ACL compiles a daily media monitoring service of stories of interest to the Christian constituency relating to children, family, drugs and alcohol, marriage, human rights, religious freedom etc.



Visit the ACL’s website each day to see what’s of interest in the news. Please note that selection of the articles does not represent ACL endorsement of the content.



.



Charities & NFP

Australians are digging deeper for charity

News Ltd

Australians are giving more to charity despite worries about the cost of living and job losses. Younger and older Australians are digging deep, with charitable giving growing by more than eight per cent in the year to February 2014, National Australia Bank's annual Charitable Giving Index shows.

Donor Conception & Surrogacy

Judge delivers stark warning to couples without formal parenting agreements

Shauna Anderson - Mamamia

This once-loving couple never thought they would end up in court. They never thought they would be fighting each other for the right to see their own baby. A UK court has made a ruling over a lesbian couple who had been in a relationship for about 18 months and in it delivered a stark warning to same-sex couples who enter into informal parenting arrangements.

Drugs & Alcohol

Raise drinking age to 21, say professors

News Ltd

Alcohol causes permanent brain damage in young people, say four Australian professors who are calling for the minimum drinking age to be increased to 21. A higher legal age would protect youngsters from mental anguish, traffic trauma and violence, they say in an an article in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA).

Push to decriminalise cannabis (includes poll)

The Examiner

When it comes to illegal drugs and Tasmania, cannabis takes the pot. The most recent national data shows cannabis outranks the next most popular drugs - amphetamine-type stimulants - by a factor of nearly 50 when looking at seizures. In fact cannabis continues to account for over 90 per cent of the weight of illicit drugs seized in Tasmania.

Education

Men too scared to teach for fear of being falsely accused of child-sex offences

The Advertiser

Growing numbers of men are shunning teaching careers for fear of being falsely accused of child-sex offences. More than 50 South Australian schools had no male teachers last year and experts say this rate will worsen in the wake of the high-profile Debelle royal commission into the handling of school sex-abuse cases.

Euthanasia

Reject euthanasia and save us from Dr Death

Nicholas Tonti-Filippini - The Age

There are three ways in which euthanasia can become lawful: the parliament legislating to make an exception to the criminal law (the Oregon approach); the courts making lenient decisions that result in the public prosecutor deciding to accept medical guidelines for when no charges will be laid (the Netherlands approach); and changes to medical practice to permit fatal neglect – the ‘‘sedate and demand feed’’ approach that brings about a slow death by dehydration or starvation.

Marriage

Man’s legal bid to wed laptop denied by judge

The Christian Institute

A man, who wants to marry his porn-filled laptop, has had his legal bid rejected by a US judge. Chris Sevier filed a 50-page motion to a federal court with the hopes of intervening in an appeal against Utah’s ban on same-sex wedding.

Overseas Aid

More aid concerns on the eve of Australian budget

ABC

Concern is growing among international aid agencies at the prospect of Australia's foreign aid being cut substantially in the national budget tomorrow.

Politics

Faith and politics and ... economics?

Andrew West - ABC

We think of religious teaching as informing the debates on same-sex marriage and abortion, but sideline its influence on our economic life, writes Andrew West. We are having one of these periodic "national conversations", this time about the place of religion in our political life.

Religious Freedom & Persecution

Video released by Boko Haram claims to show missing Nigerian schoolgirls

The Age

Boko Haram released a new video on Monday claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.