Editorial: religious people must stop ignoring flaws in their faith

Religious people must stop ignoring the faults in their faith, says Tom Elliott. 

The 3AW phone lines rang hot after Tom launched into a passionate editorial about the serious problems the world faces and their links to religion.

Tom referred to harrowing testimony presented at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Childhood Sexual Abuse today. 

‘There’s something about the Catholic Church and its insistence upon celibacy for its priests and its secrecy, it’s covering up – over not just years but decades of complaints – it says to me that there is something wrong with not just a few individuals but the structure of various churches themselves.’

‘I believe at the root of it lies the fact that some people do not want to hear the possibility that their religion is flawed.’

Tom also went on to point the finger at Islamist extremism and division among muslims in the Middle East.

‘Now religion is not the only bad force in the world.’

‘I’m simply saying this: religion has a lot of problems. A lot of division in the world is caused by people having rival religious beliefs.’ 

‘Religions need to get over the idea that they are perfect and everything else is wrong.’

Click play to hear Tom’s full editorial