I remember chanting 'Convent dogs sitting on logs eating maggots out of frogs'. Hiding behind a hedge to avoid nuns 'advancing' towards me. Being threatened with the local Catholic school (and nuns) if I didn’t mend my ways. Intermarriage was rare, and discouraged. I still occasionally think about a Catholic girl I have not seen for more than half a century.

What we all ignored was that most of us proddies never saw the inside of a church, whereas the micks often went several times a week.

In post Christian Australia, religious divisions no longer matter; but we are tearing ourselves apart over things that have replaced religion.

A clear and thorough summary of what is happening and how we reached this point
Now is the time to draw your line in the sand.
I refuse to be drawn into the nonsense of cancellation, safe spaces, or special treatment for groups
We must return to the challenging simplicity of treating each person with respect and treating yourself with respect.

ttbn,
Off topic, but your jingle reminded me of another one from childhood.

‘The Salvation Army had no sins,
They set off for Heaven in kerosene tins,
The kero tins hit a telegraph wire,
And they came back to Earth with their shirts on fire.”

Kero tins and telegraph wires are long of the past.

Is Mise,

"Kero tins and telegraph wires are long of the past".

Fortunately for many people the Salvos are still with us.

Thanks for the ditty. I haven't heard that one before.

I thought we'd put all this rubbish behind us. With fewer and fewer attending church and fewer and fewer listening to pulpit pounding mouth frothing looney tunes with power and control issues. I don't give a rats about my neigbours religious beliefs or practice! Or how they vote or what social or environmental issues floats their boat! I have my own views and reasons for holding them! Never forget that the most important voice in the room is the dissenting one! And sometimes some folk find that an intolerable circumstance? Particularly those who listen to Trump and his truth free rants!
Alan B.

What if Rogan is one of the leading vectors of the encroaching darkness while pretending otherwise. And the legitimate boycott of him by Neil Young et-al is a good example of how the market for free speech and ideas really works.

Check out the essay featured on Alternet by Ari Paul titled Defenses of Joe Rogan aren't about free speech - they're (about) right-wing solidarity.

Some interesting analysis here, much of which I can agree with.

I certainly agree with the observation that both sectarianism and the creation of ideological silos are indeed damaging to achieving a free, open and tolerant society. Dissent is healthy and exploratory voices like Joe Rogan's should be heard.

All very reasonable, but then we have the same old hand grenades that Graham can rarely avoid throwing into any debate ... for example, << the Woke claim to be the peacemakers, but their actions increase the degree of hate in society. >> Firstly, the term 'woke' is itself hateful and only adds to the creation of silos. There is nothing hateful about wanting to avoid the use of derogatory language that offends people. It is simply common courtesy to consider the feelings of others and to be as inclusive as we can of all people.

Another hand grenade is the incendiary and unnecessary comment that << perhaps the Chinese and Russians will take advantage of the moment and eat us up. >> Well, really, how divisive and ignorant is that? How is that sort of gratuitous insult going to help any of us achieve peace and harmony?

Yes, we can all argue for the importance of listening to dissenting voices. But we need to do so without ourselves imposing labels and shutting down others' points of view.

Agree with DD. everybody as a right to an informed opinion. And common courtesy and civility cast nothing! Faith based belief has had to be reformed as the irrefutable facts were exposed! That said those on the far right simply do not understand why their propaganda laden BS is no longer cutting through, anymore than why Churchs are losing devotees! Nobody came for anybody, just had a different view of objective reality and that's all!
Alan B.

Thanks Graham for your article- I don't agree with everything but there are some valid points. Kudos.

In Western culture it was once “God is love”; replaced now with “love is God”!

Christianity stands now for less and less, with the offering of less and less as a substitute.

God is not dead, the fear of Gods is what has died!

Dan

Whatever happened to the fundamental values contained
within the world's great religions?

Values such as caring for the sick, the elderly, the
homeless, the poor, the orphaned, the vulnerable.
What happened to practicing mercy, charity, and good-will
towards other human beings and fostering generosity,
humility, honesty and communal concern over individual
egotism?

When all is said and done - what do our religions really
stand for today?

"Christianity stands now for less and less" DD.

What the hell would you expect. When a Christian school tries to stand up for it's religious values it gets attacked by the woke from all directions, & it's head is forced to resign.

Never was my scene, but I can see that Christianity got far too kind to it's enemies quite some time ago.

Hasbeen,

Yeah - bring back the Sisters of Mercy like
Sister Mary Virgilius and her cane - which she
used with great gusto. Yay!

Dear Hasbeen,

You write: “What the hell would you expect. When a Christian school tries to stand up for it's religious values it gets attacked by the woke from all directions, & it's head is forced to resign.”

Are you bloody kidding me?

This country has been captured by the Christian right. We now have over 30% of our students in faith based educations up from under 10% 4 decades ago. We also have chaplains funded in all our schools both private and state based. There are very few OECD countries which even come close to this.

We use to pride ourselves on being a proud egalitarian and secular society yet you seem to have totally forgotten that and joined the faith floggers.

Damn I miss my Australia of old.

As to the article give me a break. How on earth does Graham get away with using Niemöller’s quote about the Jews in reference to a couple of singers pulling their Spotify songs?

This is what the right and people like Trump do, they claim victim status when they are the ones doing the bullying and hectoring and it is pathetic.

Rogan is hugely successful and very important to Spotify. I admit to listening to him quite a bit but there is no doubt he is using his platform to spread dangerous misinformation.

It is perfectly appropriate that Neil Young in free to withdraw his material in protest from the streaming service. More than that he is the one taking the moral stance not Rogan. But that gets twisted around by people like Graham.
.
As to the cancel culture at its most fundamental it involves the withdrawal of one’s own money or other support from a person of organisation. It has become the new democracy in my opinion, often employed by those who feel the traditional parties do not represent them.

In a very real way it is the economic rationalists who have created this world and now are the loudest complaining about it.

SR I'm a state school kid, but from when state schools had teachers who knew their subjects & could teach them.

My kids are all atheists like their parents, but 2 of my grand kids go to a catholic school. They go to it as it is the only school worth thinking about sending any kids to in the area, & catchment rules mean they can't chose a state school in any other area.

They are both getting a reasonable education, have lots of extra extracurricular activities, & no religious requirement. Perhaps others are sending their kids to faith based schools for the same reason, that state schools are lefty woke ratbag run today, offering a very poor education if anything.

A friend was a senior biology & junior math teacher in the state system. He was told he was to teach senior math B & C. When he told the head he couldn't even do math C he was told to "just muddle through". He quit of course, but god knows what the poor kids copped teaching math.

Only an idiot would send their kids to most state schools today.

I wouldn't know much about the Sisters of Mercy Foxy, although I did hear some rumors of less than merciful teaching methods some employed. The only contact I had with catholic schools was thrashing their football team with our high school team.

Hasbeen,

My experience with Catholic schools has not been a
positive one. But in all fairness, I guess all schools
have their flaws. Nobody's perfect. A great deal depends
on the staff and the school's ethos and what they want to
achieve. There have been some really excellent public schools.
We as parents need to provide a safety net for our kids at
home as well as take an interest in what goes on at their
schools. Personal involvement and interest helps a great deal.

Yes Foxy, my lady & I established & ran a school textbook hire scheme for the P&C at our local 1700 student high school for 10 years. Not only did it save the parents about 50% of the cost of books & other equipment, but gave the P&C over $150,000 a year to put into the school.

In a school of 1700 kids we could only manage to recruit an average of 20 parents for working bees, repairing old books, & covering & cataloging new books.

This happened under a great head master, who managed to run a happy ship, with great discipline & spirit. We lasted only 18 months after he retired, & a new head master allowed discipline fall apart, & the spirit of the school disappear. The people both at the top, & in the bulk of any school is what dictates it's character.

Hasbeen,

It's great to learn of your involvement at the school.
I've always been involved in our children's schools.
And now we're active in our grand-children's education
as well. Both my parents worked very hard and were
unable to be personally involved in my schools.
However they made sure that I studied and bought me
the necessary material as needed. They also encouraged
me to read and discuss my subjects. So there was
involvement at home.