[Oe List ...] "Religion" on Radio National

[frank bremner]

G'day from Down Under

 

We've had the story of George W Bush and his library. We've had "the New Atheism" with Hitchins, Dawkins and co - shooting arrows off into conservative evangelicism and eay targets, while still not doing their homework on where "religion" has been going over the past two hundred years.

 

Now comes the recent Radio National fiasco.  See the attachment by Paul Collins, published in Eureka Street, the Jesuit on-line magazine.  Collins was a Roman Catholic priest and journalist who wrote books with a progressive line - and we know how popular that is with Rome!  But he calls himself a "traditionalist" - he is in favour of "living tradition"!  Many people see "living tradition" as an oxymoron - a pity.

 

(For recent issues about "living tradition" google St Mary's Church, Brisbane, or the Catholic Church, Redfern.)  

 

For me, the Religion Report covered not only matters of formal institionalised matters, but also affairs of the spirit, the heart, or what have you.  Matters which did not necessarily fit into other journalistic catergories.  The longer (45-50 minutes) program Encounter deals with topics in depth.  The Ark, now dead, dealt with archival and historical mattters.  The Philosopher's Zone, deals with philosophy, intersecting or not with "religion".  

 

The Religion Report was able to deal with "spirituality" and how it is sociologically maintained and supported in the "best practices" of "religion".  Even defining "religion", beyond the fairly stupid definitions in most dictionaries, is now beyond the pale.

 

Collins refers to "the "secular humanists", as I call them.  Many of these people would be astonished that I agree with much of their thinking, like I think that Dawkins has something (little new, I'm afraid) to say.  On this point, and probably the only point, I agree with Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, a formidable intellect.  He suggests that the climate now is not so much anti-religion but that "it doesn't matter".  As Collins mentions, "religion" as it applies to political conflicts can be covered by any journalist, according to Radio National.  (I remember a former Director-General of the Educatin Department in SA commenting that "any teacher can teach anything".  To a certain and limited etent, tue, if, and I emphasise the "if", the students are capable of being taght to enquire, research, discuss and debate, reach conclusions etc.  But specialised knowledge has something to offer - try teaching Year 12 Maths Studies or Specialist Maths without some experience of calculus, and (ideally) its origins and history.  A discussion within the Australasian Facilitators Network cam down on the side of the opinion that "specialist knowledge" of the topic and discussion being facilitated often gave the facilitator an edge in terms of what probing questions to ask the group.

 

I have seen this latter approach in high school Society and the Environment teaching, where teachers with no academic background in "religion", and certainly not in existential and phenomenological approaches, do a botched job.  I have referred to "a group's morality", meaning their value system, to be told "we're not on about religion", a comment which ignores the long-standing debate about whether morality needs a religious underpinning, even implicit rather than explicit.  "We teach all students" is often the superficial excuse that does not recognise the scholarships available at religion- based schools.  "We're not into brain-washing" ignores the fact that most religion-based try to be open and critical in their examination of their religion - how well they do tis is another matter - I've been able to help non-Catholic students in Catholic schools make a bit more sense of Religion classes, where teachers who are "cradle Catholics" have been stuck in a Catholic ghetto all their lives.

 

Back to Collins.  He peaks of anodyne letters of response to listener's complaints. If nothing else, this is my concern.  It's like the falsity, in many situations, of "my door is always open", and "consultation" which just informs a tyrant where his enemies are.  It is the newspeak of George Orwell's "1984", already within us.  Pure humbug of Dickensian proportions!

 

Grr!

 

Cheers

 

Frank Bremner
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