Three Debates on Faith and Democracy

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of engaging in a debate with my USQ colleague Dr. Vito Breda.  We looked at three topics involving faith and democracy:  whether there should be a ban on wearing the burqa in public, whether religious arguments belong in the debate over same-sex marriage, and whether democracies could still thrive if adherence to mainstream religions dwindled.  You can watch the entire debate or parts of it using the links below:

All Debates

Title: "Three Debates on Faith and Democracy"

Description:  "Jeremy Patrick and Vito Breda debate whether Australia should ban the burqa, whether religion is relevant in the debate over same-sex marriage, and whether liberal democracy can thrive if organised religion declines."

Debate 1

Title:  "Should Australia ban the burqa?”

Description:  "Jeremy Patrick and Vito Breda discuss whether Australia should ban the burqa.  Topics include feminism, public security, and the link between identity and political expression."

Debate 2

Title:  "Does religion belong in the same-sex marriage debate?"

Description:  "Jeremy Patrick and Vito Breda discuss whether religious arguments belong in the debate over the upcoming Australian plebiscite on same-sex marriage."

Debate 3

Title:  "Can democracy thrive if mainstream society rejects religion?"

Description:  "Jeremy Patrick and Vito Breda discuss the decline of religion in Western Europe and what it means for democracy."

Forthcoming Article in University of Queensland Law Journal

I'm happy to report that the University of Queensland Law Journal will publish my article Religion, Secularism, and the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program.

"Ordered Universes: Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion"

Morton Klass, Ordered Universes: Approaches to the Anthropology of Religion (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995)

Klass' book will be primarily of interests to anthropologists, but it's written clearly enough to be accessible to those outside of that discipline.  Much of the book is taken up with terminological issues: how should we approach, or define, concepts like "religion", "supernatural", "myth", and "magic"?  Much of the intra-disciplinary wrangling on these issues has little to do with law and religion generally, but Klass' emphasis on the constant need for neutrality and the avoidance of ethnocentrism is extremely valuable.  Legal issues such as what constitutes a religion for tax exemption, what constitutes a religious practice for constitutional protection, and whether "witchcraft" or fortune-telling can be prosecuted as fraud all involve definitional issues in which legal scholars need to be extremely careful not to bring their cultural baggage with them.