Religion or Culture ... and then there is friendly and peaceful co-existence

Australia has been going through a great deal of political turmoil lately ... or should I say that the Liberal Party of Australia, currently the political party of government, has been going through a great deal of turmoil lately. 

There is a new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison commonly referred to as ScoMo.  Sco-Mo is a Pentecostal Christian - which is a bit of a shock for most Australians - and he wears his religion on his sleeve.  For most of Australia's political history, the Prime Ministers from the Liberal Party would usually be Anglican, Presbyterian or Methodist.  Malcolm Turnbull, who ScoMo recently ousted, is a Catholic convert ... although his wife, Lucy, is from a Catholic blue-blood family.

So there is an interesting article in the Fairfax papers today giving rise to the question - Religion or Culture.  The write of the article says there is a difference.  In addition to the points made, Australians have always considered themselves a secular nation without national adherence to one particular religion.  However, the reality was that most Australians, if pressed, would nominate a religion even if they never darkened the door of a church or were "Easter and Christmas" Christians. 

Along with all this, Australia has always thought of itself as the nation of the "fair go".  This concept has been sorely tested in recent times with the influx of people from the African continent. 

Editor's Note:  When I was growing up in 1950s Australia, there was no such concept as "interfaith" - and there was not the dispersion of faiths that there is to-day.  Even Christians found it difficult to collaborate with one another.  

German politics and the Christian cross

Crosses on chains are offered in a devotional objects shop 

in Munich, southern Germany, on June 1, 2018. (AFP)

The government of Bavaria has decided to instruct 

all state administrative buildings in the German state 

to display a cross in their public entrances by June 1.

A controversial decree requiring Christian crucifixes to be installed at entrances of most public buildings in Bavaria came into force on Friday, sparking accusations of identity politics ahead of elections in the southern German state.

Markus Soeder, Bavaria's conservative state premier, had initiated the measure in April, saying "the cross is a fundamental symbol of our Bavarian identity and way of life."

But the order sparked an outcry, with critics accusing Soeder of politicising a religious symbol as his CSU party battles to claw back voters who have turned to the far-right and Islamophobic AfD ahead of state election in October.

"Soeder has misused the cross for an election manoeuvre," the region's Social Democrat chief Natascha Kohnen told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily.

Soeder was also widely mocked, including by the state premier of neighbouring Baden-Wuerttemburg, Winfried Kretschmann, who said a photo of his Bavarian colleague holding the cross made him "think of a vampire film."

But among the harshest condemnations was that from Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German Bishops' Conference, who warned Soeder that "if the cross is viewed only as a cultural symbol, then it has not been understood."

"Then the cross is being expropriated by the state," said Marx in an interview with Sueddeutsche daily, adding that it must not be used as a tool to exclude.

Amid the push-back, Soeder's office had sought to tone down the decree, saying that while it was compulsory for buildings like police stations, courts or ministry offices, it was merely recommended for higher educational institutions, museums and theatres.

From here.