Non-religious groups have celebrated several of the new President's actions. These include rescinding a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military; rejoining the Paris climate accords; and reversing the "Mexico City policy," (this bars federal funds to foreign aid groups that provide abortion counselling to their clients.)

But it is Biden's words that have rankled many in the secularist community, particularly his habit of infusing many important decisions and ceremonies with faith.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), said her inbox was "flooded with complaints" from her group's 30,000 members the day before the Presidential inauguration. Biden had included Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, in a ceremony commemorating the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.

She noted that at the ceremony, held at the Lincoln Memorial, a nurse from Michigan offered the Christian hymn "Amazing Grace."

"For our membership, for nonreligious and non-Christian individuals, it was utterly spoiled," Gaylor said of the service.

Sarah Levin, program director for Secular Democrats of America, said that if prayer or invocation must be part of public celebrations secular voices should be included. "I worry that this administration's idea of interfaith outreach may tend to exclude nonbelievers," she said.

According to Pew Research, around 26% of Americans claim no religious affiliation.

Levin and other groups also criticized Biden's involvement in the National Prayer Breakfast. The annual event brings politicians together with religious leaders.

Levin said she preferred that the prayer breakfast not exist at all. Still, she suggested that if Biden continues to attend, he should push organizers to invite nonreligious voices. She hoped that the nonreligious would get a mention this year.

Sen. Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat who co-chairs the breakfast, did in fact nod to the nonreligious while introducing the President.

"(Biden) is president for all Americans — Americans of faith, and Americans who practice no particular faith," he said.

Rachel Laser who heads Americans United for Separation of Church and State said if Biden must attend the prayer breakfast, he could take the opportunity to speak out against Christian nationalist insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last month.

"There has never been a more important moment for a president to call out white Christian nationalists who so recently tried to overturn our government, and desecrated the most sacred part of our democracy, than now," she said.

Sources

Religion News Service

"This Bill worries us deeply. There is no allowance or trust for religious gatherings, which further indicates this Government's low view of spirituality as a fundamental part of overall wellbeing," Salvation Army Maori Ministry director Lt-Colonel Ian Hutson says.

The Salvation Army acknowledges there have been urgent changes to this Bill, including the removal of references to marae.

However, Hutson says the Bill shows a lack of trust in iwi, hapu and community groups to work within the Covid-19 guidelines, despite the proven leadership of Maori in protecting the health and wellbeing of whanau during Levels 3 and 4.

As frontline welfare responders to the economic and social effects of the Covid-19 crisis, The Salvation Army has seen first-hand the struggle many New Zealanders are facing emotional and financial needs and societal and family disconnection.

Churches provide love and support, especially for those who are isolated, vulnerable and rely on their church for social connection. The Army considers Sunday church services an ‘essential service', as they offer spiritual health; a vital component of wellbeing.

While most businesses, schools, restaurants, movie theatres, cafés and retail outlets are now given the freedom to operate with the necessary restrictions and safety measures in place, churches are not. The Salvation Army is willing and able to fully comply with Government restrictions on numbers and also contact tracing.

The Human Rights Commission says it's "deeply concerned" about the lack of scrutiny and rushed process for the Covid-19 Response Bill.

It says that despite the Government knowing for weeks that New Zealand will be moving to alert level 2, it has not allowed enough time for careful public democratic consideration of the alert level 2 legislation.

"There has been no input from ordinary New Zealanders, which is deeply regrettable," said chief human rights commissioner Paul Hunt.

Source

• Scoop
• legislation.govt.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: change.org

She says religious belief appears to be just as important to society as it's always been.

Chevalier-Watts is a University of Waikato senior law lecturer who is a charity law specialist and is in completing a PhD in which she reviews religion and charity law.

She says that charity law is the ideal vehicle to support religion "because of the rules surrounding charity law that actually may give confidence to the public that when it comes to charity, religion is not always the tyranny that people might presume it to be."

Chevallier-Watts said she found that it is extremely rare for people not to have some kind of belief system.

"If you try to remove a system out of society, as occurred in a number of Communist states, it simply goes underground.

"Once religion is permitted again, it flourishes once more."

She suggests that religion "is here to stay and in many regards it is fundamental to society."

Chevalier-Watts says there are some high-profile and influential people who denigrate religion, demanding that it should not exist anymore.

"Obviously, people are entitled to be as negative as they wish, and it is perhaps right in a contemporary society that we can challenge beliefs and religions.

"However, I'm coming at it first from a legal context, and then a societal context and, if you examine the way humans operate, it is apparent that in many ways humans prefer to operate within a religious construct.

"As a result, it is right that it is recognised, and charity law provides a way of ensuring that it is recognised, and charity law provides a way of ensuring that religion is acknowledged and also underpinned by stringent governance."

Chevalier-Watts has written three books on equity, trusts, and charity law.

Source

• waikato.ac.nz
• Image waikato.ac.nz

Whether at the temple, church or mosque, worshipping together has long been linked to better mental and physical health. Read more

"I don't think the law is working terribly well, but I've always voted in favour of liberalisation of trading laws when it comes to Easter weekend," Key said.

The Retailers Association has suggested that shops should be allowed to open after 1pm on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as happens on 25 April each year.

The Catholic Church however is warning that using Anzac Day as a model for trading hours during Easter would hurt the poorest and most vulnerable.

Labour Party labour issues spokesman Andrew Little says retailers in Wanaka are reported to have traded throughout the Easter break in breach of shop trading laws following a tip-off that no action would be taken if they opened for business.

Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean told Radio New Zealand she was aware inspectors would not be visiting.

Most stayed open, taking advantage of about 100,000 visitors in town for the Warbirds over Wanaka International Air show.

Little said, "The idea that a Government department can give a nod and a wink to traders that it won't enforce shop trading laws and for a Government MP to then claim it as grounds for a review of the law is another act of third world shonkiness from National".

18 complaints were made about businesses flouting Easter trading laws this year, but none will be prosecuted. Last year there were 46.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the Government department responsible for administering the legislation, said as none of the businesses had received warnings or been prosecuted previously, none would be prosecuted for their defiance.

Source

• Scoop.co.nz
• New Zealand Herald
• Image: New Zealand Herald