Law and Religion Down Under

Welcome to Season 3 of Law and Religion Down Under!  

In this episode, we turn our attention to Indonesia.  Indonesia is a sprawling majority-Muslim democracy with growing influence in the Pacific region.  This episode features an interview with Professor Robert Hefner (Boston University), an expert on the relationship between religion and the state in Indonesia.  Join us for a discussion of “registered religions”, the tension between pluralist and Islamist elements, and the future of religious freedom in the country.

Note:  This interview was recorded in November of 2022, and thus predates the new Criminal Code passed by Indonesia’s Parliament in December of that year.

Learn more about Professor Hefner’s work at his Boston University staff page.

Professor Hefner’s recent article about religious freedom in Indonesia can be found in the journal religions.

Did you know Professor Hefner has produced several documentaries on the politics of religion and citizenship in Indonesia?  Find out more about “Indonesian Pluralities”

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Read the decision of the Episcopal Standards Board of the Anglican Church of Australia here.

Mr Garth Blake’s article in the Ecclesiastical Law Journal can be found here.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2020, a unanimous High Court of Australia found that the jury that convicted Cardinal George Pell of historical sex abuse crimes must have had a reasonable doubt.  The decision set Pell free after 13 months of imprisonment, but has led to continued controversy.  Did the High Court get it right?  Did Pell's status as a senior religious figure affect the process at any stage?  How much respect should we give jury decisions?  This episode features an interview with criminal and evidence law expert  Associate Professor Andrew Hemming to discuss the Pell decision.

The High Court decision in Pell v The Queen can be downloaded from the High Court judgement library.

Andrew Hemming's articles on the Pell decision have been published in Volume 1 of the Australian Journal of Law and Religion and in a forthcoming issue of the Criminal Law Journal.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

What can the history of the relationship between law and religion in Australian history tell us about the present and perhaps even the future? In this episode, we discuss  religion in colonial Australia, how the relationship between religion and the state stood at the time of Federation, and how demographic changes have affected the religious affiliation of Australians in recent decades. 

Guest: Dr Joanna Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer at Deakin University.  Joanna specialises in history, and has written extensively about the role of religion in Australia.  Her recent article “Religious Freedom in ‘the most godless place under Heaven’: making policy for religion in Australia” appears in the journal History Australia. 

Contact me at [email protected]

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Does the composition of the High Court of Australia fairly reflect the demographics of the country?  A brief essay tries to answer the question.

The entire "Judges and Their Religions" series can be found on the International Center for Law and Religion Studies website here: https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2021/10/25/judges-and-their-religions/  Citations to quotations and assertions used in the spoken essay can be found in the written version there.

Questions, comments, or topic suggestions?  Please contact [email protected]

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know Cardinal Pell once sued the National Gallery of Victoria on a charge of blasphemy?  What does it mean for something to be blasphemous?  In this episode, Professor Brent Rodriguez-Plate joins me to talk about blasphemy in law, art, and religion.

The court case discussed is captioned Pell v The Council of the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria, [1998] 2 V.R. 391.  A 1998 note on the case by Bede Harris can be found in Volume 22(1) of the Melbourne University Law Review starting at page 217.

A photograph of Serrano's "Piss Christ" can be found at the artwork's own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

You can find out more about Professor Rodriguez-Plate on his website, http://www.sbrentplate.net/ 

The Association for Public Religion in Intellectual Life has a new website at  https://www.aprilonline.org/

The new Australian Journal of Law and Religion is at www.ausjlr.com

Questions or Comments?  You can get in touch with me at [email protected]

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In late 2021, the Victorian Parliament passed new amendments to the State's anti-discrimination laws.  These amendments limit the current exemptions provided to religious groups in a clash of what seem see as religious freedom versus equality.  This episode's guest is University of Newcastle Associate Professor Neil Foster.

Find out more about Neil at his University of Newcastle staff page.  His blog, Law and Religion Australia, is a great way to keep track of current events in the area.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Questions? Comments?  E-mail the host, Jeremy Patrick, at [email protected]

Voluntary Assisted Dying has become law in Queensland.  In this episode, Rev. Dr. Adam McIntosh explains what VAD is, how the new law will operate, and what it represents for our understanding of the relationship between religion and lawmaking.

You can find out more about Adam at his Linkedin page.  The report of the consultation group for the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church can be found here.

Information from Queensland Health about the VAD legislation can be found here.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Questions? Comments?  E-mail the host, Jeremy Patrick, at [email protected]

What should university students be taught about the relationship between law and religion in Australia?  How should we describe the colonial period, and what issues are most important in the present?  In this episode, Dr Renae Barker discusses the ins and outs of the special elective course on law and religion that she teaches at the University of Western Australia.

You can learn more about Renae’s book, State and Religion: The Australian Story (Routledge, 2019), on the publisher’s website page.

 Information about Renae’s teaching interests and publications can be found on her UWA Staff Page and The Conversation Profile Page.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Questions? Comments?  E-mail the host, Jeremy Patrick, at [email protected]

The Noosa Temple of Satan filed a lawsuit this year against the Queensland Department of Education over whether Satanism can be included in the state's public school.  Today, I'm joined by solicitor Trevor Bell to talk about the controversy.

The Noosa Temple of Satan has a Facebook page here.

Trevor Bell is co-host of a podcast titled The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove, available here.

This episode's recommended book: Truth is Trouble: The Strange Case of Israel Folau or How Free Speech Became So Complicated by Malcolm Knox.

Theme Music: "Sunbeams in the Stained Glass" by Oleksandr Viktorovych Lukyanenko, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lukyanenko_O._V._Sunbeams_inn_the_Stained_glass_(piano).ogg> via Wikimedia Commons

Questions or Comments?  E-mail me at [email protected]