The Religion and Ethics Report - Separate stories podcast

Buddhist extremists have been emboldened by religious nationalism in America and beyond. They defy the image of Buddhism and undermine its core teachings.

Pope Leo visits Africa next week on a 10-day tour that will take him to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. Buddhist extremists have been emboldened by religious nationalism in America and beyond. They defy the image of Buddhism and undermine its core teachings.

It's 40 years since the Philippine People's Revolution It was a revolution where barely a shot was fired. Nuns armed with rosary beads helped lead millions of Filipinos in peaceful demonstrations that, 40 years ago, brought down the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  Ringing in the ears of the people was the voice of a soft-spoken archbishop who urged them to topple a corrupt and increasingly brutal regime.  Just how critical was Cardinal Jaime Sin and the Catholic Church to the People Power revolution?  GUEST: Dr Jethro Calacday, Filipino historian currently at Cambridge University 

Australia is a country where meat is our national icon — we commune around the barbie and love our meat pies. Yet, we also have some of the oldest vegetarian societies and earliest western animal cruelty laws. In the place of The World Today on Good Friday, James Carleton from Radio National’s God Forbid philosopher Professor Rachel Ankeny, author Edgar Crook and theologian Professor David Clough to examine what we eat from cultural, ethical and historical perspectives.GUESTS:Rachel Ankeny is Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Wageningen University.Edgar Crook is author of "Abstainers! – a vegetarian and vegan history of Australia" and "Vegetarianism in Australia 1788 to 1948: A Cultural and Social History."David Clough is Chair in Theology and Applied Sciences at the University of Aberdeen.

Each Easter, we bring you stories from places where war and other disasters can try people’s faith but where, despite great despair, their religious beliefs survive.ASUNTHA CHARLES has worked with the faith-based aid organisation World Vision in Afghanistan under the Taliban and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, where 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims fled the military regime in Myanmar/Burma. She was in Australia recently with the Micah Women’s Network.GUEST: Ms. Asuntha Charles is National Director for World Vision Solomon Islands and World Vision International

In the near future, artificial intelligence could do the thinking, and a robotic combination of human and machine do the lifting. But it’s a potentially dystopic scenario – the poor, the weak, and those who simply believe in humanity as nature intended could be abandoned. These are just some of major ethical challenges posed by so-called transhumanism. Professor JASON EBERL is a bioethicist at St Louis University in Missouri. On the 8th of April, he’ll deliver the annual lecture to the Plunkett Centre for Ethics in Sydney. Each Easter, we bring you stories from places where war and other disasters can try people’s faith but where, despite great despair, their religious beliefs survive. ASUNTHA CHARLES has worked with the faith-based aid organisation World Vision in Afghanistan under the Taliban and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, where 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims fled the military regime in Myanmar/Burma. She was in Australia recently with the Micah Women’s Network.Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down after the Vatican and the governments of France, Italy and even the United States protested a decision to block the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. After Israel’s president Isaac Herzog intervened, Netanyahu said the cardinal would have access to all holy sites this Easter.A Sydney bishop is set to take up a top Vatican job. Pope Leo has announced Bishop Anthony Randazzo will become the new Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, meaning he’ll be responsible for interpreting and applying church law throughout the Catholic world. He’ll become the most senior Australian cleric in the Vatican since the late George Pell, who held was Prefect for the economy.And finally, the pope had some pointed words for the residents of the world’s wealthiest state. In a day-long visit to Monaco, where one in three people are millionaires, Leo condemned the “idolatry of power and money” and reminded them Jesus was “an advocate” for the poor and outcast.

In the near future, artificial intelligence could do the thinking, and a robotic combination of human and machine do the lifting. But it’s a potentially dystopic scenario – the poor, the weak, and those who simply believe in humanity as nature intended could be abandoned. These are just some of major ethical challenges posed by so-called transhumanism. GUEST:Professor JASON EBERL is a bioethicist at St Louis University in Missouri. On the 8th of April, he’ll deliver the annual lecture to the Plunkett Centre for Ethics in Sydney. 

There may be a complex challenge for the new Archbishop of Canterbury.Some Brits are claiming Christian identity with a more politicised and dubious intention in mind.Madeleine Davies of the Church Times has been investigating the recent fervour behind the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ movement and the response of the Church of England.Plus Donald Trump has always found cheerleaders in the heartland of the US bible belt. But also in Christian Europe. These movements were largely spawned out of a fear that Christian Europe was being lost to mass immigration.But the President's war in Iran and trade policies are unnerving those who once considered themselves allies. Thomas Fazi has been watching this unfold.GUESTS:Madeleine Davies is Senior Writer for the Church TimesThomas Fazi,  is a columnist for UnHerd and Compact magazines 

In the aftermath of the Bondi massacre of 15 mostly Jewish people celebrating Hannukah, state and federal governments have passed hate speech laws. They're part of an effort to build social cohesion in a country scarred recently by growing antisemitism and other forms of religious hatred.  But does banning phrases such as "from the river to the sea" — used usually when supporting a Palestinian state –promote cohesion?  Can any law mandate unity? Criminologists Keiran Hardy and Rebecca Wickes from Griffith University argue in a recent paper that laws can help, but governments also need to look at declining trust, economic opportunity and loneliness. GUEST:Kieran Hardy, Associate Professor in Griffith University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is co-author of We can’t coerce our way to social cohesion. Here’s what else governments should be doing

In the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, state and federal governments have passed hate speech laws to help build social cohesion. But does banning phrases promote cohesion? Can any law mandate unity? Also in this episode, Christian Democrats in the US are making a major pitch to win religious votes. Will they pose a significant threat to Donald Trump at upcoming midterm elections?GUESTS:Kieran Hardy, Associate Professor in Griffith University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is co-author of: We can’t coerce our way to social cohesion. Here’s what else governments should be doing David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney