A Pentecostal woman in Texas has won a $25,000 settlement against fast-food chain Burger King after she was fired for wearing a skirt to work in August 2010 and refusing to change her clothes.

"For 2013 and 2014, defendant agrees to conduct an annual training session for all district managers and general managers for defendant's Texas Burger King restaurants, advising them of the requirements and prohibitions of the federal anti-discrimination laws with a special emphasis on religious discrimination," the nine-page consent decree shared by Courthouse News Service reads. "The training will also inform these individuals of the necessity of attempting to accommodate the religious beliefs of applicants and employees."

Burger King will now have to pay $25,000 to Ashanti McShan, who was 17 years of age when she was let go by the fast food restaurant for wanting to wear a skirt to work for religious reasons. Five thousand dollars of that money will be paid for back wages, while another $20,000 will be paid for mental anguish and non-wage damages. more >>

An atheist blogger in Bangladesh has been stabbed repeatedly by three suspected Islamist fundamentalists and is currently in critical condition in a local hospital.

Asif Mohiuddin, 29, was attacked earlier this week as he was leaving work at night in Dhaka, when a group of unidentified men jumped him and stabbed him repeatedly. Mohiuddin is one of the nation's most well-known atheists, and runs a Bengali blog titled "Almighty only in name, but impotent in reality," which is one of Bangladesh's most visited websites.

"We operated on him for more than three hours. He is improving but still not out of danger. He has six deep cuts including two grave ones in the shoulder," Haridas Saha, a surgeon at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told AFP News agency. more >>

The Rev. Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Roswell, Ga., has announced that he is withdrawing from President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony, where he was scheduled to perform the benediction, explaining that he does not wish to be part of a debate on homosexuality at a time when America is deeply divided.

"Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration," Giglio explained in a letter sent to the White House on Jan. 10, which was shared with The Christian Post. "Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ."

Just a day earlier, Giglio, 54, had expressed how honored he was to be invited to perform the benediction at Obama's public inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21. more >>

Stanford Law School has established the nation's only Religious Liberty Clinic, enabling students under the professor's supervision to represent clients who are fighting to win legal battles on the grounds of religious freedom in America.

The clinic will offer participating law students the opportunity to engage in disputes arising from a wide range of religious beliefs, practices, and customs, the school announced this week.

"Part of what we are trying to do is show our students and our community how religious liberty is a natural right that is for all of us and that all too often religious liberty disputes are really debates about the merits of the particular religious practice involved rather than the liberty," the clinic's founding director, James A. Sonne, told The Christian Post on Wednesday. "We want to show that this is something for everybody regardless of your religious background and practice." more >>

The U.S. Navy has ordered service members on a military base in Bahrain to discontinue a long-standing tradition of a "Live Nativity" after a military atheist group complained that the manger scene not only violated the Constitution, but endangered Americans serving in a Muslim country as well.

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty and others in the armed services community have expressed disappointment over the Navy's decision to "inhibit the religious liberty" of military personnel at the military facility in Bahrain.

"This is another example of the military wrongly yielding to those who promote freedom from religion while squelching the constitutional protections for the free exercise of religion," said Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews, USAR retired, executive director of the chaplain alliance. "Every American, especially those who wear the uniform, should be allowed to exercise their religious liberties. We are very disappointed in the Navy's decision not to support the free exercise of religion of the personnel assigned to NSA Bahrain." more >>

In a decision issued last week, a North Carolina judge ruled that the state may only issue pro-life themed license plates if it also provides pro-choice license plates as an alternative.

"This court concludes ... that the state's offering of a Choose Life license plate in the absence of a pro-choice plate constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment," U.S. District Court Judge James Fox said in his Dec. 7 ruling, as reported by The Associated Press.

Additionally, Chris Brook, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the 2011 lawsuit regarding the plates, called Friday's ruling "a great victory for the free speech rights of all North Carolinians, regardless of their point of view on reproductive freedom," according to Fox News 8. more >>