God Forbid

The need for charity is always there, though the motives of giving remain complex, and the outcomes can be frustratingly mixed. James Carleton and the God Forbid panel examine the charity sector and the state of giving in Australia.

This year for NAIDOC Week, James Carleton and the God Forbid panel look at universities and Christian churches — two institutions that have a rapidly changing relationship with Australia’s First Peoples.

Is getting older a gift or a curse? What societal stigmas are attached to ageing? And how are older Australians coping during the COVID-19 pandemic? On God Forbid, James Carleton and the panel find out. 

Australia loves a legend - not just legendary sports stars, legendary stories too. But some stories are too extraordinary to be believed. So should we get rid of them and live in the real world? James Carleton and the God Forbid panel explore.

In some ways we will always be different – it’s a wonderful part of life, but it comes with disagreement and even conflict. But intolerance can be a good and natural response to the intolerable. James Carleton and the God Forbid panel explore the difference.

Each of us has our own complex environmental identity and culture – even if it’s not at the forefront of our mind – and religion can play a part. What we believe affects our behaviour, and what happens to the environment affects us all. James Carleton and the God Forbid panel look at climate change, religion and community organising.

Did you know that Brazil has more Catholics than any country in the world? It has also undergone a military dictatorship in which religion played a role, and the current president himself identifies as a Catholic – though his wife is an active member of a Baptist church. On God Forbid, James and our panel examine the various ways in which religion has shaped (and continues to shape) the Latin American country. 

We live in an era that glorifies youth, and at the same time, science promises to delay old age. James Carleton and the God Forbid panel ask, what will it mean if we let that go on without limit?

This week is 130 years to the day since Pope Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum, an encyclical – or open letter – about capital and labour. The Pope endorsed the right to private property but also named trade unions as a moral good. Today, James Carleton and the God Forbid panel discuss the Christians who contributed to socialist thought in Europe.

Faith and medicine have long gone hand-in-hand, but as medicine advances, that relationship is occasionally strained to breaking point. How do your doctors make the moral decisions needed to treat patients? And what happens if there’s not enough medicine to go around?