Violence against women : Porn : Gender inequality : Gambling and addiction of Australian govts : G20

Domestic violence attitudes worsening, Anglican synod told

 17/10/2014 

by Barney Zwartz 

Reprinted from here

 Social attitudes in Australian society justifying domestic violence are becoming stronger, fuelled by the pornography and advertising industries, the Melbourne Anglican Synod was told on 16 October. “Social attitudes that give legitimacy to domestic violence are deeply entrenched in our society and in some ways are getting even worse,” the Revd. Scott Holmes told the 800 clergy and lay people meeting at St Paul’s Cathedral. “The porn industry is increasingly showing violence against women and portraying women as enjoying it, and is the greatest teacher about sex education to our children. Our advertising industry is also having a huge impact.” Mr Holmes said last year Victoria Police responded to 66,000 incidents of domestic violence, 95 per cent of them by men against women. 

Researcher Dr Ree Bodde said gender inequality was encouraged in many churches, with many women advised they should stay in abusive relationships and “try to be better wives”. “Violence in our homes reaches even into our vicarages,” she said. 

The Melbourne diocese has a preventing violence against women program that the synod was told is a model and incentive to other faith communities. 

Dr Gordon Preece, chairman of the Social Responsibilities Commission, said 4000 Victorians experienced homelessness every night, many of them victims of domestic violence. 

On gambling, Dr Preece said the greatest addicts were Australian governments. The synod voted to call all levels of government to reduce their reliance on revenue from gambling. Dr Preece said gambling was a key cause of family breakdown, crime – second only to drugs – and suicide. He said every time the churches looked like achieving reform, such as limiting the size of bets on poker machines, “we find enormous donations to both political parties (by gambling interests) have stifled the reform”. 

The synod urged G20 leaders meeting in Brisbane next month to look beyond short-term national interests to overcome unparalleled threats to global security and justice such as global warming and income inequality.