The Iona Institute ~ for Religion and Society
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The Iona Blog
Opinions contained in The Iona Blog are not necessarily those of The Iona Institute. The Iona Blog is open to anyone who broadly shares the views of The Iona Institute. If you wish to post a comment on a relevant topic please email 200 – 400 words to info@ionainstitute.ie and it will be considered for inclusion in the blog.
Few women want to work full-time, all the time
~I attended a seminar in Barcelona the other week at which one of the most fascinating papers was delivered by Catherine Hakim from the sociology department at the London School of Economics. Read more...
Former porn star exposes myths of porn industry
~The porn industry today is predominately presented as a glamorous lifestyle in which sex is simply a recreational activity which does not have any real consequences. Trendy tween and teenage fashions are laced with playboy bunny ears and t-shirt prints state ‘porn star in training’ or “if at first you don’t succeed, buy her another beer.” Read more...
Only a partial victory for religious freedom
~Today's news that a Catholic adoption agency in the UK has been allowed to continue to refuse to place children with same-sex couples because of a legal loophole is good news for other similar agencies in the UK, who will now hopefully be able to continue to provide their services to the community. Read more...
Faith and politics can and should mix, says Archbishop
~Last July, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, in response to a sermon criticising his Civil Partnership legislation, said when he legislated, he didn't "bring whatever religion I have to the table”. Earlier this month, Archbishop Charles Chaput, of Denver, addressed this topic before the Houston Baptist University. Specifically, he tackled one of the most noteworthy speeches in favour of the extremely secular view taken by Mr Ahern, a 1960 speech made by then Senator John Kennedy during his Presidential campaign. Read more...
Persecute me – I’m after the brownie points
~Comedian, Frank Skinner has a piece in The Times today saying he wants Christians to be persecuted – he’s a weekly Mass-goer himself – because he reckons Christians thrive when’re they’re a persecuted and despised minority. He’s referring to the growing number of legal actions being taken against Christians in the UK, from nurses being suspended for offering to pray for patients, to investigations for ‘hate crimes’ for opposing gay pride parades and what have you. Read more...
Church document climbs on virtue bandwagon
~The pre-election document produced by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, Choosing the Common Good, has been described by the BBC as an “attack on British society's 'lack of trust'”. The BBC says the document accuses British society of being “unneighbourly”. The effect of the BBC report is to portray the bishops as a bunch of scolds, railing against modern society and its selfish ways. Read more...
Conscience rights for public health workers
~The Government has refused point-blank to give civil registrars a right of conscientious objection vis-a-vis performing civil partnership ceremonies. The line is that once you are a public servant you must do whatever the State requires of you, come what may, with no exceptions. In other jurisdictions this kind of thinking is starting to permeate the health-care system. The argument is that if you work in a State hospital, you must be willing to carry out ANY medical procedure that takes place in that hospital if you are suitably qualified, including abortion. Read more...
Why Labour in UK is bidding for religious vote
~The public spat between Labour’s Secretary for Scotland, Jim Murphy and the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, over Labour’s apparent new respect for religion, is revealing at a number of levels. For a start, Mr Murphy’s suggestion that Labour is the natural home for religious values is, as Cardinal O’Brien suggests, wholly at odds with their record over their time in office. Read more...
The ESRI’s pessimism on pro-marriage policies
~A major report on the family in Ireland was issued by the ESRI yesterday. Called ‘Family Figures: Family Dynamics and Family Types in Ireland, 1986-2006’, it draws on Census data to paint a detailed picture of family type and structure today. It contains some of the same data that is contained in our own 2007 document, ‘Marriage Breakdown and Family Structure in Ireland’ One striking feature of the report is its extreme pessimism (realism?) with regard to the effectiveness of pro-marriage policies. It says on page xii, ‘Our findings suggest that the potential for policy to alter trends in family structures and types through financial incentives is limited’. Read more...
Children’s rights referendum
~The wording of a possible children’s right amendment has now been published. It is lengthy and complex and gives rises to immediate concerns that it might give the State more power than it really needs to protect children, power that has been abused in other jurisdictions. It is said that this amendment is needed to protect children from abuse. However, the State already has the power to protect children from both abuse and neglect, as is fitting. It is currently permitted to intervene in families in “exceptional cases”. Read more...
A novel defence of anti-blasphemy laws
~A comment appeared in The Guardian (of all places) last month defending anti-blasphemy laws. The author makes the point that while the public is all for free speech, they place a much higher value on public order. In the past, we believed that respect for religion was vital to public order. Today, most people don’t believe this, but we do still believe in the need for public order, and in the need to protect society from the type of speech that would badly threaten that order. Read more...
Why abstinence programmes are so strongly opposed
~Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has a useful piece on National Review Online about the recent study showing that teen abstinence education can work. He analyses the intense oppositions to these programmes by many sex educationalists. He says they are opposed to abstinence programmes for three main reasons Read more...
A liberal judge on religious freedom
~Recently the Court of Appeals (the CA) in Britain found against civil registrar, Lilian Ladele, who refused to officiate at a same-sex civil union ceremony on religious grounds. The case is now going to a higher court. But in its decision the CA did give some credence to the overall argument in favour of religious freedom and conscientious objection. It quoted a very liberal South African judge on the subject. The judge, who sits on the Constitutional Court of South Africa, says that religious believers cannot be given carte blanche to act according to conscience regardless of the law. Read more...
Surrogacy Bill attacks child’s right to a mother and father
~There is a Bill currently before in the Queensland State Parliament that will allow adults over the age of 25, including a single man or woman or same-sex couple to obtain 'a child of their own' using a combination of IVF and a surrogate mother. Opponents say the new law will permit adults, with the blessing of the State, to deliberately deny a child either a mother or a father. Read more...
Archbishop of Canterbury defends religious liberty
~In his presidential address to the General Synod of the Church of England this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, defended religious freedom and asked how the right balance can be struck between freedom of religion and other rights. He was speaking against the background of the debate in Britain over the implications of the Equality Bill for religious freedom, a debate entirely relevant to our debate over the effect of the Civil Partnership Bill on freedom of religion and conscience. Read more...
Erich Honecker lives!
~Breda O’Brien addressed the issue of conscience rights and the Civil Partnership Bill in her column in The Irish Times on Saturday. A lot of comments have been posted in response to it, of mixed quality and tone. Many of the pro-gay comments are abusive, which is to say, not very gay at all. Read more...
Working it out
~Couples who are in unhappy marriages are faced with two opposing choices. Stay and work on their relationship in the hope that things will get better or separate in the hope of finding happiness elsewhere perhaps with someone else. Read more...
Guess what? Abstinence programmes work
~There is hard evidence that in Africa abstinence and fidelity programmes are effective in the fight against HIV/AIDS. (See ‘The Invisible Cure’ by Helen Epstein). Therefore, why should it surprise us that abstinence programmes in Western countries are also successful? Actually, what Epstein catalogues in her excellent book is the tremendous resistance on the part of many Western aid workers to the evidence that ABC programmes (‘Abstain’, ‘Be faithful’, use a ‘Condom’) actually work. As such worker put it, they didn’t want to “give succour” to Christians. Read more...
Breda O'Brien on parental choice
~In her column in the Irish Times on Saturday, Breda O'Brien of the Irish Times argued for denominational education, on the grounds of parental choice, pluralism and the overall quality of Catholic education. In support of her argument that is there is a demand for denominational education, she said: “A poll for the Iona Institute, of which I am a patron, and rigorous research by the Council for Research and Development of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, independently found that about 50 per cent of parents actively want denominational education for their children.” Read more...
Bishop quotes Iona press statement on poll
~Bishop Leo O'Reilly, who is head of the Catholic Bishops' commission on education, wrote a lucid and timely piece in the Irish Times yesterday in response to a poll carried in that paper suggesting that a majority of people wished to see the State wholly take over Catholic primary schools. Read more...
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