As the UK economy stagnates, church-run food banks are booming. But as local authorities draw up plans to refer people in need to food banks, Stephen Evans asks: should the welfare state force citizens to turn to the church in their hour of need?

Terry Sanderson says Muslims who are protesting about the new BBC sitcom Citizen Khan should calm down. The sitcom, he argues, has the potential to do a big favour for Muslims in Britain if it is allowed to develop without every episode bringing a flood of complaints from those who take offense.

Ireland awaits a September report on its abortion laws by a European Court of Human Rights panel of experts at a time of rising political tensions over the issue and a backdrop of steep declines in the popularity of religion.

Associate Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, Robert C. Blitt explains why The US Department of State and numerous human rights organizations are premature in heralding the end of attempts to entrench an international norm prohibiting blasphemy at the United Nations

So, the Olympics has come and gone and it's been a triumph; our athletes have done us proud and the UK has a whole new raft of sporting heroes and heroines. But that's not all – Saudi Arabia got off the hook, misogyny has been normalised, and multiculturalism has been disingenuously defended … all in a few short weeks.

Alistair McBay argues that the Vatican should put its own financial house in order before lecturing the financial sector on ethical banking.

Anne Marie Waters argues that the burka runs counter to democratic values and norms because it designates women a different and separate existence. Should the choice to cause this harm should be restricted?

The tightening of the grip of political Islam on the Middle East continues apace. Those young people who put their lives on the line to depose dictators and demagogues are now finding that, in fact, their countrymen seem to like dictators and demagogues – and have used the hard-won democratic process to swap secular tyrants for religious ones.

If you can't even say "hogwash" about religion, then isn't debate is restricted to the point of being impossible? With its decision this week to uphold a complaint against Jeremy Paxman, Terry Sanderson says the BBC Trust has pulled the noose about the neck of free speech a little tighter.

The Muslim-Jewish alliance of religious 'leaders' who condemned the recent German court ruling in Cologne on male circumcision stands as a testament to the need for secularism.

Tony Blair has been on the public platform again talking about how important religion is for everybody. NSS President Terry Sanderson isn't convinced.

Aside from recognising the huge significance in this for a long oppressed section of the community, the Scottish Government's announcement that it intends to legislate to allow same sex marriage is also an important point of religious freedom.

David Hart QC on how the courts have developed rules stopping themselves from deciding certain cases involving religious issues, not least because the courts recognise they don't know what they are doing once they get themselves immersed in issues of religious doctrine.

It is time Michael Gove — and the Government — stopped being so tolerant of 'faith' schools and started thinking about putting the brakes on their malevolent spread.

Anyone who has read the Eweida court and tribunal judgments and followed the case thoroughly (rather than basing our knowledge on the skewed and one-sided reports in the Daily Mail) knows that Nadia Eweida is not an innocent victim of religious prejudice. She is a determined activist who has bullied British Airways into giving her everything she wanted.

The Church of England is either in its last desperate death throes or it is making a concerted effort to revive itself and reclaim the widespread influence it once enjoyed.

Dr Antony Lempert of the Secular Medical Forum on the landmark German court ruling that parents do not have the right to circumcise their children without a medical reason.

Keith Porteous Wood explains why no-one has the right not to be offended, and no-one is entitled to have their feelings protected.

Since he announced his resignation, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams seems to feel he can now say what he wants, rather than what the "Anglican Communion" demands. And in the process he seems to be demonstrating an extraordinary sympathy for some of the arguments the National Secular Society has been making for years.

Nahla Mahmoud says that instead of promoting common values, the government is busy "defending the valuable role of faith in public life" and promoting religion as the solution for the moral decline of 'broken Britain'.

Terry Sanderson says the Vatican's great plan to reassert its authority in the Western world has so far delivered little in the way of results.

Terry Sanderson takes a look at the religion followed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The UK is a diverse society; a secular political system allows us all to develop equally in peace and fairness.

Forced marriage is to become a criminal offence. I am tempted to think progress is being made and that many young girls will now be saved from a life of rape and servitude. I'm afraid I remain somewhat sceptical however, because laws mean nothing if they are not enforced.

The Church of England has thrown down the gauntlet to the Government over the issue of gay marriage.