Newsline 22 December 2017
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As the end of the year draws near, your NSS campaigns team have as busy as ever, despite hopes for a quiet last week before Christmas. Our successful campaigning
has led to Amazon UK withdrawing infant circumcision training kits from sale after we raised concerns about the wholly unregulated area of non-therapeutic
religious surgery on children.
And in the same week that the BBC announced it would increase its religious output, we've called on the Beeb to explain why it acted as a propaganda arm of the
Church of England after it broadcast the Today programme live from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace.
In his end of year message, our chief executive, Stephen Evans, celebrates the role of secularism in bringing peace and goodwill to all humans and takes to task
the minority of Christians who use the Christmas period to attack those who challenge their sense of entitlement. Secularism, he explains, like Christmas, is
something we can all appreciate, whatever our religious beliefs.
Our offices will be closed until 2 January, but there will be a special Newsline with the top 10 blogs of 2017 and we'll be back in the New Year, with plenty to
look forward to. If you're not already a member, why not make it your New Year's resolution to support the NSS? You can start a regular donation from just £1 a month, and together we can make a fairer secular democracy for all.
All that remains to say is a big thank you to all our members and supporters for your support throughout the year, enjoy the Christmas holiday and have a happy New
Year.
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News & Opinion
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Amazon UK has confirmed it has withdrawn infant circumcision training kits from sale over child safety concerns following a National Secular Society request...
Read More
»
The National Secular Society has said the BBC should portray religion in "a fair and critically-informed manner" after the Corporation pledged to increase...
Read More »
The National Secular Society has written to the BBC over an episode of Radio 4's Today show which it said amounted to a "PR exercise for the Church
of... Read More »
Some Christians use the Christmas period to attack secularism for its challenge to their sense of entitlement. But Stephen Evans says the faithful have...
Read More »
The Department for Education has launched a consultation on new sex education guidance which will allow schools to teach the subject from a religious perspective.... Read More »
The National Secular Society has welcomed a ruling that a transgender parent can appeal to have contact with her children, despite opposition from their...
Read More »
Richard Scorer reflects on three weeks of damning evidence at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. He says mandatory reporting of
institutional... Read More »
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Tickets are now on sale and nominations are open for Secularist of the Year 2018. The awards ceremony and social reception will be held on Saturday 24 March in
central London. Member tickets are £40. Join us to celebrate the outstanding groups and inspiring individuals advancing secularism and related human rights.
Find out more...
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Quotes of the week
"If we let ourselves be intimidated out of discussing these issues, it's children who will suffer."
Amanda
Spielman, Ofsted chief, on the threats she's received for criticising private faith schools
"Modern religion can be about charity and community. But it can also be about heresy, apostasy, misogyny, excommunication and violence. If we are to live
with, talk about and respect religious belief, then we must also criticise, question and make fun of it, as we might any other belief." David Aaronovitch responds to the
BBC's pledge to pay more attention to religion
"The courts don't believe in god and shouldn't treat religious cases differently."
Adam Wagner, human rights barrister and founder of Rights Info,
responds to a ruling that a transgender parent from an orthodox Jewish family can appeal to have contact with her children
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Essay of the week
There's a war on secularism, not
Christmas By Nicky Pessaroff, for Las Cruces Sun-News
Nicky Pessaroff on how the myth of a 'war on Christmas' is used as a "means of eroding the separation between church and state, of conflating religious worship
and secular Americanism".
Why does the UK allow schools to discriminate due to
religion?
By Eithne Dodd for RightsInfo
The UK is one of very few countries which allow state schools to discriminate on the basis of schools. Eithne Dodd explores the background and the human rights
implications of our current faith school system.
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NSS speaks out
The
Independent covered Amazon's decision to withdraw infant circumcision kits from sale at our request. The story was then picked up very widely locally,
nationally and internationally, for example in The Guardian, The Sun, the Birmingham Mail and the Washington Post.
Meanwhile our chief executive Stephen Evans spoke on LBC about the intimidation of Ofsted's chief inspector over her criticism of faith schools. He appeared on
BBC Three Counties to discuss religious sensitivities at Christmas time. He was quoted in a Mail Online piece on the
BBC's policy on religion and appeared on BBC Radio York to discuss the same subject.
And our president, Keith Porteous Wood, discussed the fallout between George Carey and Justin Welby over the former's handling of a sex abuse case on BBC South
East Today.
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