ...

This looks like an issue that needs oxygen, and I am glad someone is is vigorously perusing it. Keep up the good work.

Having read the article the first thing I wondered is whether the Australian Secular Lobby is just noisy bunch of whingers, or if indeed there really is something to this. I found your web site, but as I am sure you are aware it is just a shell right now. Present your case on it. List your evidence - your submissions to the minister, copies of the relevant Education Queensland web pages, letters from parents - things that make it plain what is going on and how often it happens. Make sure it is 100% accurate and sourced so it can be independently verified. Do this well and journalists will start using it as a source.

Also, I found your article hard to read. The sentences were long. Perhaps that is your natural writing style and is hard to change. But there is no excuse for all the abbreviations and TLA's. Spell it out in full. As it is, I found myself continually tripping over the bloody things, and then having to scan from the top to find where you defined it. But sometimes you didn't - for instance, what is a SU chaplain?

Great work.
Pell need only look at the numbers in his pews to see where the failure is.

The "secular" "experiment" has failed?

Compared to the stunning success of mysticism in what? Curing disease? Harnessing the lightning? releasing the power of the sun from the heart of the atom? Getting the crops in? Easing pain? Curing deafness? healing the lame, somtimes the blind. Immediate communication with loved ones a world away? Understanding our world, our universe, our selves? Justifying it's expenses? Engineering a more uniform and visually appealing asparagus? The freedom to differ from Pastor, who likes his job as moral gatekeeper, without being put in coventry?

The key is the word "secular", long used by the more self-obsessed churches as a label for what is actually mainstream, from which they are the deviation, not the signpost.

Rusty

With shenanigans going on like this, supported at the highest offices in the state, why in the hell would any thinking person go to Queensland to live?

I sure wouldn't, and I'm from there and happily living in southern Australia. I'd even have Canberra ahead of Brisbane. Actually, come to think of it, Queensland has little going for it really, compared with other parts of Australia. It might, however be good for a holiday if you steer clear of the Gold Coast.

Great post from Rusty Catheter.

The article could be better written, but it's always nice to read about Australia's own nascent theocracy.

Despite the harm to the national economy, I'd like to see QLD act on the impulse to install a state religion. It would be fascinating to watch an entire state regress toward the middle ages while bordered by successful, modern societies.