Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- A Christian student organization filed a lawsuit against the University of Iowa challenging its expulsion from campus based on the organization’s requirement that its leaders share the Christian beliefs of the group.
- Despite a growing community, Chinese Christians are seeing their religious freedoms shrink under a government push to “Sinicize”—to infuse Christianity and other religions with Chinese characteristics including loyalty to the Communist Party.
- The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an an injunction against the City Council of Parkersburg, West Virginia to stop the council from reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each meeting.
- Pope Francis’s decree that the death-penalty is inadmissible could pose a dilemma for Roman Catholic judges and politicians either to follow their faith or uphold the rule of law.
- A Scottish Employment Tribunal found that belief in Scottish independence qualifies as a philosophical belief—a belief similar to religion—which is a protected characteristic under the United Kingdom’s Equality Act.
- In the wake of the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the Public Religion Research Institute reported that a July 2018 survey shows an increase in the percentage of Americans that say they should be allowed to refuse wedding services to same-sex couples if it violates their religious beliefs.