Adelaide's war of religious words reaches a new height
Christians and atheists are ramping up their messages in the battle for hearts and minds in the City of Churches
Max Anderson in Adelaide
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 June 2013 23.17 EDT
The gentle pace of Adelaide's Rundle Mall resembled the more extreme pockets of Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park as evangelical preachers harangued shoppers who didn't love Jesus enough, threatening extra hell-fire for the sins of women, homosexuals and Muslims. The group was silenced after a year-long spectacle when the high court ruled to uphold a council by-law requiring proselytisers of any message to seek permission to spruik on public byways.
But now atheism has taken to the streets in Australia's City of Churches with the state's "first active atheist group in 40 years" forming in February to take direct action.
Founder of Atheism SA, Brian Morris, 68, says certain elements within Adelaide's government, judiciary and media are steeped in the religious cultural tradition, deferring to a "vocal rump" of religious groups. He's especially suspicious of powerful evangelical churches like Paradise (based in Adelaide), Hillsong and Access Ministry, whose leaders "seem to carry a tremendous amount of weight".
"We're not interested in sitting around debating whether God exists or not," says Morris. "It's a dead argument anyway. Our aim is to take an active role in a vast range of social issues being dominated by the Christian lobby groups – issues like euthanasia, marriage equality and the teaching of evangelism in schools."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/19/adelaide-religion-atheism-australia
PSA:
spruik [ˈspruːɪk]
vb
(intr) Austral archaic slang to speak in public (used esp of a showman or salesman)
[of unknown origin]
spruiker n
= new reply since forum marked as read
