Newsline - The Weekly Newsletter from the NSS

Newsline – 31st August 2012

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:38:59 +0000

Newsline is the weekly newsletter from the National Secular Society. Every week we collate the stories and issues or most importance to our members and offer reportage and insight. Our audio edition takes the main stories and offers them in an easy-to-listen podcast, available online and via iTunes subscription (for free).

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In this week’s Newsline

Cromer Council agrees to take prayers off the agenda
Free speech protest calls on Cameron to reform insults law
Religious beliefs should be respected – when rights are not impeded
Faith based welfare looms as local authorities ask ‘Big Society’ to deliver crisis aid to the vulnerable
Catholic schools to be challenged in High Court

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Newsline -10th August 2012

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:16:16 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Muslim woman sacked for wearing a headscarf loses religious discrimination claim on a technicality
Number of atheists around the world is rising
Catholic Church doesn’t want to share its free schools with non-Catholics

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Newsline – 27th July 2012

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:14:55 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Victory for community school fighting merger with Church school
Gay marriage promised in Scotland – but Church wangles concessions in schools
Christian group targets schools with frightening and dubious anti-abortion message
Swiss and Austrian hospitals suspend infant circumcision procedures

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Newsline – 13th July 2012

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:34:53 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Parents, teachers and governors ignored as council hands community school to church – and first “religionisation” teachers’ strike
Bishops come under fire but Lords Reform now looks a distant prospect
Vatican’s use of the law to try to hide its secrets will backfire
The myth of the Nadia Eweida case gets another dishonest outing

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Newsline – 6th July 2012

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:31:44 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

National Trust puts creationism on show at new visitor centre
Dagenham teachers to strike over “faith school” proposals
Public supports getting rid of the bishops’ bench
Why won’t the Government get rid of this pesky threat to free speech that nobody wants?
Religious circumcision ruled unlawful in German court

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Newsline – 22nd June 2012

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:39:09 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Christian GP says he will pay no heed to the GMC
Religious threats to free speech in Britain and Poland
Catholic Education Service rebuked for blurring distinction between faith and politics in schools

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Newsline – 15th June 2012

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:23:12 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Evangelising GP disciplined by medical watchdog
Church-state confrontation raises the issue of disestablishment
Why the Church must not win in this confrontation with the state
Miracle healing group can continue to make dangerous claims on website, says ASA
Compromise over cross at crematorium

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Newsline – 18th May 2012

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:15:53 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Home Secretary under pressure to reform Public Order Act
Cardinal who covered up child abuse and got away with it says secularists are immoral
Gove goes ahead with school Bible distribution
Monarch’s role as head of Church of England “unsustainable”

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Newsline – 11th May 2012

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:30:07 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

NSS call for Northern Ireland child abuse investigation
Murdoch no match for Benedict in the ‘unfit to govern’ stakes
Welsh Minister says Catholic schools may be breaking the law by opposing gay marriage
Transport subsidies to faith schools axed

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Newsline – 20th April 2012

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 10:10:48 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

NSS challenges Bear Grylls over Scouts inclusivity claims
Government to work with Church of England to promote more religious schools
Boris Johnson attacks “secularist agenda”
Poll shows Catholic Church completely out of touch with modern Irish society
Survey shows belief in God declining worldwide

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Newsline – 6th April 2012

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:13:25 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Cameron’s dissembling, hypocritical and dishonest speech delivers big promises to religious leaders
Council prayers decision continues to provoke controversy
Another Today presenter says Thought for the Day needs to open up to secularist thinkers

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Newsline – 30th March 2012

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:15:47 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Gove backs voluntary cap on faith-based admissions in new Catholic school
Persecuted Christian story follows a familiar pattern of newspaper distortion
Bishops in the Lords are a patronising anachronism, say secularists
Church wants another tax privilege
It can be done! Local campaign thwarts CofE takeover of new school
Christian MPs defend adverts claiming prayer can heal
Parliamentary Questions

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Newsline – 23rd March 2012

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:52:26 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Church of England proposes large-scale expansion of its influence in education
Irish Government powerless to stop funding school chaplains
Dutch Catholic Church under fire for castrating teenagers
Peter Tatchell is Secularist of the Year 2012
You can trust us to run welfare services, say religious groups – but for how long?
More Catholics rebel against hierarchy’s homophobia
The Church of England – myth and reality

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Newsline – 16th March 2012

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:12:38 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Bideford Council drops council prayers appeal
NSS speaks out at United Nations
Challenge to council prayers in Scotland
Parking privileges for Christians in York
Without a pack of lies to back them up, Christian claims of persecution fall flat on their face
College removes defamatory remarks about atheists from its module

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Newsline – 9th March 2012

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:57:31 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Christians told: you don’t own the local crematorium
Christian GP who tried to convert a patient will face a new GMC hearing
Countless millions of taxpayers’ money spent on discrimination in schools
Worries that new CofE school won’t serve the whole community
State-sponsored religions are undesirable, says UN

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Newsline – 2nd March 2012

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:09:04 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Eric Pickles is allowing his evangelical Christianity to cloud his judgement
NSS accuses advertising watchdog of inconsistency with religious ads
Christian discrimination report is just another call for special privileges
Protest at teacher training college’s comparison of atheism to Nazism
The Tories will be watching how Republican’s religion-in-politics tactic plays
Pope renews attack on IVF

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Newsline – 24th February 2012

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:49:19 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Bideford – no news yet
Councillor heckled for walking out of prayers during council meeting
Mr Pickles’ “community cohesion” policy is a recipe for conflict
Poll shows majority think councils shouldn’t pray
Italy orders Vatican to pay tax on its commercial property

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Newsline – 17th February 2012

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:38:24 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Bideford Council will appeal – contributions welcome
The great debate begins
Hardline evangelicals seek funding for free school
Christian hotel owners fined for refusing to let a gay couple stay
NSS supports Freedom of Expression Rally
Muslims more successful at enforcing their religion from generation to generation

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Newsline – 10th February 2012

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:24:22 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

High Court rules council prayers unlawful
Council prayer case will bring much abuse on to the head of the NSS
Bishops lie about NSS chaplains campaign at the General Synod
Why is the Government consulting the Vatican on national policy?
NSS addresses EU secularist group on Church and Education in Europe
Religious proselytisers move into academy school

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Newsline – 3rd February 2012

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:39:45 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Majority of Britons want bishops out of the House of Lords
Religious education GCSE will lose its appeal when the exam is toughened up
Adverts claiming cures through prayer are banned
London School of Economics brings back blasphemy
Vested interests delay scrapping of “faith school” transport subsidies
Cheddar Parish Council vote to continue praying
Sarkozy’s smoke and mirrors promises to religious leaders

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Newsline – 27th January 2012

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:30:15 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Government resists calls to regulate madrassas
NSS condemns plans for Olympic Jesus statue
LSE Students Union “being manipulated by determined activists” over Mohammed cartoon, says NSS
Abortion amendment to sneak in through the back door

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Newsline – 20th January 2012

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:58:30 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Islamist stops university debate with threats of violence
Pope attacks ‘radical secularism’ and orders US bishops to twist the arms of politicians over abortion
Spending public money on proposed Catholic jamboree in London will be vigorously protested
Church of England continues to shrink according to official figures
Establishment and the gay bishop
NSS challenges the law: an insult should not be a criminal offence

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Newsline – 13th January 2012

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:53:33 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Advertising watchdog accused of excessive deference to religion
Government takes action to combat creationism in free schools
CofE takeover of schools progresses rapidly
Catholic schools are for religious recruitment, admits bishop (and it costs £3.4 billion p.a. for England and Wales)
Defending freedom of expression at University College London
Secularism under attack from European Parliament President

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Newsline – 6th January 2012

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:20:42 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

MPs and Peers don’t eat halal – but what about the rest of us?
More councils to cut “faith school” transport spending
A New Year when secularism must stand up for itself or be overwhelmed by religious power-seeking
Michael Gove personally killing RE, say enthusiasts for RE

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Newsline – 23rd December 2011

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:27:01 +0000

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In this week’s Newsline

Cameron is joining the right-wing rush to religion
Why Trevor Phillips owes the NSS an apology
Another council considers prayers
Latest revelations about Catholic child abuse bring promises of stricter laws
Lawmaker withdraws bid to hand over Israeli power production to rabbis

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