Supporters of separation of church and state in America have an increasingly tough fight on their hands in the face of emboldened Christian fundamentalism. In the latest case, one state has required that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom.

At home, the New South Wales Labor government also backs religious indoctrination in public schools. We've reported on the education minister's response to a petition that called for scripture classes to be moved outside class time.

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21 June: A US state has passed an eyebrow raising new law that forces the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom. “If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original law given which was Moses … He got his commandments from God,” said Louisiana’s Republican Governor Jeff Landry. The move has sparked controversy because forcing schools to display religious texts will blur the line between church and state. Read the full article

21 June: Housing spokesperson for the federal Greens, Max Chandler-Mather, said the church was acting as a "for-profit developer". "The church receives tax exemption status on the basis that they are a charitable organisation, yet here we have an example of the church behaving like any other for-profit developer, making money off surging land and property prices,” he said. Read the full article

20 June: Victims of alleged abuse at the hands of serial paedophile and WA cricket identity Roy Wenlock are attempting to sue the Anglican Church, alleging it failed to protect them by disclosing what they knew about his behaviour. But the church's lawyers say it did not have a duty of care to inform the WACA that a known paedophile had gone to work for the organisation and is seeking to have the claims struck out. Read the full article

19 June: NSW education minister Prue Car has labelled “homework” as a “meaningful activity” for students to do at school when religious scripture classes interrupt their normal learning time. Minister Car has defended the Special Religious Education program in a formal response to a 1500-strong petition on the state parliament’s website. Read the full article

19 June: An attempt to solve Sydney's dwindling supply of burial spaces by handing control of the city's major cemeteries over to the Catholic Church will endow the institution with billions of dollars in revenue, critics say. Under new legislation, revenue from five cemeteries the church operates on public land would be transferred into a trust outside the purview of government officials. Read the full article

18 June: A multimillion-dollar development application that proposes a members-only supermarket, a place of worship and a childcare centre, has worried Perth Hills locals. Mundaring Gospel Trust, a subsidiary of the Exclusive Brethren Church, now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, plans to develop a vacant block in the north-east suburb of Glen Forrest despite mounting opposition. Read the full article

17 June: In your editorial on Anzac Day (Anzac services at dawn are as relevant as ever, 25 April 2024), the Courier-Mail vowed it would add its voice to “those millions who will today vow to never forget the sacrifices of all of those Australians who have served in our nation’s military”. Yet, in arguing for the continued Christian dominance of Anzac Dawn Services on the basis of tradition, the Courier-Mail disregarded the contribution of the many non-religious and non-Christian service personnel who have fought and died for our country. Read the full letter

12 June: A prolific circumcision doctor has lost his battle to perform operations while he appeals a medical board decision, as new details emerge about one of his newborn patients suffering an “amputation or partial amputation” of his penis and another needing a blood transfusion. Read the full article

6 June: Today in Parliament, Abigail gave notice of a motion calling on the NSW Government to abolish the recitation of the Lord's Prayer at the start of each sitting day, a token of the past that fails to represent the rich diversity of our state. Read the full article

Paul Monk: When his latest book came out, I bought a copy at once. It’s called The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society. His name caught my eye, but so did his title. It was plainly a variation on the title of Friedrich Hayek’s famous book The Road to Serfdom (1944), which argued for a state confined to maintaining security and the rule of law, while giving maximum scope for private capital to develop the economy. Read the full article

Jose Yong: Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain why we respond poorly to modern conditions, despite the choices, safety and other benefits they bring, is evolutionary mismatch. Mismatch happens when an evolved adaptation, either physical or psychological, becomes misaligned with the environment. Read the full article

Hannah Critchlow: Since the sequencing of the human genome in 2003, genetics has become one of the key frameworks for how we all think about ourselves. From fretting about our health to debating how schools can accommodate non-neurotypical pupils, we reach for the idea that genes deliver answers to intimate questions about people’s outcomes and identities. Recent research backs this up, showing that complex traits such as temperament, longevity, resilience to mental ill-health and even ideological leanings are all, to some extent, “hardwired”. Read the full article

Five years after the laws took effect in July 2019, however, all other states and the ACT have since introduced their own versions. And Victoria, once viewed as a trailblazer on the important issue of dying with dignity, has now fallen behind other jurisdictions with such laws, with those advocating for the legislation to be updated arguing some of the measures designed as safeguards are unnecessary barriers. Read the full article

Emma Leitch: As part of a group of “Concerned Parents of Citipointe”, my husband and I decided to file a complaint with the Queensland Human Rights Commission. Our daughter, a former student of Citipointe, is bisexual. We could not condone the new enrolment contract and declaration of faith, not only because of our daughter but because of our faith. Read the full article

William Westerman: It is said that armies reflect the values of the nation to which they belong. If that is so, religious chaplains are, at least superficially, increasingly out of place in the Australian Army. Yet militaries, and in particular land forces, need to be prepared to operate in the world that is — not the one some might wish it to be. Read the full article

Stephen Evans: The UK that goes to the polls on 4 July will be the most religiously diverse in election history. Less than half the population of England and Wales describe themselves as ‘Christian’. Most people in Scotland are now non-religious. And there are now more Catholics than Protestants in Northern Ireland, but even here we are seeing more and more people turning away from religion. This sustained shift in demographics demands a radical response from the state. Read the full article

Khadija Khan: It is becoming more and more typical for politicians in Britain to whip up religious sentiments to win over Muslim votes as the country prepares for the general election on 4 July. Since Muslims’ religious sentiments are currently — and profoundly — entwined with what is happening in Gaza, a political party’s stance on this issue might determine how much support it receives in areas with a significant number of Muslim voters. Read the full article