News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
A medical professional who attempted to offer a Bible to a cancer patient was “rightly sacked” from her job, a court has heard. British nurse Sarah Kuteh was fired from Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent back in 2016 for talking to several patients about her faith in Jesus and…
Douglas Strang Douglas Strang looks at the case law on religious discrimination in the workplace. Some of the most challenging HR/employment law issues of the recent years have related to religious discrimination and in particular the question of whether an employee can rely on their religious beliefs as justification for…
Not with a toilet flush, but with a whimper, the Senate State Affairs Committee sent a sweeping religious refusal bill to the full Senate Monday evening, March 25, after several hours of testimony from Texas residents, social workers, lawyers, and numerous members of the clergy. The Senate State Affairs Committee…
Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, manages his shop after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he could refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs did not violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination law Monday, June 4, 2018, in Lakewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)…
Abdul Yamobi A trial date has been set for a Boone County Jail inmate accused of beating a Muslim inmate because he dislikes Muslims, according to court records. Michael D. Mathis, 24, of Lebanon, ruled A block, Muslim inmates reportedly told police after Mathis injured Abdul Yamobi, 54, Zionsville, on…
Collinsville Bible Baptist Paul Terrell, who played the trumpet for the Gaither Band for several years, will be performing at special services at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 5-6, at Collinsville Bible Baptist Church. Friday night’s topic will be "The Trump Shall Resound," with Terrell playing the trumpet as…
Canada’s Quebec province on Thursday unveiled controversial draft legislation that would ban a significant section of public servants from wearing religious symbols such as a crucifix, yarmulke or hijab. The measure which applies to police, teachers and others in positions of authority is expected to become law by June with…
Portland, Ore., has long prohibited religious discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation—but now the city will also expressly protect the nonreligious, including atheists, agnostics and others that don’t believe in a particular religion. Although discrimination based on the lack of religious beliefs is prohibited under Title VII of the…
(Photo by Rick Uldricks/Patch staff) AUSTIN, TEXAS — The attorney general of Texas said he has opened up an investigation stemming from the San Antonio City Council’s decision to exclude Chick-fil-A from an airport concession contract given the company’s opposition to same-sex marriage. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday…
Explore Recipes and Stories By Aleksandr Sverdlik / Guest Columnist One pork sandwich every eight hours for six straight days. That’s the only food that Border Patrol provided to Adnan Asif Parveen, a Muslim immigrant who was detained in South Texas in January because his work permit had expired and…
Residents celebrating religious harmony at the Punggol North Racial and Religious Harmony Street Parade last year. A new report by the Institute of Policy Studies has found that most Singaporeans feel that having different religious views is no barrier to getting along when living in close proximity. When it comes…
A federal rule was just published in the Federal Register. A single rule in a document that runs over 80,000 pages long may seem a small thing, but this particular rule marks the defeat of what many Americans perceive as an extended assault on religious freedom begun by the Obama…
Judith and Alan Gillis of Orrington, parents of Bangor Christian Schools junior Isabella Gillis at the school Aug. 28, 2018. The Gillis’ are one of three Maine families that are challenging the prohibition on using public money to pay tuition at religious schools after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.…
The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing in on the constitutional question of whether the symbol of Christ’s crucifixion is necessarily religious. The high court agreed Nov. 2 to review a lower court ruling that a 40-foot cross at the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince George’s County,…
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) − For decades, we’ve seen clashes over civil rights and religious freedoms and now a new trend involves wedding vendors citing religious reasons to refuse service. Landmark cases involving photographers in Minnesota and a baker in Colorado have all eyes watching a case before the Arizona Supreme…
Pussy Riot performs in concert during Day For Night festival on December 16, 2017 in Houston, Texas © Getty Images / Gary Miller Two recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demonstrate not only that it’s a political and hypocritical organization. They also show the severe structural…
Vincent Kessler / Reuters According to dominant Islamic traditions, the Prophet Muhammad’s third wife Aisha was six years old at their marriage and nine at its consummation. Muslims, as Graeme Wood has pointed out , have debated the issue of Aisha’s age for a very long time, and critics of…
A commentary on French President Macron’s declaration at the Vatican. This post is part 2 of 2. There is undeniable historical truth that institutionalized religion has functioned to back a ruling power and the social classes it has privileged (as with the Church of England under the Restoration following England’s…
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres make remarks at a press conference. Today, on the front page of the United Nations’ website is an article entitled, “French full-body veil ban, violated women’s freedom of religion: UN Human Rights Committee.” In 2012, two French Muslim women sent complaints to the U.N. when a…
China (MNN) – China may finally be making the move to re-write the Bible. Bob Fu, founder of China Aid , a persecution watchdog group, raised the alarm this month, in an address to members of the U-S government. According to him, the Three Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese…
From the inbox: Can a church-affiliated group conduct after-school Bible study classes in a public school without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution? That depends. The First Amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It was…
I’m going to hold this one up in prayer. The injustice inflicted upon the Klein family by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) should have never stood in a nation that claims to have freedom of religion and speech. And no matter your political persuasion or religious beliefs…
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò speaks at a dinner honoring then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in 2012 (CNS photo/ Michael Rogel/PMS) I was going through a box of papers sent home from my Commonweal office the other day, tossing out most of them. Then I came across the fourteen-page text of a…
The recent horrific events in Pittsburgh wherein members of the Jewish community were killed while at their place of worship is a stark reminder that prejudices against religious beliefs remains in our society. At work, employers cannot tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment based on religion. Title VII of…
2018 was touted as the year the Supreme Court of Canada would consider how religious freedom should be valued as a right guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court rendered three highly anticipated decisions which received a great deal of press. Two of the decisions…