This debate will divide and discredit the Liberals unless it can be shut down quickly. Within the party it will split the moderates from the right, and cause division within the right too.
The Ruddock report recommends the existing right of religious schools to turn away LGBT+ students and teachers be maintained, but that further constraints be added.
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If Quebec’s new premier succeeds in passing ‘secularization’ legislation by wielding the notwithstanding clause, it will come at the cost of civil rights and the protective capacity of the Charter.
Morrison’s brush strokes on his own portrait are designed to create the image of a leader tuned to the voters’ concerns, rather than the “Canberra bubble”.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Morrison is tactically quicker than Turnbull, just as in his messaging he can cut through more sharply. He’s more attuned to the emotional and knee-jerk drivers of today’s politics.
Surveys show young Australians want information about sexuality and gender diversity.
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Just as Prime Minister Morrison does not want others to impose their values on his kids, he should not impose his on others by limiting sex and sexuality education to what he deems acceptable.
President Donald Trump with pastor Paula White during a dinner for evangelical leaders in the White House, on Aug. 27, 2018.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Trump has promised to protect religious liberty. But there was a time when evangelicals believed that a religion that needed protection from government had no reason to exist at all.
People protest the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Despite the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, passed by the US Congress 40 years ago, Native Americans still struggle to protect public lands where they practice their religions.
As the government considers the Ruddock Review, a case for greater protections for religious freedom.
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Research shows that religion can have a positive impact on society in terms of better health, less crime and a stronger economy.
We don’t know what former Howard government minister Philip Ruddock and his panel have found and recommended about legislation to protect religious freedom.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The government won’t be putting out the report before the July 28 byelections, and that tells us something. There are concerns about how this issue will run in the public domain.
Common beliefs include finding a spiritual essence in nature.
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Around 14% of Australians identify as spiritual. It is time they were given the same rights as those belonging to organised religions.
Pastors kneel in prayer in front of the Supreme Court, as a counter-protester holds a sign that says “What’s Christian About Discrimination.”
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Arguments on religious freedom have taken place throughout US history and have landed in the Supreme Court as well. Interpretations have changed over time.
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Some Australian Christians claim to be persecuted – this is not only wrong, it is an insult to thousands around the world who are at risk because of their religion.
As the Ruddock review of religious freedom is about to report, we need a more sophisticated understanding of what religion is and the ways its expression can be curtailed - or can curtail others.
The justices have previously ruled that the government cannot compel people to speak its message or associate with ideas they do not hold.
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Most people know that the First Amendment protects free speech. But two upcoming Supreme Court cases reveal how it also gives people in the US the right not to speak.
The ‘gay wedding cake’ dilemma has become the go-to hypothetical when examining how religious freedom and LBGTI rights can co-exist.
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The government’s review of religious freedom protections must ensure that any additional protection of religious freedom does not further undermine the right to non-discrimination.
In the case of wedding cake.
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Emily Kazyak, University of Nebraska-Lincoln dan Kelsy Burke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
More than 1,000 Nebraskans were asked about laws that protect business owners who refuse to serve gays or lesbians. People on either side of the issue made appeals to rights, freedom and capitalism.
Samuel Brownback appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
A groundbreaking High Court ruling outlawing the spanking of children in South Africa has outraged some Christian bodies that claim parents are entitled to hit their children in a “godly way”.