Religious schools and organizations in the Australian state of Victoria will soon be prohibited from hiring or terminating based on the applicant's gender identity or sexual orientation. On September 16th, the Victorian Labor Party in Australia proposed a law that would end this discrimination.
In 2010, the youngest Catholic bishop in Spain was officially appointed. Xavier Novell was 41 at the time he was ordained bishop for the Catholic Church in Spain.
A wide range of religious organizations in the UK was subject to an inquiry investigation regarding child abuse. The inquiry revealed “shocking failures” and “blatant hypocrisies” in how these religions handle abuse allegations. Children are subjected to abuse of power and victim-blaming by religious leaders and, as a result, are often not reported.
Authorities arrested six family members in Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, for allegedly trying to kidnap a 20-year-old female relative because she has a non-Muslim boyfriend — and she is approximately 5-months pregnant. The victim later told police how she feared dying at the hands of her relatives because they believe she brought dishonor to them.
The report by the Office of the Director of the National Defense (ODND) released last June 25, 2021, caused a flurry of discussion regarding the existence of aliens. The report's title, made more ominous by the government agencies involved in its writing, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), creates an exciting topic for non-religious and religious individuals.
For the past 1,500 years, Jews have maintained their presence in Afghanistan. But with the endless conflicts unfolding in these arid Central Asian regions, Jews started an unhurried exodus. With the Afghan government ensuring that their citizenship will not be revoked, Afghan Jews began immigrating to other countries. By 1996, there were roughly 5000 Jews left in Afghanistan.
On July 26th, the U.S. Court of Appeals held the lower court’s decision to deny a web designer’s petition to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado. There have been many other court rulings in the United States deciding if a business that denies service to LGBTQ+ people is considered prejudice or exercising their right to religious freedom.
From the 19th to 20th centuries, Canadian churches operated at least 150 boarding schools for children of aboriginal tribes. Officials have exposed hundreds of unmarked graves on the surrounding properties. Approximately 150,000 native children attended these schools for more than a century. Sadly, the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada determined 3,201 native children died due to unsatisfactory conditions, malnourishment, and abuse.
Kurt Westergaard,a Danish cartoonist for Jyllands-Posten conservative newspaper since the 1980s, dies at age 86. According to the Danish Berlingske newspaper’s interview with the family, he died in his sleep after suffering from deteriorating health.
In a press release posted on the Ex-Muslims of North America's website, the group's director, Sarah Haider, responded to a letter from the Director of Content Policy Stakeholder Engagement for Facebook, Peter Stern. In her response, Haider explained how and why Facebook's new Content Policy is facilitating harm for marginalized groups such as atheists and other non-religious communities.
