Does Queensland have a religious cult problem?

The Religion and Ethics Report - Separate stories podcast

Israel has allowed a partial lifting of the blockade of Gaza to permit some food drops to take place. But are drops from the air enough to alleviate conditions on the ground – conditions the United Nations has described as famine-like? Israel denies that it is deliberately engineering a famine. AMRA LEE is a researcher in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University and a former adviser to the UN on humanitarian relief and conflict resolution.

Federal police have charged a Chinese national under the foreign interference laws, after she allegedly tried to infiltrate a Buddhist congregation in Canberra. Religious communities of Chinese Australians have become particularly targets for Chinese intelligence, according to Australian researcher CLIVE HAMILTON. His book, Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, detailed cases of exactly this type of infiltration.

In February, the Queensland Supreme Court jailed 14 members of Toowoomba-based religious sect called “The Saints”. They were convicted of manslaughter over the death in 2022 of 8-year-old Elizabeth Struh, who died of a diabetic condition. In this joint investigation with ABC TV's Compass, award-winning journalist SUZANNE SMITH goes into the world of this extreme Pentecostal cult and meets some of the Christian leaders fighting back against the cult’s influence. “The Cult of The Saints” will air on ABC TV and be available here on ABC iView.

GUESTS:

• Amra Lee is a researcher at the Department of International Relations at the ANU
• Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University
• Suzanne Smith is a Walkley winning journalist and reporter with the ABC

This program was made on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, and the Ngunnawal, Ngambri, and Ngarigo Peoples