A US university has taken immediate “corrective action” after a professor threatened to discipline students who submitted projects opposing abortion, same-sex marriage. Or the Black Lives Matter movement.

The professor at Iowa State University said the course’s goal was to help students “develop skills in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication.”

The syllabus included a “GIANT WARNING” for students: “Any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom”.

“The same goes for any papers/projects: you cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously.”

In a statement to CNN, the university said it took immediate “corrective action” and amended the syllabus.

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has warned that the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic is challenging people’s mental health and sense of worth, leading some to give in to despair.

At Mass at the Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, Diarmuid Martin said the world was facing very difficult times as the pandemic “threatens relentlessly” and is throwing up “unknown threats”.

“Many may unexpectedly find themselves facing shattering change in their lives.

“Jobs will be lost, even among those who have never before experienced insecurity,” he said.

He added that this may challenge people’s mental health and their sense of personal identity and worth. “Some may be tempted to give in to a pattern of despair.”

He appealed to people to build a society that will reach out to those who find themselves “unexpectedly in dramatic situations” and to create a culture in which “no one is driven to despair”.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee has praised the National Institute of Health (NIH) for its decision to withhold funds from 13 of 14 research proposals that involved the use of fetal tissue.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the bishops applaud the Trump administration “for moving NIH in a direction that shows greater consideration for medical ethics in research, and greater respect for innocent human life.”

“It is neither ethical nor necessary to further violate the bodies of aborted babies by commodifying them for use in medical research,” he said in a statement. “The victims of abortion deserve the same respect as every other human person. We are grateful that the administration is following through on its commitment to end federal funding of research using aborted fetal tissue.”

In a separate statement, he praised the Trump Administration’s “Mexico City Policy” for ensuring that U.S. development aid “actually promotes health and human rights, and doesn’t undermine them by promoting abortion”.

A Canadian woman has gone to court to prevent her husband’s plans to die by euthanasia.

While he says he’s suffering and near the end of his life because of advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), she says his wish to die is not based on physical illness, but anxiety and mental delusions.

The man was approved and scheduled for medical assistance in dying (MAID) in July, but his wife applied for a permanent injunction from Nova Scotia Supreme Court, forcing him to pause his plans.

Justice Peter Rosinski heard the case earlier this month and dismissed her request for an interlocutory injunction in a decision that was released last Friday.

Hugh Scher, a lawyer representing the woman, told CBC he’s already filed an appeal, which is to be heard in the high court next week. The man’s plans to die will be forestalled at least until the appeal proceedings are complete.

Church leaders across Ireland have called on people to wear face coverings at all worship services to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church Of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church urged worshippers to wear facemasks when attending services as well as maintaining a two metre physical distance from other church goers.

While the wearing of masks in churches has not been made mandatory by the governments north and south of the Border, church representatives said it had become increasingly clear that wearing face coverings, in conjunction with hand washing and other measures, could help reduce the spread of the virus and thus protect others.

Islamic militants reportedly attacked a town in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday, abducting hundreds of people.

Jihadists in nearly two dozen trucks attacked soldiers who were guarding Kukawa on Tuesday, overrunning the town and taking hundreds of people hostage, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The attack came after many in the village had just returned to their homes from a nearby displacement camp in Maidiguri. Attacks by ISWAP, an offshoot of Boko Haram that pledged allegiance to ISIS, and other militants have contributed to the vast number of displaced people in the region; around 300,000 people are estimated to be displaced in and around Maiduguri in makeshift dwellings, according to the UN.

More than 600 Christians in Nigeria have been killed in 2020 so far, while up to 12,000 Christians have been killed since June 2015.

Earlier this month, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto told Aid to the Church in Need that he believed violence against Christians by militant Fulani herdsmen has reached the level of genocide; he added that Muslims in northern states had also been targeted for mass killings.

A 14 year old Christian girl has been condemned by a court in Pakistan to remain with the man who abducted her, married her, and forcibly converted her to Islam.

Lahore High Court Judge, Raja Muhammad Shahid Abbasi, overturned a District Court ruling which ordered that Maira Shahbaz be removed from her abductor, Mohamad Nakash’s, house and placed in a women and girl’s refuge, pending further investigations.

Family friend and advocate Lala Robin Daniel said: “With this ruling, no Christian girl in Pakistan is safe.”

Lawyer Khalil Tahir Sandhu, who represented Maira in court, called the decision “unbelievable”.

In the courtroom, Mr Tahir Sandhu detailed 11 arguments in support of his client, chief of which involves an official birth certificate showing Maira was only 13 last October, the month of her alleged marriage to Mr Nakash.

Mr Tahir Sandhu also argued that the marriage certificate was faked, citing evidence denouncing the document given by the Muslim cleric whose name appears on the document.

Mr Tahir Sadhu said: “I became so upset as the proceedings went on, I feared I might be asked to leave the court room.”

The lawyer said he would appeal the decision, first at Lahore High Court and, if this fails, in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A federal judge in the US has sided with a photographer who declines to shoot same-sex weddings.

U.S. District Judge, Justin Walker, ruled that a local Government anti-discrimination ordinance could not be used to penalize Chelsey Nelson for advertising on her website that she only photographs and blogs about opposite-sex ceremonies.

“America is wide enough for those who applaud same-sex marriage and those who refuse to,” Walker wrote in his opinion finding in favor of Nelson. “The Constitution does not require a choice between gay rights and freedom of speech. It demands both.”

Quoting the majority opinion from the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized marriage equality, the 38-year-old Walker added: “Just as gay and lesbian Americans ‘cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth,’ neither can Americans ‘with a deep faith that requires them to do things passing legislative majorities might find unseemly or uncouth.’”

Because art is a form of speech, Nelson cannot be compelled to photograph same-sex weddings in violation of her personal religious or political principles, Walker added. While photography is wordless, “so too is refusing to salute the flag or marching in a parade, both of which the Supreme Court has said are protected forms of speech.”

A new report has underlined the value of marriage for family stability and positive outcomes for children.

The Centre for Social Justice in the UK found married couples are four times less likely to split up than their cohabiting counterparts.

On the other hand, it found that 70 per cent of young offenders come from families where parents have separated.

The report adds that the benefits of marriage are not shared equally across society.

Some 83 per cent of high earners are married and only 11 per cent cohabit, while among the poorest only 55 per cent marry and 21 per cent cohabit.

A leading rugby international recommended the report and called on the UK Government to incentivise marriage.

Courtney Lawes, who has made 80 appearances for England, referenced his own life when he said that marriage can help bring stability to a family.

Writing in The Telegraph, he revealed his own half-brother did not enjoy that same stability and ended up in jail.

He asked if his brother’s life might have been different had he “grown up in a stable home”.

Schools have no legal basis to compel students to attend religious instruction classes, according to a report to be published this week.

Sometimes there is no supervisor for a child who is opted out of RE meaning he or she has to remain in the class.
Atheist Ireland has sent a 21-page legal opinion to the Department of Education on the right to opt out of religious instruction under provisions contained in the Constitution.

The group has long maintained that children in State-funded schools are either forced to attend religious instruction or face obstacles in opting out of these classes. The legal opinion by barrister James Kane states that pupils have a right to not attend religious instruction, under article 44.2.4 of the Constitution.

Mr Kane’s view is that schools are obliged to use their State funding to facilitate this right which encompasses, at the very least, the right to leave the classroom during religious instruction while remaining supervised. The document states that there is “decent legal argument” that these pupils must be taught another subject.