News

Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks joins the small but vociferous chorus of religious extremists who are trying to undermine equal rights legislation, particularly protection for gay people. Read More »

The NSS was invited to bring a secular perspective to a presentation by academics on Sharia in the UK hosted by the Centre of European Policy Studies in Brussels. Read More »

On Wednesday, President Jerzy Buzek of the European Parliament made his first official visit to the Parliament’s Secular Platform, invited by its chair, Sophie in ’t Veld MEP. Accompanying him was vice president Laszlo Tokes. Read More »

A town council in rural Ontario, Canada, has been ordered by the court to cease opening meetings with the Lord’s Prayer after complaints from secularists. Read More »

Despite heavy pressure from religious groups, Hampshire County Council this week made a final decision to scrap transport subsidies to religious schools. Read More »

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint from Nottingham Secular Society president Dennis Penaluna. Read More »

The Equality and Human Rights Commission, headed by Trevor Phillips, has issued a report on religious discrimination which struggles hard to find evidence for any large-scale discrimination on religious grounds. Read More »

The Bishop of Oxford has been panic-mongering in order to ensure that the privileges that the Church of England enjoys in education are retained and maybe even extended. Read More »

The First Tier Tribunal (Charity) has rejected the Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) adoption agency’s latest appeal, stating that there were no “errors of law” in its judgment that the adoption agency could not discriminate against same-sex couples wishing to use its services. Read More »

Alarmed at the Scottish parliament’s determination to rush through an ill-considered bill to challenge sectarianism in football, the NSS made a submission to the Parliament’s Justice Committee pointing out potential threats to freedom of expression. Read More »

TheVaticanhas at last given an indication that it will submit a report to the United Nations this autumn on its treatment of children. Read More »

As the (English) Education Bill progresses through the House of Lords, NSS Executive Director Keith Porteous Wood and campaigns manager Stephen Evans this week held talks with schools Minister Nick Gibb MP and his ministerial team. Read More »

This week's selection of secular items from the web. Read More »

The Southern Baptist Convention reported declines last year in several categories traditionally used as markers of denominational vitality, according to annual statistics released June 9 by LifeWay Christian Resources. Read More »

A large-scale survey in the USA by the Public Religion Research Institute has shown that significant majorities of Americans say it is possible to disagree with their religion’s teachings on abortion and homosexuality and still remain in good standing with their faith. This held true for major religious groups, including Catholics and white evangelical Protestants. Read More »

The revised Hungarian constitution, which will take effect on 1 January, completely outlaws abortion, gay marriage and protection of homosexuals from discrimination, and allows lifelong imprisonment without possibility of parole. Amnesty International has condemned the document as abusing human rights on several fronts. Read More »

Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church

(Jason Berry, Crown – Hardback £15.29 from Amazon)

Jason Berry is a Catholic investigative journalist whose previous claim to fame was his powerful exposé on child abuse in the church, Vows of Silence. Read More »

When 10,000 members of the Lutheran Church of Sweden were asked about their beliefs, only 15 per cent of them said they believed in Jesus. According to the survey, 15 percent of church members said they are atheists, while a quarter identify themselves as agnostic. The younger the members, the more likely they are to be atheists or agnostics. Read More »

The Dutch parliament is on the point of passing a law that would end the slaughter of animals by ritual religious methods before they had been stunned or anaesthetised. Read More »

Internet users around the world are less likely to search for the word “Catholic” today than they were in 2004, according to an analysis of Google data. Read More »

A French court on Thursday heard the country's first case against women refusing to obey a new law banning the wearing of Islamic face veils in public. The two women, who wear the niqab, a veil that covers the hair and face with just a slit for the eyes, were ordered to appear before the court in the town of Meaux, about 40 kilometres east of Paris, for going to the local town hall on May 5 with their faces veiled. Read More »

Dr Antony Lempert, GP and chair of the Secular Medical Forum, was featured on Channel 4’s 4thought.tv programme on 3rd June, speaking out against religiously-inspired surgery on the most intimate parts of a boy’s body. The episode will be available to view for several months. Read More »

The National Secular Society was invited to a Government reception at Lancaster House in London last week to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday. Read More »

The Irish Government has agreed to set up a committee of inquiry to establish the full facts about the extent of abuse and cruelty at the Magdalene Laundries. The religious institutions that ran the laundries are to be asked to release all records on residents past and present. Read More »

Instead of prayers — as in the Westminster parliament — the Scottish Parliament has a weekly “Time for Reflection”. But the involvement by visiting ministers, priests and speakers fails to reflect the religious diversity of Scotland and ignores the fact that about one third of the Scottish population cannot be said to be religious in any way. Read More »