Eric Kreye, whose story is told in the book Under the Blood Banner: The Story of a Hitler Youth talks with Michael Peabody about growing up in Hitler’s Germany. Born in America but raised in Germany, Eric describes how he was beaten by his teacher when he could not recite Hitler’s life story, how his father helped him avoid many of the Hitler Youth activities, how his family hid a Jewish woman and her daughter from the Gestapo, what it was like when the American military moved into Germany, and how he and his brother came to America.
To read “Under the Blood Banner” online visit: http://www.amazingjoy.com/frame_contents.htm
The book is also available in print from TEACH Services for $12.95.
Listen to the Interview:
Dr. Michael Newdow, an attorney and physician famous for his litigation on church-state issues from an atheist perspective, and and previous article contributor to ReligiousLiberty.TV, has now published an important law review article for the Capital University Law Review that discusses the history of American religious freedom and tolerance and why the majority should carefully consider the rights of the minority. Although one might disagree with his religious viewpoint, Newdow argues for people to be treated equally, regardless of what religious viewpoint they hold.
Here is an excerpt:
In reviewing the history of the religion clauses of the Constitution, onecan take two paths. One supports the basic ideal underlying ourconstitutional framework: equality, which is inclusive and is based onrespect for all religious opinions. The other leads to exclusion byadvocating for one or more non-universal religious views. The first reflects the Framers’ goals for guaranteeing liberty to all. The other guarantees liberty only to those who muster the political might to use the state’s machinery to advocate for their religious beliefs. The first exists to protect every individual. The other focuses on the fact that the white, male, property-owning Framers believed in God, and thus concludes thatthe magnificent document they created “permits the disregard” of religious minorities with alternative beliefs.
Why would anyone choose that latter path? Why go out of the way to“permit the disregard” of a minority when such a notion is nowhere to be found within the text of the Constitution, and a historical reading can as readily and more nobly support the equality principle? What sort of American patriot, citizen, or public servant would work towards such an end?”
The entire article, which is well worth reading, is available in PDF format for free download at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1594374 (Click on “One-Click Download” once you follow this link to download the entire document for free.)
ACADEMIC ABSTRACT:
In June 2005, Justice Antonin Scalia contended that ‘the Establishment Clause…permits the disregard of devout atheists.’ This statement is extraordinary inasmuch as it appears to reverse an inexorable (albeit, at times, wandering) trend toward true equality. Thus, where individuals had previously been treated as less than equal on the basis of race (e.g., Dred Scott v. Sandford), gender (e.g., Bradwell v. State) and national origin (e.g., Korematsu v. United States), those odious decisions are no longer good law. In his McCreary dissent, it seems that Justice Scalia sought motion in the opposite direction: toward overturning equality, in the one constitutional arena where the Supreme Court had not previously proclaimed such a manifest animus toward minorities: religion.
This article takes three approaches in considering the Justice’s argument. First, recognizing that Justice Scalia prides himself on being a ‘textualist,’ it considers the Establishment Clause’s text (‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion’). Next, because Justice Scalia, in McCreary, used specific historical events to support his thesis, those events are analyzed to see if they were selected in a fair manner, and if they really stand for the proposition he claims.
Finally, in Part III, Justice Scalia’s brand of analysis is applied to his own Catholicism. It is shown that the United States of America was born of a literal hatred for Catholics, which was pervasive and persistent. One may well conclude, therefore, that under his approach, the Establishment Clause permits the disregard of his own religion.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1594374 (Click on “One-Click Download” once you follow this link to download the entire document.)
By Ellen G. White – The Great Controversy pp. 293-298——————————————————————–
Eleven years after the planting of the first colony, Roger Williams came to the new World. Like the early Pilgrims, he came to enjoy religious freedom; but unlike them, he saw what so few in his time had yet seen—that this freedom was the inalienable right of all, whatever might be their creed. He was an earnest seeker for truth, with Robinson holding it impossible that all the light from God’s word had yet been received. Williams “was the first person in modern Christendom to establish civil government on the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opinions before the law.” He declared it to be the duty of the magistrate to restrain crime, but never to control the conscience. “The public or the magistrates may decide,” he said, “what is due from man to man; but when they attempt to prescribe a man’s duties to God, they are out of place, and there can be no safety; for it is clear that if the magistrate has the power, he may decree one set of opinions or beliefs today and another tomorrow; as had been done in England by different kings and queens, and by different popes and councils in the Roman Church; so that belief would become a heap of confusion.”
Attendance at the services of the established church was required under a penalty of fine or imprisonment. “William’s reprobated the law; the worst statute in the English code was that which did but enforce attendance upon the parish church. To compel men to unite with those of a different creed, he regarded as an open violation of their natural rights; to drag to public worship the irreligious and the unwilling, seemed only like requiring hypocrisy. . . . ‘No one should be bound to worship, or,’ he added, ‘to maintain a worship, against his own consent.’ ‘What!’ exclaimed his antagonists, amazed at his tenets, ‘is not the laborer worthy of his hire?’ ‘Yes,’ replied he, ‘from them that hire him.’”
Roger Williams was respected and beloved as a faithful minister, a man of rare gifts, of unbending integrity and true benevolence; yet his steadfast denial of the right of civil magistrates to authority over the church, and his demand for religious liberty, could not be tolerated. The application of this new doctrine, it was urged, would “subvert the fundamental state and government of the country.” He was sentenced to banishment from the colonies, and finally, to avoid arrest, he was forced to flee, amid the cold and storms of winter, into the unbroken forest.
“For fourteen weeks,” he says, “I was sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.” But “the ravens fed me in the wilderness,” and a hollow tree often served him for a shelter. Thus he continued his painful flight through the snow and the trackless forest, until he found refuge with an Indian tribe whose confidence and affection he had won while endeavoring to teach them the truths of the gospel.
Making his way at last, after months of change and wandering, to the shores of Narragansett Bay, he there laid the foundation of the first state of modern times that in the fullest sense recognized the right of religious freedom. The fundamental principle of Roger Williams’s colony, was “that every man should have liberty to worship God according to the light of his own conscience.” His little state, Rhode Island, became the asylum of the oppressed, and it increased and prospered until its foundation principles—civil and religious liberty—became the cornerstone of the American Republic.
In that grand old document which our forefathers set forth as their bill of rights—the Declaration of Independence—they declared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And the Constitution guarantees, in the most explicit terms, the inviolability of conscience: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States.” “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
“The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of conscience inalienable.
“The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate.”
As the tidings spread through the countries of Europe, of a land where every man might enjoy the fruit of his own labor and obey the convictions of his conscience, thousands flocked to the shores of the New World, Colonies rapidly multiplied. “Massachusetts, by special law, offered free welcome and aid, at the public cost, to Christians of any nationality who might fly beyond the Atlantic ‘to escape from wars or famine, or the oppression of their persecutors.’ Thus the fugitive and the downtrodden were, by statute, made the guests of the commonwealth.” In twenty years from the first landing at Plymouth, as many thousand Pilgrims were settled in New England.
To secure the object which they sought, “they were content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality and toil. They asked nothing from the soil but the reasonable returns of their own labor. No golden vision threw a deceitful halo around their path. . . . They were content with the slow but steady progress of their social polity. They patiently endured the privations of the wilderness, watering the tree of liberty with their tears, and with the sweat of their brow, till it took deep root in the land.”
The Bible was held as the foundation of faith, the source of wisdom, and the charter of liberty. Its principles were diligently taught in the home, in the school, and in the church, and its fruits were manifest in thrift, intelligence, purity, and temperance. One might be for years a dweller in the Puritan settlements, “and not see a drunkard, or hear an oath, or meet a beggar.” It was demonstrated that the principles of the Bible are the surest safeguards of national greatness. The feeble and isolated colonies grew to a confederation of powerful States, and the world marked with wonder the peace and prosperity of “a church without a pope, and a state without a king.”
But continually increasing numbers were attracted to the shores of America, actuated by motives widely different from those of the first Pilgrims. Though the primitive faith and purity exerted a widespread and moulding power, yet its influence became less and less as the numbers increased of those who sought only worldly advantage.
The regulation adopted by the early colonists, of permitting only members of the church to vote or to hold office in the civil government, led to most pernicious results. This measure had been accepted as a means of preserving the purity of the state, but it resulted in the corruption of the church. A profession of religion being the condition of suffrage and office holding, many, actuated solely by motives of worldly policy, united with the church without a change of heart. Thus the churches came to consist, to a considerable extent, of unconverted persons; and even in the ministry were those who not only held errors of doctrine, but who were ignorant of the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Thus again was demonstrated the evil results, so often witnessed in the history of the church from the days of Constantine to the present, of attempting to build up the church by the aid of the state, of appealing to the secular power in support of the gospel of Him who declared, “My kingdom is not of this world.” The union of the church with the state, be the degree never so slight, while it may appear to bring the world nearer to the church, does in reality but bring the church nearer to the world.
The union of the church with the state, be the degree never so slight, while it may appear to bring the world nearer to the church, does in reality but bring the church nearer to the world.
The great principle so nobly advocated by Robinson and Roger Williams, that truth is progressive, that Christians should stand ready to accept all the light which may shine from God’s holy Word, was lost sight of by their descendants. The Protestant churches of America and those of Europe as well—so highly favored in receiving the blessings of the Reformation, failed to press forward in the path of reform. Though a few faithful men arose, from time to time, to proclaim new truth and expose long cherished error, the majority, like the Jews in Christ’s day or the papists in the time of Luther, were content to believe as their fathers had believed, and to live as they had lived. Therefore religion again degenerated into formalism; and errors and superstitions which would have been cast aside had the church continued to walk in the light of God’s word, were retained and cherished. Thus the spirit inspired by the Reformation gradually died out, until there was almost as great need of reform in the Protestant churches as in the Roman Church in the time of Luther. There was the same worldliness and spiritual stupor, a similar reverence for the opinions of men, and substitution of human theories for the teachings of God’s word.
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“And so, by the power vested in me by the State of ___ and Almighty God, I now pronounce you husband and wife. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
This pronouncement is the point in a religious wedding ceremony where the power of the state and the power of the Almighty God come together to fuse a couple in holy matrimony. To date, the vast majority of debates on same-sex marriage have focused on whether it is morally or spiritually correct. However, the foundational issue is whether the church should seek the right to control marriages performed outside of its walls. At its core, this is a battle that challenges the tenuous yet mutually protective balance between church and state, and the results matter regardless of what you believe about same-sex marriage.
Weddings are typically joyful experiences and even the most avowed atheists have not tried to prevent ministers from claiming the power of the State in performing the ceremony. However, even though the church and the state may happily hold hands at the wedding, they cannot dance together gracefully into a long-lasting marriage unless each has great respect for the non-overlapping rights and obligations of the other.
Unlike the newlyweds, the state is not obligated to “forsake all others,” when it comes to religious viewpoints. The state has little discretion when it comes to solemnizing marriages, and absent an amendment to the constitution itself, is limited only by statutes having to do with the consent of the parties, age of the parties, and whether there are more than two parties involved. On the other hand, churches have very broad discretion to solemnize marriages and can refuse to do so for virtually any reason. This broad discretion has not been challenged.
However, when the state begins to recognize marriages that churches find inappropriate, many churches are offended – churches feel almost as if the state has decided to “cheat” on the church. And hell hath no fury like a church scorned.
Regardless of the fact that same-sex couples have sought ceremonies in churches that will perform them or have sought civil ceremonies, conservative churches have begun to step in and intervene and have relied upon the power of the majority to force changes in otherwise permissive state constitutions. This is not only a battle between secularism and religion. It is a battle between competing religious ideologies, and ultimately a battle for spiritual control.
Alonzo T. Jones, writing in his 1891 classic, The Two Republics: or, Rome and the United States of America, makes an astonishing observation about the way that the Medieval church accumulated political power over the state.
“Another most prolific source of general corruption was the church’s assumption of authority to regulate, and that by law, the whole question of the marriage relation, both in the Church and in the state. ”The first aggression . . . which the Church made on the state, was assuming the cognizance over all questions and causes relating to marriage. ” — Milmaii.21 (Click here to read the entire passage.)
While we are not at a point in history where the church is asserting direct political control, we can see that the church may be headed down this pathway yet again. After describing the circumstances and the Church’s methods, Jones continues:
“[I]n accordance with the rest of the theocratical legislation of Constantine and the bishops, the precepts of the Scripture in relation to marriage and divorce were adopted with heavy penalties, as the laws of the empire. As the church had assumed ‘cognizance over all questions relating to marriage,’ it followed that marriage not celebrated by the church was held to be but little better than an illicit connection.”
The church continued to assert control over legal marriage for centuries thereafter. In March of 1880, the Canadian Parliament considered a bill that would allow a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister. The debate quickly turned to an argument over whether the church or the state had the power to regulate marriage. There were Protestant and Jewish participants in the debate, the entirety of which can be read above, however the Catholic representative quickly asserted that the Church had “supreme power over marriage” and that the state must stand down.
“Pius IX, in his letter to the King of Sardinia, dated 19th September, 1852, says : ” It is a dogma of faith that marriage was raised by Our Lord Jesus Christ to the dignity of a sacrament.” Would you know the doctrine? The Council of Trent speaks: ‘Whosoever says that marriage is not really and truly one of the seven sacraments of the Evangelical Law, let him be anathema.’ If marriage is a sacrament, and such is our unalterable belief, the Church only, by divine right, has supreme power over Christian marriage. In fact the Church alone is the dispenser of the sacraments. St. Paul teaches us this in his first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 4, in which he says : ‘Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Jesus Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.’ The Pope Gelasius, writing to the Emperor Austasins told him plainly: ‘Although your dignity raises you above the human race, you are nevertheless subject to the Bishops in matters relating to the faith, and to the delivering of the sacraments.’
And what is a sacrament, if it be not a means subordinate in its nature to the object of religious society? The Church has, therefore, supreme power over marriage. . . . We now arrive at the true question as it presents itself to us. We shall easily solve it. The hon. member for Jacques Cartier brings in a Bill which may meet with our approval, but he has just delivered a speech which I cannot accept as an expression of the ideas and principles of Catholics upon this question of marriage. What does the hon. member maintain? That this Parliament has the undoubted right to establish absolute impediments to marriage, and the not less undoubted power of dispensing with them. I protest against such a declaration, and I emphatically deny that this Parliament has a right to legislate as to the validity of marriage. Marriage is a sacrament; the state has nothing to say as to the administration of the sacrament, and, by consequence, as to the validity of marriage. That is an ecclesiastical contract over which religious society alone has a power, which cannot be vested in the state.” (Emphasis added. Click here to read the debate.)
In the eyes of the Catholic church at the time, only sacramental marriage was legitimate. Again, the current debate relates to this history. Does the church or the state have the power to define marriage? If the church has the power, which church?
In California, church and state collided on marriage issues in 1948 when the Catholic Church sued claiming that the state had violated its religious liberty through a long-standing civil prohibition on interracial marriages. The Court issued its ruling in Perez v. Sharp,198 P.2d 17, 32 Cal. 2d 711 (1948) (also known as Perez v. Lippold). Those opposed to interracial marriage raised three major arguments: First, they argued that the law was really not discriminatory. Secondly, they discussed the effect on the children. Third they asserted that, in this case, the state had the power over the church’s sacrament because of an interest in promoting the “health safety, and general welfare.” Ironically, these three arguments once used against the church’s request provide the backbone of the current arguments against same-sex marriage.
The Court’s majority found that the church was right and that the “anti-miscegenation” law was unconstitutional. Justice Shenk, dissenting in favor of the prohibition, wrote that the law was not discriminatory because, “Each [party seeking to marry a member of a different race] has the right and the privilege of marrying within his or her own group.”
In language that appears extremely offensive, Shenk turned his attention to the children resulting from interracial unions, “It is contended that interracial marriage has adverse effects not only upon the parties thereto but upon their progeny . . . and that the progeny of a marriage between a Negro and a Caucasian suffer not only the stigma of such inferiority but the fear of rejection by members of both races.”
Justice Shenk then stated that prohibiting interracial marriage was consistent with the “peace and safety” provisions of the Constitution. Shenk’s arguments should be familiar if you are following the current debate, and in fact several of the same cases are regularly cited including Cantwell v. Connecticut, and Reynolds v. United States.
“Other considerations are presented in connection with petitioners’ contentions that their religious liberty is being infringed. The First Amendment to the United states Constitution declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. The due process of law clause of the Fourteenth Amendment embraces this fundamental concept of liberty as expressed in the First Amendment and renders the states likewise incompetent to transgress it. However, this religious liberty ‘embraces two concepts, freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be.’ Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 903, 84 L.Ed. 1213, 128 A.L.R. 1352; Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105, 110, 63 S.Ct. 870, 87 L.Ed. 1292, 146 A.L.R. 81; Gospel Army v. City of Los Angeles, 27 Cal.2d 232, 163 P.2d 704. It has long been held that conduct, consisting of practices and acts, remains subject to regulation for the health, safety and general welfare. For example, a legislative determination that monogamy is the ‘law of social life’ has been held to prevail over the practice of polygamy and bigamy as a duty required, encouraged or suffered by religion. Reynolds v. United States, supra, 98 U.S. 145, 25 L.Ed. 244; Davis v. Beason, 133 U.S. 333, 10 S.Ct. 299, 33 L.Ed. 637; Cleveland v. United States, 329 U.S. 14, 67 S.Ct. 13, 91 L.Ed. 12.
“The reasoning behind this construction of the Constitution is obvious. The determination of proper standards of behaviour must be left to the Congress or to the state legislatures in order that the well being of society as a whole may be safeguarded or promoted. The protection of the individual’s exercise of religious worship afforded by our state Constitution, Article I, section 4, corresponds with that furnished by the federal guaranty as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. Our Constitution expressly provides that the free exercise of religion guaranteed ‘shall not be so construed as to * * * justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.’”
Justice Shenk then provides a sampling of “supportive” scientific and legal documents, which are nearly frightening, and draws the following conclusion:
“ The foregoing excerpts from scientific articles and legal authorities make it clear that there is not only some but a great deal of evidence to support the legislative determination (last made by our Legislature in 1933) that intermarriage between Negroes and white persons is incompatible with the general welfare and therefore a proper subject for regulation under the police power. There may be some who maintain that there does not exist adequate data on a sufficiently large scale to enable a decision to be made as to the effects of the original admixture of white and Negro blood. However, legislators are not required to wait upon the completion of scientific research to determine whether the underlying facts carry sufficient weight to more fully sustain the regulation.”
Incidentally, most churches stayed out of the interracial marriage debate, leaving the Catholic Church to carry the civil rights issue forward.
Although it has not happened as of yet in California, a lawsuit brought by a church that wishes to perform same-sex marriages that are recognized by the state could easily follow the reasoning found in Perez. This could create a bitter inter-religious fight in the courts between fundamentalist churches and permissive churches, and the courts would be asked to make a ruling on a religious issue. My guess is that fundamentalists considered this troubling prospect and proposed the Constitutional Amendment to take the matter out of the court system altogether. However, in doing so, marriage was denied a full legal treatment, and the reliance on public sentiment to permanently curtail judicial examination of potential rights creates a very troubling precedent which will likely carry over into other contexts. To understand the gravity of this approach, consider that had a ballot initiative been campaigned to amend the California constitution in opposition to the California Supreme Court’s finding in favor of allowing interracial marriage, interracial marriage would likely be unconstitutional in California today.*
While there are certainly reasons why churches should to have the right to solemnize only traditional marriage of a man and a woman within their walls, there is no legal foundation for churches to prevent marriage in other arenas. This could only be obtained via a structural change to the constitution itself.
Churches that are willing to argue that religious liberty does not extend to marriage are also asserting their power to limit the “rights” of other churches to perform same-sex marriages, and could soon see their own liberties limited in other areas through operation of their own logic if the political winds shift.
Legally, not religiously, the institution of marriage is at a crossroads, and there are several ways that the matter could be resolved. First, all marriages could be reduced to nothing more than a civil contract with a separate non-legally recognized spiritual component. Secondly, the state could recognize the legal status of marriages between two consenting adults regardless of gender, and preserve the civil / religious nature of marriage and continue to preserve the broad discretion to marry or not presently enjoyed by churches.
Considering the most recent votes on marriage, I would like to offer a third possibility. Instead of secularism, could it be that religion will prevail over the state, casting a “theocratic” shadow over the nation? In the late 1800s, the church’s power to control marriage was used as the precedent to promote laws governing the other institution of creation, the Sabbath.* Could that happen again? Maybe this is slippery slope reasoning, but considering that religious fundamentalists have been arguing that the secular state will prevail over the church if left unchecked, it is not an unfair argument. Perhaps instead of a single slippery slope, we are at the peak of the roof, facing slopes in both directions.
In a future article I plan to explore the history of marriage further and its legal relationship to religious legislation, but for now, at the least we should recognize the need to discern the issues involved in this debate fully before placing liberty of conscience at risk.
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*The historical link between regulation of marriage and the legal basis for proposed sabbath legislation will be explored in more detail in a future article. For more on the issue of majoritarian control of fundamental rights, please read the prior essay, Raw Majority Power: Why Checks and Balances Matter
An excellent educational cartoon series about American History starring Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin has now been posted on YouTube. In this episode, Ben Franklin, Moses, and James discover disguised colonists raiding the tea-laden ship that Sarah is aboard. To watch the entire series, go to the Liberty Kids channel on YouTube. The official Liberty’s Kids website includes activities and information for parents and teachers.
John Phillip Sousa may be best known for writing the stirring patriotic piece “The Stars and Stripes Forever” but in 1922 he was involved in a somewhat odd religious liberty conflict which was written about in the First Quarter 1923 issue of Liberty. At that time, the Bill of Rights (including the First Amendment) weren’t completely “incorporated” into the state laws and so people could be, and were, arrested for religious offenses. While it seems that nearly 90 years later we are well past the point where this kind of thing could happen in America, securing the freedoms of all requires our continued vigilance. Editor
The following is reprinted here in its entirety, and you can view the entire publication in the box below:
THE following interesting bit of news is taken from the Washington Star of Nov. 13, 1922, under the caption, “Blue Law Arrest Follows Sunday Concert by Sousa”.
“Binghamton, N. Y., November 13.—Harold F. Albert, recreational director of the Endicott Johnson Corporation, was arrested yesterday afternoon on complaint of the Binghamton Ministerial Association for staging a concert by John Philip Sousa’s Band at which an admission was charged.
“It was alleged the concert violated ordinances governing the observance of Sunday.George F. Johnson, president of the Endicott-Johnson Corporation, announced that he is prepared to fight the Sunday blue laws to a finish in the courts. Mr. Sousa issued a statement in which he declared that there is more inspiration in the marches he has written than in the sermons of some of the ministers who objected to the concert.”
This is another case of the churches taking a course which makes religion repellent in the public eye. The Ministerial Association is lowering the standard of Christianity by assuming functions which are entirely foreign to the methods employed by the Author of Christianity. The God of heaven, who gave the gift of song to the birds to warble their music on Sundays as well as Mondays, must look in pity upon some of His professed followers who have gone so far astray as to prohibit by state laws the beautiful strains of music rendered by such artists as compose Sousa’s Band.
If this was done because a fee was charged for the services of the musicians, then let the churches first clean their own house by arresting the church choristers and soloists for accepting pay for their musical services, as is the ease in many churches.
By Michael Peabody
The other day someone sent me a link to an “Antichrist Decoder” that has been posted online by an otherwise reputable Christian ministry. You can type in anybody’s name and the program will calculate the value of the name in Roman numerals.
After checking my name to make sure that I was not the Antichrist I looked at the other names that people had plugged into the decoder and learned that Barack Obama is not the antichrist, neither is Barack Hussein Obama. Ronald Wilson Reagan’s name doesn’t add up to 666 even if you type in two “v”s to make the W.
People were having fun with the decoder and for the uninitiated it would be at home in a carnival next to the “Love Meter” or “Magic 8 Ball.” Perhaps an “antichrist decoder” made the rounds on the county fair circuit in years gone by, or a 666 Decoder Ring was the cheap plastic treat in the box of Cracker Jacks.
A conspiracy theory hits the same synapses as the Weekly World News or National Enquirerproviding junk food for the mind that masquerades as a nutritious meal. Just this last week while little Falcon Heene was presumably floating above Colorado in a UFO-Shaped balloon, YouTube videos that his dad made about how Hillary Clinton could be a “reptilian shape shifter” spiked in popularity. And each night millions tune in hear George Noory on Coast to Coast AMwhile he discusses tunnels under the pyramids and portals to other dimensions. And every year seekers crowd churches to hear the latest interpretations of Scripture that specify how mysterious political events are aligning to bring the world to an end. The problem with the cheap thrill of side show conspiracy theories is that concern about legitimate issues is eventually eroded as the carnival callers “cry wolf” so often that the real wolves can count on a feast.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “Conspiracy Theory” as “a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators.”
Christianity as a whole is planted on a conspiracy theory that one day the world will end and that there are forces at work right now among the “principalities and powers” of this world that will effect that change and that rescue is coming from outer space and that you can communicate with tremendous powers simply through the power of thought. We don’t often view it in these terms but that’s how it would sound to a Martian if he happened to walk into a church service.
In reality, some conspiracy theories are true and verifiable, but others are not. It is important to distinguish between verifiable or substantiated truth and error because any error, even if it is meant well, tends to corrupt the entirety of the message. In the religious world, people tend to take “judicial notice” of scripture so speaking in harmony with an established text is generally accepted, but other issues require proven and reliable evidence or they will, of necessity, be questioned. Believing that something bad is afoot if it is not mentioned in scripture with specificity must be backed up with substantial evidence if listeners are to take it seriously.
Conspiracy theories that float around without substantial grounding in truth present several serious drawbacks.
First, conspiracy theories that do not come true affect your credibility.
“A good conspiracy is unprovable. I mean, if you can prove it, it means they screwed up somewhere along the line.” Mel Gibson’s character inConspiracy Theory (1997).
Around the year 2000, the millennial conspiracy nutcases (we call them now) came out and said that the world would end, planes would fall from the sky, and the electrical power grid would crash. Then, following 9/11 George Bush was going to institute marshal law and become dictator for life. Today, the H1N1 vaccine is a mind control drug and amounts to biological warfare.
Is there any truth to these conspiracies? Perhaps there is, but nothing has happened in the first two, and I am predicting that the vaccine will not create a nation of zombies. Still there are people who email me tons of information about FEMA concentration camps, mass production of body bags, and all kinds of fascinating things. I usually read them because it is fun to be afraid but each time it seems less and less likely. There is too much “conspiracy” noise out there to distinguish the truth from the error, and unfounded conspiracies based on nothing more than the eyewitness report of a “friend of a friend of a friend” are not persuasive.
Second, conspiracy theories can distract you from present responsibilities.
“A Conspiracy!” cried the delighted lady, clapping her hands. “Of all things, I do like a Conspiracy! It’s so interesting!” – Lewis Carroll, My Lady, Sylvie and Bruno (1889)
There is an old saying that it is possible to be “so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good.” You can also be so “conspiracy minded” that you are of no earthly good.
When people tell me about conspiracy theories I often ask them whether they have taken the time to learn more about their faith or do good in their communities. They may show me some pamphlets they gave to people to “warn” them about whatever they think is going to happen but most of the time they haven’t done much more.
I do write this from a Christian perspective and I’ve learned over time that we really do have a lot of freedom in the United States and in Canada for the most part to speak freely about religion or politics, and to assemble. There are challenges from time to time which can be addressed but we still have the ability to address them. In a large sense, religious liberty is a supportive ministry that can be called upon when needed but does not necessarily need to be front and center unless there is a specific need for it.
Religious liberty ministry is like a fire extinguisher in a glass case. It must be charged up and ready to go. It needs to have all the resources to handle severe fires, but the sign says, “In case of emergency, break glass.” It can be used to inform people of current events but never to distract from the main mission of the church, which I believe is set forth in the Great Commission.
This segues nicely to the third reason I have a problem with conspiracy theories.
Third, conspiracy theories can become the center of your faith.
“Our cause is a secret within a secret, a secret that only another secret can explain, it is a secret about a secret that is veiled by a secret.” Ja’far as-Sadiq (6th Imam)
A while back there was a group of borderline Seventh-day Adventists who decided to spread the gospel by talking about the antichrist. They put up billboards all over the country, reserved space in major newspapers, and otherwise launched massive media campaigns. Most of the ads appeared to be miles of tiny text punctuated by dire warnings and a picture of the purported antichrist.
This would appear to be evangelism in the negative – in other words, tell people about the bad in the world to teach them what’s good. It’s like former rock stars and drug dealers turned religious who tell stories of their fascinating lives. They had money, power, fame, mansions, cars, planes, and everything else you could ever want in life. But then the stories become far less interesting when they become Christians and now live in their vans traveling the country. I suppose it works for some people so I’m not going to knock it, but it’s usually made me more curious about their past than about what’s happening now.
I’ve met a lot of people who will tell all their friends about conspiracy theories thinking that they are sharing their faith. I met one person who went around giving out copies of Foxe’s Book of Martyrsand would regale listeners with stories about extreme torture. Entertaining? Weirdly so. But effective? Yes, in turning people into atheists.
Leading somebody to an understanding of 666 is not the same as sharing one’s religious faith. It may seem like more fun but it doesn’t do much good in making an argument as to why people should want what you have.
Fourth, conspiracy theories can cause you to create enemies out of people whom you should be befriending and cause you to question the sincere motives of others.
“There will ever be some who take delight in dwelling upon the real or supposed faults and failures of others, and who employ their time in seeing, hearing, or reporting something that will destroy confidence in the person criticised. Few are without visible faults; in most persons careful scrutiny will reveal some defect of character; and upon these defects in others, some professed Christians delight to dwell. The habit strengthens with indulgence, and a love for gossip becomes their ruling passion. They gather together the tid-bits of reports,–all of them, it may be, utterly devoid of truth,–and feast upon the scandal, and share it with others as a rare delicacy.” Ellen White – Review and Herald, August 28, 1883.
Weird stories about aliens, Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, or any other group can draw unreasonable and unnatural lines between people. One person I met is fixated on the idea that there will one day be a holy war in America and is planning to run away into the mountains to hide from it all, but is afraid that he will not be able to escape persecution when it comes because the persecutors will have GPS and heat detectors.
Unfortunately, this person has become a virtual hermit who believes he is living a pious lifestyle when in reality he makes Howard Hughes look normal. If he would put some of his tremendous mental horsepower to work helping people with problems that they are facing today, such as poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, and any other ways, he would make a tremendous impact for good. But instead he has twisted the plot around so much that he views any meaningful interaction with the real world as dangerous. Almost everybody is involved in a conspiracy against him, and he believes that most people in the world are formulating plans to do him wrong. The world has pretty much stayed the same but he has become a paranoid freak.
I’ve met wild eyed conspiracy theorists in many areas of life, not just religion. It is very difficult to reason with a person like this because if you question them, they believe that you are now part of the conspiracy. They think the worst of anybody they disagree with.
Hiding away on a mountain somewhere is not a call to piety. Conspiracy theories may have their place as mile markers but they should not impede forward progress.
In reality, the truth is out there, but you’re not likely to find it in a decoder ring. True appreciation of faith or even religious liberty issues do not thrive in fear or require a crisis to be meaningful. You can help liberty thrive when you care about the world and engage with it and the people who live here. Tell the verifiable, undeniable truth and the facts will speak for themselves.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8
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What would it mean if the United States were officially declared a “Christian Nation”? How would it affect you in your everyday life? Would you have increased opportunity to practice your faith more freely? Would the government use its power to make moral laws that line up with your Christian beliefs or would it favor the ‘Christian beliefs’ of your neighbors?
Our best example might come from a time when much of Europe was a “Christian Continent.” The Holy Roman Empire lasted from Emperor Otto’s coronation in 962 to 1806 when it was dissolved during the Napoleonic wars. For all intents and purposes it was considered the ultimate “Christian” political system.
The Empire was afraid what would happen if people began to compare the activities of its political and religious leaders with the Bible. There was tremendous power in the idea that a political leader could advance policies, not through debate, but by virtue that “God wants it this way, and if you disagree you are in opposition to God.” To put this in perspective, imagine that President Obama could win the healthcare debate by simply saying that “God wants it this way, and if you disagree you are in opposition to God.”
Around 1419, John Huss began to speak against some of the customs of the Church, and because the Empire and the Church were so closely aligned, they spent a lot of energy trying to silence the “heresy.” The Empire was threatened because if Huss won the debate, he would show that the Church could be challenged and if the Church could be challenged, then it threatened the Empire itself, which based its power on the idea that God considered the Empire to be correct on all issues.
When people heard what Huss was saying, they began to doubt their old idea of a unified corpus Christianum and consider that people did not have to agree on everything when it came to faith. A century later, in 1517, Martin Luther initiated the Reformation in an attempt to bring the Church around to his ideas. People ended up siding with Luther or against him along geographic lines and Germany was split along these lines from which it never fully recovered until the Empire dissolved.
Added to this was the fact that popes and emperors tended to distrust each other, and felt that they had to fight to remain in control of the situation.
Many people believe that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents the formation of a “state church” such as the Church of England. While there are good reasons to believe that this was intended to be much broader, let’s assume for the sake of argument that Congress would still be free to declare that Christianity is the official religion of the country and that our laws were supposed to mirror God’s law.
Christianity has struggled with issues of power and control since its inception. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, His disciples often asked Jesus, “Who is the greatest among us?”
They probably thought that Jesus would name John or Peter or Mathew and make this honored disciple a Vice President of the Kingdom. But Jesus turned their question upside down.
In Matthew 18 we read His answer. “Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven” (NIV).
In recent months as I’ve read various calls for America to be declared a Christian nation, I’ve been surprised at some of the language used. Tom Snyder on World Net Daily said that the idea of separation of church and state is promoted by “theophobic atheists, neo-pagan fascists, radical liberals, socialists, Marxists, anti-Christian bigots, sexual perverts, Christophobic politicians and journalists, and other such people who wish to obliterate the European Christian foundation on which America was built.” See http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45069
Snyder concludes that, “separation of church and state does not mean separation between politics and religion or politics and the Bible. As Gary DeMar points out, there is a big difference between an ‘ecclesiocracy’ where the church rules society through religious leaders with preachers and priests as the government officials, and a ‘theocracy’ where God rules the outward behavior of all people through the civil government chosen by the people. Thus, the Founding Fathers did indeed establish a Christian theocracy, but they did not establish a Christian ecclesiocracy.”
But who will tell us how God would rule the “outward behavior of all people”? Would some people claim to be closer to God and that they could tell everybody else how to live out their faith in their everyday lives?
History tells us that it would not be a debate between Christians and atheists. If Christianity won predominance over every other religious system in the nation, it would be a debate between Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentacostals, and any other denomination you could name. Then it would be between the liberals and conservatives, and ultimately between conservatives or between liberals, the powerful – not the faithful – would control.
People interpret faith differently, and while most people think they believe the right thing, history tells us what to predict what would happen if one person’s right thing and the other person’s right thing were in disagreement. Anybody who has served on a church board can tell you how much debate goes on about the smallest issues – churches have split over the color of carpet, whether somebody could play a guitar in church, or whether a woman can make an announcement in front. Even the Protestants in Europe during the Reformation went to war and killed each other over whether the Eucharist was really the body and blood of Christ.
If America were declared a Christian nation, would this tendency to fight over the smallest differences in faith change? Would churches that uphold traditional marriage gain power over those who performed same-sex marriages? Would those who view national healthcare as a Godly objective fight with those who found problems with it? Would the liberal churches or conservative churches dominate the landscape?
And what about those who were not Christian? Would they find themselves pressured to convert or face losing their rights to hold office, vote, or even own property?
Looking at history, the only way the idea of a “Christian America” that is envisioned would ever be able to “succeed” is by seeking power, suppressing dissent, and persecuting those who disagreed. It might not follow a particular denomination, but because Christianity itself is so diverse there would need to be a central core of beliefs. There might be a few “true believers” who would carry their message forward without feeling upset by this change, but the majority of the people, including most Christians, would live in constant fear and frustration.
In an age when many Christian conservatives argue that the government cannot properly handle the issue of health care, many of the same people seem to have confidence in the government’s ability to handle matters of faith. For that reason alone, separation of church and state should be a conservative cause. Religion does best when it stands on its own two feet and does not rely on the crutch of government. Just as conservatives argue those who receive a lifetime of government funding cannot handle the open market, they should recognize that once churches depend on government “marketing” they will cease to be as productive.
After a thousand years of religious leadership, the former Holy Roman Empire is now one of the most secular places on the globe. People look at churches as irrelevant antiques. And many government-funded churches in Europe are dying on the vine. This was because religion depended on the government and when the government pulled back, religion folded. If Americans want faith to thrive, it should grow on its own – not be stifled or forced by government. Faith does not need a government handout or increased bureaucratic overhead that would inevitably result. Imagine if churches were run like the DMV!
This is not to say that there aren’t times when churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious organizations can’t partner with government for humanitarian purposes, but rather that the government should stay out of matters of faith and doctrine.
Rather than seeking power in order to turn the United States into a Christian Empire, it would be better for individual Christians and churches to follow Jesus’ words, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven” (NIV). The best way to grow Christianity is not through achieving power but through caring acts of kindness and mercy. Evangelical Christians should not seek to become a Christian nation, but they can seek to be a nation of Christians who have been attracted to Christ through their faith and freely chosen to follow Him. If Christians must rely on the power of government to increase their impact on the world, they are doing something very wrong.
Declaring that this is a “Christian Nation” would not make America better – it would make America a nation of robots and would misrepresent the freedom that faith can bring. America should be a nation where people can choose their own faith and not have to be afraid that they will be marginalized or at a disadvantage when it comes to how their government treats them. America is a big place, and is definitely big enough for all peaceful people of faith as well as those who choose not to follow any faith. That’s what freedom of religion is all about.
Google Tech Talk
August 12, 2009
ABSTRACT
Presented by Chris Seiple.
While the U.S. can summon hard power with relative ease, employing soft power is more difficult. Indeed, smart power suggests that hard and soft power are two sides of the same coin, that our interests are protected when our values are promoted. If Americans want to engage the world with efficient and enduring effect, we must better understand the essence of American power and the foundation of the global public square: religious freedom.
On August 23, 2010, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that World Vision is a religious organization and is therefore exempt from Title VII prohibitions on religious discrimination. Three former employees Silvia Spencer, Ted Youngberg, and Vicki Hulse had had filed suit against the well-known humanitarian organization in 2007, claiming they had been victims [...]
As a country that has long prided itself on representing a superior national enterprise, we must learn from our past. We have not yet taken unconscionable measures against our Muslim citizens and must avoid doing so at all costs. As our history indicates, our Constitutional values may well be at stake when we fear and [...]
By Christopher Hitchens Read the full article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2263334 EXCERPTS: The dispute over the construction of an Islamic center at “Ground Zero” in Lower Manhattan has now sunk to a level of stupidity that really does shame the memory and the victims of that terrible day in September 2001. One might think that a mosque [...]
State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010reports that the rise of religious nationalism, the economic marginalization of religious minorities and the abuse of counter-terrorism laws have all led to a growing pattern of persecution against religious minorities globally.
A Christian Nation: But Which Christianity? from Jeff Huett on Vimeo. Mercer University President William D. Underwood delivers the keynote address at the 2010 Religious Liberty Council Luncheon in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Read more at BJCOnline.org)
In short, Judge Walker ruled based on the evidence presented, as any trial judge should, and regardless of his own personal sexual orientation or biases, Prop 8 supporters simply did not make a viable case for themselves. Sloganeering may have won the election but did not win a trial where real evidence was required. Prop 8 supporters may later look at the ruling and claim it was wrongly decided but as this essay points out, the reality is that they did a poor job presenting their evidence and only put two witnesses on the stand, both of whom had previously written statements that contradicted their testimony in favor of Prop 8. When both of these witnesses were neutralized, Prop 8 advocates had nothing left with which to prove their case and any effort by any judge to add in facts to uphold Prop 8 would have been the very definition of judicial activism.
Delivered August 3, 2010 at Governors Island in New York. “We’ve come here to Governors Island to stand where the earliest settlers first set foot in New Amsterdam, and where the seeds of religious tolerance were first planted. We come here to see the inspiring symbol of liberty that more than 250 years later would [...]
Last week I received a message from Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) calling on Christians to protest plans to build a mosque in Manhattan near Ground Zero. (http://www.aclj.org/TrialNotebook/Read.aspx?ID=973 ) Although the ACLJ, not to be confused with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), does not try to hide the [...]
Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling holding that it was not unconstitutional for a public institution (Hastings University Law School) to require a institution-recognized student group (Christian Legal Society (CLS)) to allow any student to participate in the group regardless of their status or beliefs. You can read the [...]
Michael Peabody, editor of ReligiousLiberty.TV, writes for the July / August 2010 issue of Liberty Magazine. The full article is available in print and online at http://www.libertymagazine.org/index.php?id=1636 EXCERPT: The date was June 5, 1917, the first day of the draft. Sousa’s Band struck up “Stars and Stripes Forever” and the 6,000 in attendance at the [...]
EXCERPT: The Obama administration has talked much about increased engagement and improved outreach abroad. But it has neglected to offer effective support for one of the most important human rights, religious liberty. The dilatory nomination of Dr. Cook as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom is a start. Much more remains to be done, however. It [...]
By Richard Epstein EXCERPT: What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. One glaring weaknesses of the modern law on religious freedom is that it turns a blind eye toward neutral rules with a disparate impact on members of minority groups. That is why Justice Scalia was wrong in Employment Division, Department of Human [...]
EXCERPT: CNN – The Supreme Court has ruled against a Christian campus group that sued after a California law school denied it official recognition because the student organization limits its core membership to those who share its beliefs on faith and marriage. At issue was the conflict between a public university’s anti-discrimination policies and a [...]
EXCERPT: Charlotte, NC (WSOC) – A secularist billboard on the Billy Graham Parkway was vandalized over the weekend.The billboard, which was paid for by the The North Carolina Secular Association, shows an American flag and the words “One Nation, Indivisible.” Over the weekend, someone spray-painted the words “under God” on the billboard.Police were notified and [...]
The Italian government has begun its appeal against a decision by the European Court of Human Rights to ban crucifixes in school classrooms.
EXCERPT: By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN – While researching my prior post about Nikki Haley coming under attack by her fellow South Carolina Republicans for her Sikh heritage, I came across a local activist, Oran Smith of the Palmetto Family Council, who told CNN, “Most people can’t even pronounce ‘Sikh,’ even the ones that [...]
EXCERPT: Charlotte, NC (WBTV) – Some billboards popping up in Charlotte and across North Carolina are giving some drivers reason to pause. One of the billboards is on Billy Graham Parkway in west Charlotte. It shows an American flag with the words “One Nation Indivisible” superimposed. The billboard campaign has just started and will appear [...]
In this debate, you can watch Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL), Nirj Deva (ECR), Antigoni Papadopoulou (S&D) and Nadja Hirsch (ALDE) voice their views on the Protection of a work free Sunday in the EU.
Eric Kreye, whose story is told in the book Under the Blood Banner: The Story of a Hitler Youth talks with Michael Peabody about growing up in Hitler’s Germany. Born in America but raised in Germany, Eric describes how he was beaten by his teacher when he could not recite Hitler’s life story, how his father helped him avoid many of the Hitler Youth activities, how his family hid a Jewish woman and her daughter from the Gestapo, what it was like when the American military moved into Germany, and how he and his brother came to America.
Under the Blood Banner: Growing Up in Hitler's Germany [17:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadHuman rights refers to the “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.”
Attorneys Jason Hines and Michael Peabody discuss principles of liberty of conscience.
EXCERPT: New York (CNN) — Protesters gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001. Protest organizer Pamela Geller, a conservative blogger, and her group, “Stop [...]
Read the full article: http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Deflationary_Depression_and_Purging_To_Come EXCERPT: It was a year and one-half ago we told you that $800 billion in stimulus wasn’t enough. That is now proving to be the case. Get ready for another liquidity barrage, called quantitative easing. It will also mean real interest rates will rise again. The backbone of most all [...]
Read the full article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/4/ftc-floats-drudge-tax/ EXCERPT: The ideas being batted around to save the industry share a common theme: They are designed to empower bureaucrats, not consumers. For instance, one proposal would, “Allow news organizations to agree jointly on a mechanism to require news aggregators and others to pay for the use of online content, [...]
EXCERPT: June 4, 2010 – (CNN) — “I’m spiritual but not religious.” It’s a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don’t need organized religion to live a life of faith. But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism. “Being spiritual but not religious can [...]
Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance and whose past leadership roles include president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and chair of the Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, discusses the philosophy and implications of secularism and the importance of a relationship between religion and politics.
Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, has a conversation with actors portraying George Mason and Thomas Jefferson on the subject of universal rights and the free exercise of religion.
EXCERPT: June 4, 2010 – Religious leaders in the US and Latin America have denounced Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. The law requires police to question people about their immigration status, if officers suspect the person is in the US illegally, and if they have stopped them for a legitimate reason. Archbishop Rafael Romo Munoz, [...]
EXCERPT: May 21, 2010 — HOUSTON (NYT) — At home in Nigeria, the Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio draws thousands to her revival meetings. Last August, when she had herself consecrated Christendom’s first “lady apostle,” Nigerian politicians and Nollywood actors attended the ceremony. Her books and DVDs, which explain how Satan possesses children, are widely known. [...]
As their final assignment for the play, I had students respond to the question, “How would you feel if your religious freedom was taken away?” The responses varied, in both length and reaction. Nearly all of the teenagers in the class are self-described Christians, but their approach toward religion varies from conservative evangelical to tolerant progressives to near-agnostic. Their reactions to a potential scenario in which they were not allowed to practice religion freely ranged from the pragmatic to conformist to vigilant resistance.
Get the latest news, share stories, or comment on current events at our Facebook group. ReligiousLiberty.TV , launched in June 2008, is a leading independent online resource for news, information, commentary, and insights on contemporary issues involving the free exercise and establishment clauses of the United States Constitution. Today’s rapidly evolving Constitutional landscape has led [...]
Just in time for our 2-year Anniversary, ReligiousLiberty.TV is giving one of our fancy new T-shirts to a lucky person who completes our short survey. In turn, we’ll find out how to make it an even better website. To enter, click this link and get started. Must provide your name and email address. If you [...]
EXCERPT: May 5, 2010 – WASHINGTON (RNS) — More than a decade after it was first introduced, an on-again off-again bill to protect employees’ religious expression in the workplace is attracting renewed attention that could lead to action on Capitol Hill in coming weeks. . . . “The bill will be introduced to Congress soon [...]
Dr. Michael Newdow, an attorney and physician famous for his litigation on church-state issues from an atheist perspective, and and previous article contributor to ReligiousLiberty.TV, has now published an important law review article for the Capital University Law Review that discusses the history of American religious freedom and tolerance and why the majority should carefully consider the [...]
By Michael D. Peabody, Esq. – For over 25 years, the legal system has grappled with the question of what constitutes prima facie discriminatory conduct under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Courts across the nation have established different standards for prima facie discrimatory conduct and there have been no clear-cut answers. Sixth Circuit Court [...]
In Quebec a furious public debate has erupted over Muslim women who wear the niqab – face veil. Out of over 200,000 Muslims in Montreal, only a few dozen women wear the niqab, but under a proposed new legislation they could be barred from receiving public services.
By Martin Surridge – The mass of strangers and suitcases pressed against me so tightly that I did not have to worry about the sharp turns and rapid acceleration of the train as it hurtled through the Beijing underground because the dozens of people breathing down my neck in the center of the carriage prevented [...]
Address by the Keynote Speaker Lázló Andor at the first European Conference for the ‘protection of a work-free Sunday’. The conference was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday 24th March 2010.
A conference whose aim was to relaunch the protection of a work-free Sunday debate at European level (see www.comece.org) was held on Wednesday the March 24, 2010 in Brussells. ARLP has posted a story on their website along with a video of the keynote address. Here are some of the reasons for the conference: Purpose [...]
EXCERPT: By the year 2020, there will be 30 million more men than women of marriageable age in this giant empire, so large and so different (its current population is 1,336,410,000) that it often feels more like a separate planet than just another country. Nothing like this has ever happened to any civilisation before. The [...]
Americans United for Separation of Church and State today praised Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens for his record of support for church-state separation and expressed the hope that his replacement will hold similar views.
EXCERPT from American Baptist Press: WASHINGTON (ABP) — With the Supreme Court’s oldest and longest-serving member announcing April 9 his retirement, advocates for strong church-state separation urged that Justice John Paul Stevens’ replacement be as devoted to preventing government establishment of religion as the retiring jurist. However, some called for a successor who can improve [...]
The Truth Commission on Conscience in War is a group of religious leaders and scholars who have joined together to discuss the theory of just war, international law and freedom of conscience during times of war. The 70-member commission recently held a public hearing at Riverside Church, where soldiers spoke about their war experiences. The [...]
EXCERPT from BBC News (link below): France’s top administrative body has advised the government that any total ban on face-covering Islamic veils could be unconstitutional. The State Council also said a ban could be justified in some public places. Prime Minster Francois Fillon had asked the council for a legal opinion before drawing up a [...]
By Ellen G. White – The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate.”
Ryan Bell, pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church talks with Michael Peabody about Glenn Becks’ recent controversial comments against “social justice Christians” and why Christians should work toward social justice.
SALEM, OREGON – On April 1, 2010, Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a bill (HB 3686) that will repeal Oregon’s 87-year-old ban on teachers wearing religious dress.
ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland State Legislature is presently considering a state-level Workplace Religious Freedom Act” (HB 381). The bill, currently working its way through the House where it was heard on February 10, 2010, addresses employee requests for observance of holy days. Modeled on the Maryland Flexible Leave Act, the Maryland Workplace Religious Freedom Act would require [...]
Dr. Michael Schluter, founder of Keep Sunday Special, debates business entrepreneurs and representatives of other faith groups on the issue of whether Europe should adopt Sunday as a uniform day of rest. Part I Part II Related stories: ANALYSIS: European Sunday Weekly Rest Day Legislation Remains Unlawful “This matter deserves a full debate engaging all [...]
EXCERPT: Members of a paramilitary group have been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and wage war against the United States — and they use God as their reasoning. The group is active in three Midwest states. The FBI believes some of its members were about to launch a massacre. Read [...]
Thanks to RLTV reader Doug Beasley for finding this story. EXCERPT: The Sunday shopping ban in New Jersey’s largest county — among the nation’s last remaining blue laws — may be lifted to satisfy the state’s hunger for more sales tax revenue. The budget proposed last week by new Republican Gov. Chris Christie assumes $65 million in new [...]
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c I’s on Edjukashun – Texas School Board www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform The Texas State Board of Education has voted to radically alter textbook lessons for future generations, removing from curricula separation of church and state and references to Thomas Jefferson. [...]
Although this was a lawsuit brought by an atheist, had he won, the result might have actually been more protective of the honor of God. After these rulings stripping the name of God of any religious meaning, those who have so long clamored for God’s name to be mentioned as a statement of this nation’s religious faith might want to re-think their position.
EXCERPT: This “ministerial exception” helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here. In this case, plaintiff Cesar Rosas seeks pay for the overtime hours he worked as a seminarian in a Catholic church in Washington. The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings.
Washington State Bill to Unionize Child Care Centers Dies in Committee We have good news from the State of Washington. You may have read our last newsletter about the bill that labor unions were trying to pass that would unionize private child care centers, and including faith-based preschools, and categorize their workers as government employees [...]
Oregon Legislature Votes Down 1923 Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress By Michael Peabody – This month we have a couple of big stories coming out of the great Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, the legislature has passed a bill championed by the Northwest Religious Liberty Association that overturns a 87-year-old law that prohibited teachers from [...]
EXCERPT: AUSTIN – Republicans on the State Board of Education soundly rejected a Democratic-backed proposal Thursday that would have required Texas students to be taught the reasons behind the prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights. The contentious decision in curriculum standards for U.S. government classes appeared to signal the unhappiness of several board [...]
Martin Surridge, the new associate editor of ReligiousLiberty.TV and Michael Peabody discuss recent developments in Europe.
RLTV Podcast: Martin Surridge on Swiss Minarets and the French Burqa Ban [7:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadAt RLTV we have been watching developments of this issue for over a year. A coalition of churches and labor unions is again working toward the goal of a European Sunday rest law. Editor EXCERPT: A Conference to relaunch the debate on Sunday protection at European level will be held on 24 March in the European [...]
EXCERPT from BBC News (link below): Palestinians and Israeli police have clashed near the Jerusalem compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, leaving dozens of people injured. A large group of Palestinians left Friday prayers and began marching to the mosque, carrying banners and waving green flags, witnesses and police said. Police tried to disperse the crowd [...]
EXCERPT from ABC News (link below): An Oregon husband and wife who relied on faith rather than medicine to treat their dying child were convicted today of criminally negligent homicide. Jeffrey and Marci Beagley of Oregon City said they thought their 16-year-old son, Neil, merely had the flu when they prayed and laid hands on [...]
In high school, the only sports I played to any significant extent were soccer and basketball. A lot of my friends went snowboarding or skiing, but it was a long drive to the mountains and I could not really afford all the equipment, which cost hundreds of dollars. So I never spent much time on [...]
Michael Peabody interviews Jason Hines, attorney and Andrews University seminary student, about the topic of same-sex marriage and why religious groups need to be careful to protect liberty of conscience in their advocacy on this issue.
Jason Hines on the Church, Same-Sex Marriage, and Public Policy [12:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadEXCERPT from Al Jazeera English (link below): The United Nations and European Union have condemned a call from Libya’s leader for Muslims to carry out jihad against Switzerland over a recent vote to ban the construction of minarets in the European country. Gaddafi said: “Any Muslim around the world who has dealings with Switzerland is an [...]
EXCERPT from OregonLive.com (link below): Oregon’s longstanding ban on teachers wearing head scarves or other religious dress is near its demise after the Senate and House gave final approval Tuesday to lift the ban. Champions in the Senate called ending the ban a historic step toward religious freedom and non-discrimination in a state that has [...]
By Michael D. Peabody – So what’s the biggest threat to religious liberty? According to J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the answer is found in the strings attached to government funding of religious activity. Earlier this month, during a speech for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Walker said, “What the government funds, it always regulates. Government-sponsored religion is always bad for religion. How can we raise a prophetic fist with one hand and take government money with the other?”
The truth of Walker’s statement was underscored just last week when the Washington State House of Representatives passed HB 1329, now working its way through the state Senate, that cleared the way for unionization of private and most non-profit child care centers if they take government subsidies for as little as one child, and even declares the centers’ employees “government employees” for the purposes of unionization.
EXCERPT: I’M DRIVING HOME ONE DAY LAST SEPTEMBER with a major assignment on my mind—a formal presentation at an October conference in observance of the fiftieth anniversary of what some have called the most controversial book in Adventism: Questions on Doctrine. My radio is tuned to CSPAN, and on comes a live report of the [...]
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Obama-speaks-up-for-Tibetans-but-in-a-hushed-voice/articleshow/5594740.cms EXCERPT: WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama to express his “strong support” for human rights and religious freedom for the people of Tibet while encouraging a direct dialogue with China. Mr Obama “commended the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ approach, his commitment to non-violence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinesegovernment during [...]
God’s Counterterrorism in a ’24′ World from Ryan Bell on Vimeo. Ryan Bell, the pastor Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church, gave this presentation at La Sierra University on January 28, 2010.
Monte Sahlin is the director of Research and Development of the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and is an expert international humanitarian aid. In this podcast he discusses the Haiti Earthquake and the response of a church group from Idaho that tried to help but got in trouble. He discussed Haiti and other current issues [...]
By an overwhelming majority, the Oregon House of Representatives has voted 51-8 to repeal a Klan-era ban on teachers wearing religious dress in the classroom. The law, originally an anti-Catholic measure, was implemented with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. It bans Muslim public school teachers from wearing headscarves, Sikh men [...]
While they have been easy to miss, the news has been peppered recently with stories of serious threats to religious liberty not in the developing world, war-torn regions in the Middle East, or third-world countries struck by natural disasters, but in Europe, our own geopolitical backyard.
First hand reports of Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s assistance to the earthquake victims of Haiti. Visit ADRA.org for more information.
Childhood diseases once mostly eradicated are making a comeback. And children are dying.
Martin Surridge and Michael Peabody discuss Surridge’s recent article, “Is the Era of Large-Scale Islamic Terrorism Coming to an End?” in which he theorizes that Islamic terrorism in the West is on the decline.
Putting the emotional issues aside, this is the cold reality: If the U.S. Supreme Court takes this case and decides to uphold Proposition 8, this outcome could strip away fundamental principles that also protect religious minorities.
Michael Peabody interviews Karen Scott about the problem of modern day slavery and human trafficking in the United States.
While the world cautiously watches the war in Afghanistan and the nuclear aspirations of Iran, a surprising geopolitical trend may be emerging which could have quite profound consequences for international security and the safety of millions throughout southwest Asia and indeed the rest of the world. Despite the global carnage that Islamic terrorist groups continue [...]
Michael Peabody interviews Scott Ritsema about the recent controversy involving a gun sight manufacturer that inscribed Bible references on tactical equipment used by military forces around the world. Scott Ritsema is the author of The Way the Truth and the Sword and maintains a blog at http://civicsnews.blogspot.com.
By Martin Surridge A multitude of Walla Walla University students joined local community members and concerned citizens at Shelter for Freedom’s headlining event on Saturday night, January 16, 2010, filling Whitman College’s Cordiner Hall for the screening of the documentary film “Cargo: Innocence Lost.” The screening, which was followed by a panel discussion, was just one of [...]
Scott Ritsema CIVICS NEWS January 19, 2010 As if there weren’t enough instances where the American Empire is associated with the faith of Jesus (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters) another sad story has leaked into the media (see ABC story here), this time about Bible [...]
Arianna Huffington joined The Nation’s Ari Melber and former evangelist Frank Schaeffer on The Joy Behar Show Thursday. The panel weighed in on evangelist Pat Robertson’s claims that the earthquake in Haiti is the result of that country’s “pact with the devil.” Arianna Huffington thinks Robertson is giving religion a bad name. “For anybody of faith, [...]
In 1999, comedian George Carlin wrote, “Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you.”
I thought about Carlin’s statement as I watched a clip of Pat Robertson blaming this week’s earthquake in Haiti on a mythical pact that the people of Haiti supposedly made with the Devil in order to become independent of France over two centuries ago. ““[E]ver since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor,” Robertson said.
A video describing some of the religious and secular rationale behind American Sunday blue laws.
EXCERPT: On the first day of 2010 (note: not 1310), Ireland’s new blasphemy law came into effect, making statements about the folly of religion punishable by a 25,000 euro fine. Specifically, the law forbids “publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion.” Ireland, yet again, [...]
EXCERPT from the Article by Jeremy Lott: That makes him a conservative but a radical one. The easiest way to change a church is to drastically change her membership, and that is exactly what the pope is calling for with his impatient prodding to bring whole communions into the flock. Yesterday the traditionalists, today the [...]
From http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/latinamerica/6783415.html EXCERPT: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti’s cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday. The Pan American Development Foundation’s report also said some of those children — mostly young girls — suffer sexual, psychological and physical abuse while [...]
Dr. Adrian Theophilus Westney passed away at the age of 82 on December 14, 2009 after having served the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the cause of religious freedom for over 60 years. Before coming to the United States in 1960, Westney planted churches and pastored in his homeland of Jamaica, as well as [...]
SHELTER FOR FREEDOM “Slavery: The Fight We Thought Was Over” FILM: “Cargo: Innocence Lost” Walla Walla University & Whitman College January 14-18, 2010 Walla Walla, WA All the following events are free except for Film Screening and Reception. EVENTS TO BENEFITS WALLA WALLA HELPLINE WOMEN’S SHELTER Thursday, January 14, [...]
Cargo: Innocence Lost – Film screening – Saturday, January 16, 5:00 pm, Cordiner Hall, Whitman College – Documentary by Michael Cory Davis on human trafficking in the United States – Anne Archer will introduce the film and Michael Cory Davis – Panel discussion to follow featuring Anne Archer, Michael Cory Davis and law enforcement, slavery [...]
Pastor Jan Paulsen, world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church discusses freedom as a foundational value for human dignity.
By David A. Pendleton – Ever since President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, the chattering classes have speculated endlessly regarding the impact she might have on the future of American jurisprudence. She would bring wide-ranging experiences to the Court: prosecutor, civil litigator, federal trial judge, federal appellate judge, law [...]
“Congress enacted the Religious Land Use Act to protect the fundamental right of freedom of religion,” said Dan Korobkin, an ACLU of Michigan staff attorney who is representing the church. “Churches and other religious institutions have the right to use their property to exercise their religious beliefs — which in this case entails providing charitable services to the poor and underprivileged.”
This comes from the left end of the political spectrum and presents what may simply be rhetorical posturing, or a harbinger of the next big issue. Aside from a one-child policy we can expect it to trickle into areas having to do with euthanasia, health care, etc. China has recently been calling for an international [...]
From http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09120706.html EXCERPT: CALGARY, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gerald Chipeur, the lawyer who represented Pastor Stephen Boissoin, has said that the recent ruling in favor of Mr. Boissoin “will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada.” Pastor Boissoin was exonerated by a Court of Queen’s Bench judge last week [...]
We have no reason to doubt that those who drafted and are signing the Declaration are sincere and trying to do what they believe is best for America. There are many good reasons why it may seem a good idea, but we should raise a voice of caution regarding the unintended consequences of this approach. Christians tempted to set aside theological differences, which include differences in how grace and salvation are viewed so significant that they led to the battles of the Reformation and Inquisition, and unite on points held in common in order to change society should recall the unholy results of such unions. From a Christian perspective, government and even church edicts cannot change hearts, only God can.
Mike Huckabee talks to Chuck Colson about the significance of the Manhattan Declaration, which Huckabee claims could be the equivalent of the 49 Theses posted by Martin Luther, which is an official document composed by a group of Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox leaders who are uniting against causes such as abortion, same-sex marriage and their definition [...]
GERMANY – Scientologists have had a particularly difficult time in Europe where many view them as a nuisance for their recruiting activities. When they opened a new 43,000 square foot facility near Berlin, the locals complained. However, the city found a loophole based on a 1995 Federal Labor Court ruling that found that Scientology is “neither a religion nor an [...]
The Secret Political Reach Of ‘The Family’ This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. The fundamentalist group The Family has operated secretively with the help of influential congressmen and senators who are members of the group to promote their anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-free-market ideas in America and other parts of the world, but two sex scandals [...]
A Threat to Universal Human Rights Standards November 11, 2009 – WASHINGTON, D.C. – In advance of the upcoming vote on this issue in the UN General Assembly, USCIRF today issued the following Policy Focus explaining the problems with the idea that religions should be protected from “defamation.” Executive Summary Over the past decade, [...]
Rob Cockerham is the genius behind the website Cockeyed.com, which answers all kinds of questions. I first became a fan of the site back in 2004 when I was trying to visualize the size of an acre. Since then, I’ve been amazed at Rob’s “High Profile Sculpture Replacement” experiments, and American Idol Judges costume and groundbreaking [...]
In California, voters are allowed to promote ballot initiatives on almost any subject, including those that can fundamentally change the state constitution. Here are some initatives that are currently in circulation as of November 18, 2009. Only a few will make it to the ballot, but it is interesting to see what changes some want to [...]
A US federal judge has ordered South Carolina not to issue cross-adorned ”I believe” car number plates, ruling it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. US District Court judge, Cameron Currie, ruled that the state legislature – which voted unanimously last year to approve the number plates that include a cross in front of a stained glass window – had clearly given favoured government treatment to a single faith, and ordered to halt its issue.
EXCERPT from TimesOnline Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents. New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to “collect data” on properties where children are thought [...]
EXCERPT from New York Times: New Turn in Debate Over Law on Marriage By IAN URBINA Published: November 12, 2009 WASHINGTON — The fight over a proposed same-sex marriage law here heated up this week as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said that if the law passed, the church would cut its social service [...]
EXCERPTS from America Magazine Blog – 11/8/09 The House Vote: A Huge Triumph for the Church Posted at: 2009-11-08 08:02:54.0 Author: Michael Sean Winters It is difficult to over-estimate the degree to which last night’s vote in the House, passing a comprehensive health care reform bill, was a huge victory for the Catholic Church. Yes, [...]
The State and the Church “And so, by the power vested in me by the State of ___ and Almighty God, I now pronounce you husband and wife. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” This pronouncement is the point in a religious wedding ceremony where the power of the state and the [...]
The Religious Liberty Council of the Baptist Joint Committee on its website announced the 5th annual Religious Liberty Essay Scholarship Contest, which is open to all high school students in the graduating classes of 2010 and 2011. According to the BJC, “this year’s contest will commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s landmark speech about [...]
EXCERPT: DALLAS—Baptists must hold in tension three sets of paradoxical ideas if they are to remain faithful to their heritage and champion freedom, Brent Walker told participants at the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Award Dinner Oct. 30 in Dallas. … • The two religion clauses in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. • Religious [...]
An excellent educational cartoon series for kids (and adults) starring Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin is now on YouTube. In this episode, Ben Franklin, Moses, and James discover disguised colonists raiding the tea-laden ship that Sarah is aboard. To watch the entire series, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertysKidsTV The official website, which includes activities and information for parents and teachers is located at http://www.libertyskids.com/
Binghamton, N. Y., November 13, 1922—Harold F. Albert, recreational director of the Endicott Johnson Corporation, was arrested yesterday afternoon on complaint of the Binghamton Ministerial Association for staging a concert by John Philip Sousa’s Band at which an admission was charged.
On October 25, 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the annual International Religious Freedom Report, on behalf of the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In the first IRFR from the Obama administration, Clinton stated her opposition to international laws that would propose to protect religious liberty by preventing [...]
What planet am I living on? I have grown up with the idea that conservatives were those who value tradition and defendthe status quo ante; who support the institutions of our society. But now it seems that “conservatives” believe that it is wrong for the president of the United States to talk to the nation’s school children despite the fact that Ronald Reagan did so; that it is OK to carry an automatic weapon to a public meeting with elected officials; that un-fact-checked statementscirculated by unknown bloggers and radio entertainers are to be believed over independent newspapers with long histories of factual reporting.
EXCERPT: A Texas man who faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate should have his death sentence commuted, Amnesty International said on Friday. Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5 November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether [...]
The other day someone sent me a link to an “Antichrist Decoder” that has been posted online by an otherwise reputable Christian ministry. You can type in anybody’s name and the program will calculate the value of the name in Roman numerals.
After checking my name to make sure that I was not the Antichrist I looked at the other names that people had plugged into the decoder and learned that Barack Obama is not the Antichrist, neither is Barack Hussein Obama. Ronald Wilson Reagan’s name doesn’t add up to 666 even if you type in two “v”s to make the W.
People were having fun with the decoder and for the uninitiated it would be at home in a carnival next to the “Love Meter” or “Magic 8 Ball.” Perhaps an “antichrist decoder” made the rounds on the county fair circuit in years gone by, or a 666 Decoder Ring was the cheap plastic treat in the box of Cracker Jacks.
Representative Dave Hunt, speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, was awarded by the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) at the Oregon Conference Campmeeting in Gladstone on July 17, 2009 for his legislative sponsorship of the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, Senate Bill 786 (SB 786) which was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski. There were [...]
On his October 13, 2009 episode, Stephen Colbert addressed the recent Supreme Court arguments in the case involving the WWI Veterans’ Memorial in the Mojave Desert (Salazar v. Buono). He makes a strong argument that those who are arguing for the cross as a mere symbol in order to preserve it are arguing against its religious significance.
History tells us that it would not be a debate between Christians and atheists. If Christianity won predominance over every other religious system in the nation, it would be a debate between Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentacostals, and any other denomination you could name. Then it would be between the liberals and conservatives, and ultimately between conservatives or between liberals, the powerful – not the faithful – would control.
As he said he would during the campaign last year, President Obama has retained the “faith-based initiatives” emphasis at the White House, but restructured the organization that he inherited from President Bush. The new unit consists of two parts, where Bush’s White House had only one: An Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and a President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The council is make its final recommendations in February next year (2010), so it appears that further changes may yet surface. At the same time it is clear that Obama is committed to some kind of working relationship with the nonprofit sector, including the large part of it that is related to religious constituencies.
While the U.S. can summon hard power with relative ease, employing soft power is more difficult. Indeed, smart power suggests that hard and soft power are two sides of the same coin, that our interests are protected when our values are promoted. If Americans want to engage the world with efficient and enduring effect, we must better understand the essence of American power and the foundation of the global public square: religious freedom.
A short Catholic News Agency overview of international religious persecution and the importance of preserving religious freedom.
Since their formation in the late 19th century, Jehovah’s Witnesses have suffered relentless persecution worldwide for their controversial religious beliefs. Archibald Cox, Jr., famous for his role as the Watergate prosecutor that helped force the resignation of former U.S. President Richard Nixon, once noted that Jehovah’s Witnesses were “the principal victims of religious persecution … in the twentieth century.” Persecution against Witnesses was especially strong during WWII when their political neutrality, conscientious objection to war, and refusal to salute any nation’s flag made them the target of governments and citizen mob groups alike. Except for the Jews, they were proportionally the most persecuted group in Nazi Germany; they were banned during the war in countries like Russia and Spain, and sometimes beaten and jailed in places like Britain, Canada, Cuba, and the United States. The ACLU reported that by 1940 in the United States alone, “more than 1,500 Witnesses . . . had been victimized in 335 separate attacks.”
EXCERPT: PORTLAND, Ore. — A law backed by the Ku Klux Klan nearly a century ago to keep Catholics out of public schools is still on the books in Oregon, one of the last states in the nation to prohibit teachers from wearing religious clothing in classrooms. Both Pennsylvania and Nebraska have similar laws, which [...]
On August 30, 2009, renowned evangelist Edward Earl Cleveland died at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 88. Cleveland worked for more than 60 years as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, evangelist, church leader, teacher, and civil rights leader. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attended one of Cleveland’s tent meetings in 1954 in Montgomery and [...]
EXCERPT: The Texas Board of Education, the nation’s second largest purchaser of public school textbooks, is revising its K-12 social studies curriculum and deciding how to characterize religion’s influence on American history. Three consultants have recommended emphasizing the roles of the Bible, Christianity and civic virtue of religion. As America’s children go back to school, [...]
EXCERPT: A FIELD OF 312 golfers will tee off Monday in the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills and Cedar Ridge. One of them — 24-year-old Louie Bishop of Murrieta, Calif. — knows he has zero chance of advancing to Sunday’s finals and, yes, he’s at peace with that. Bishop is a Seventh-day Adventist. He doesn’t [...]
EXCERPT: . . . The late senator “was a great champion of church-state separation,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a preparedstatement. “It’s not just that he consistently voted to support that principle — he really got it. He deeply understood that only a high and [...]
EXCERPT: Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. [...]
Sister Janet Fearns, communications coordinator of Missio writes about the extent of religious persecution in Pakistan. A link to the full article follows this excerpt: ‘I am sorry I could not speak to you then because we were just about to begin the funeral service for Irfan, an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head [...]
Charles Colson recently wrote an interesting editorial on the media’s non-response to religious freedom issues in India. Here is an excerpt followed by a link to the full article: In 1998, Congress created the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Its mandate was to “monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion [...]
Here is how some members of our Facebook community responded to the question, “What does religious freedom mean to you?” William Brooks: I once heard a pastor speak on religious liberty and its meaning, and since then, I have claim this meaning for myself.”Religious liberty means, I am free worship as I please, or to go fishing.” To [...]
On July 1, 2009, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. Introduced in February, House Bill 1598 requires Tennessee courts to apply the “compelling state interest” test to cases in which a law substantially burdens one’s right of free exercise of religion. The state now has the burden of [...]
Source: Adventist News Network Hundreds of religious liberty proponents from Israel and the Palestinian Territories gathered in Jerusalem Sunday for the symbolic city’s first festival of religious freedom. The event generated a “climate of good understanding” among attendees that organizers hope will spur increased tolerance in the region, said John Graz, secretary-general for the [...]
EXCERPT: UTRECHT, Netherlands — (RNS/ENI) Four hundred years after the first Baptist congregation was established, followers have been challenged to continue championing religious liberty. “We as Baptists must continue to defend religious freedom for all peoples and all religions,” said Denton Lotz, the former general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, at a special service [...]
Because religious beliefs are protected and there is a more diverse workforce, religious accommodation issues have increased. This article was written by originally published in the July 19, 2009 Zanesville TimesRecorder and is reprinted here with the permission of the author. By Jim Evans This is not your father’s workplace. A snapshot of today’s workforce looks dramatically [...]
Northwest Religious Liberty Association Press Release – July 21, 2009 The Stage Was Set On a sweltering Friday summer evening, and just two minutes prior to going on stage before approximately 2,000 Seventh-day Adventist Christians at the Gladstone, Oregon Campmeeting, the Honorable Representative Dave Hunt (D), Speaker of the House of Representatives for the Oregon Legislature, [...]
The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit alleges that the county refused to permit Yvette Beshier to wear a religiously mandated headscarf while working as a corrections officer.
Speaker Dave Hunt delivers a floor speech on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act.
Breaking News: We have received word that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has signed the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786). SB 786 requires employers to make credible attempts to accommodate religious holy day observance and religious dress. Prior to SB 786, employers in Oregon could make only the bare minimum effort to meet accommodation [...]
EXCERPT: In nearly every state in the union, local school districts have the discretion to say whether teachers can wear religious garb such as yarmulkes, turbans and head scarves while on the job. Not around these parts. Oregon is one of only two states with laws that expressly forbid public school teachers from wearing religious [...]
Religious liberty and equality is predicated on the right to be different. Its underlying principle is that we do not have to accept the truth or value of someone else’s religious beliefs in order to agree that those beliefs and practices deserve protection against discriminatory treatment.
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue and Turner Memorial A.M.E. Church present the fifth annual Shabbat in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, celebrating their legacy of social justice and equality.
July 2009 News and Opinion – The Economy, Marriage, and More Posted using ShareThis
The hijab is arguably the most discussed and controversial item of women’s clothing today. It has become the primary global symbol of female Muslim identity for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and is the focus of much debate in the confrontation between Islam and the West. Nowhere has this debate been more acute or complex than [...]
Rodney Barker discusses the origins, character and life of political and religious witch hunts, as well as the relation between what people say, what they believe and what they do. Professor Rodney Barkers’ research interests lie in the areas of political thinking in modern Britain and the legitimation of governments, subjects and rebels. He also [...]
(Mosaic Intelligence Report: May 15, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI prays for peace in the Holy Land but his trip is mired with controversy. Why are Muslims and Jews upset with the Holy See? And what does the future hold for Palestinian Christians living in Jerusalem? Additional discussion at the Huffington Post.
The Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School presents a conversation with Wilfred McClay, senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center at the University of Tennessee and co-author of Religion Returns to the Public Square, and Jacques Berlinerblau, with the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and author ofThe Secular Bible: [...]
Keynote address by Noah Feldman at the Mormonism & American Politics conference entitled Persecution and the Art of Secrecy: An Interpretation of the Mormon Encounter with American Politics.
Lawrence W. Reed is president emeritus of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based research and educational institute on September 1, 2008. The Center’s mission is to equip Michigan citizens and other decision-makers to better evaluate Michigan public policy options and to do so from a “free market” perspective. For a PDF version [...]
EXCERPT FROM BLOOMBERG.COM Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a [...]
At a time when religion and politics are increasingly sharing the same vocabulary and functioning in the same sphere, Aslan writes that we must strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations and address the actual grievances that fuel the Jihadist movement.
There is presently much debate about gay marriage in California, and the roots for the argument come from several directions. In 1967 the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether marriage was a fundamental right. Granted it had to do with people of the opposite sex, but the arguments for the State of Virginia which forbade interracial marriage were primarily religious in nature.
When you think about it, 1967 was not very long ago. If you are older than 42, if your parents were from sixteen states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida, and were from different races their marriages would have been illegal. In California, interracial marriage was illegal until 1948.
If Judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed by the United States Senate, she will be the 6th Catholic among the 9 United States Supreme Court justices. Doug Kmiec, my constitutional law professor in the area of the Bill of Rights at Pepperdine University, discusses what this will mean in a recent interview with Suzanne Sataline of [...]
SB 786 has passed both houses of the legislature and is now on the Governor’s Desk.
In recent months, it has become increasingly clear that religious freedom, or any individual liberties for that matter, are best respected in lands where private property and financial resources are respected by the state. Mark Steyn explores the themes of private property and financial responsibility in this speech describing the dangers other nations are facing when [...]
University of Toledo law professor Howard M. Friedman has compiled a list of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s rulings on religion clause issues at his blog, Religion Clause. Sotomayor has served on the Second Circuit since 1998. She served as a federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York from 1992 to 1998.
A collection of the latest news and opinions. VIRGINIA: Laid-off religious workers denied jobless benefits Under Virginia law, as in many states, tax exemptions for religious organizations include freedom from paying unemployment taxes, though the IRS requires they pay Social Security and withholding taxes. For workers who are left jobless, unemployment benefits are a [...]
This news will have significant repercussions for the United States economy. Editor Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president. The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Friday, May 1, announced its 2009 recommendations to Congress, the White House and the State Department that 13 nations–Burma, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam–be named “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs. USCIRF is a [...]
EXCERPT: By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service Former prisoner of conscience Shageldy Atakov, is the latest victim of Turkmenistan’s use of old “offences” to punish current activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Officials under orders from the central authorities are now threatening to confiscate Atakov’s property, if he does not pay an enormous [...]
EXCERPT: At a time when religious persecution is at the heart of the world’s most violent conflicts, religious freedom matters. That’s why the 2009 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom should be required reading for policymakers in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Released on May 1, the report documents in chilling detail the [...]
Excerpt: Pope Benedict XVI has called on followers of the three major monotheistic religions to put their differences behind them and work towards reconciliation. … “Jews, Muslims and Christians alike call this city their spiritual home… Thereshould be no place within these walls for narrowness, discrimination, violence and injustice,” Benedict said. “Believers in a God [...]
North Korea has long been recognized as one of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedom. This week in Washington, D.C., North Korean defectors and human rights activists came together to bring attention to the situation… From The Christian Broadcasting Network CBN
WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PASSES OREGON STATE SENATE! Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at the Oregon Legislature, with the leadership of Senator David Nelson (R-Pendleton District) and the bipartisan support of Republicans and Democrats, we finally realized the fruits of our labor in the Senate passage of our Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, SB 786-A (see attached). The [...]
With the news this week that the United States House of Representatives has passed, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, there is some concern about what this will mean for individuals or churches that express their religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation. I discussed the 2007 version of this bill in [...]
The main purpose for writing this article is to respond to the relentless attempts in recent times to legislate in the European Union, Sunday as an official weekly rest day. The lobbyists championing this cause have been among other associations, the Roman Catholic Bishops (COMECE), some Protestants church representatives and certain Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).[1] I will now provide a synopsis of the background on this issue and show how it has developed to the present day.
Scott Ritsema tackles the current controversy surrounding issues of faith and political power in his new book, The Way, the Truth and the Sword: A New Christian Civics in an Age of Coercive Power. I recently caught up with him to discuss the book, which is available online at http://www.lulu.com/content/3160866 RLTV: Your book has a fascinating [...]
Moderated by Krista Tippett, host of American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith, this panel of conservative evangelical Dr. Richard Land and liberal evangelical Jim Wallis separates faith from any one party and defines a broad faith-oriented agenda – University of Minnesota
SALEM, OREGON - On April 9, 2009, the Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786). House Speaker Dave Hunt, Bureau of Labor and Industry director Brad Avakian, and Senator David Nelson led the testimony in favor of the bill followed by Northwest Religious Liberty Association president Gregory [...]
You may recall that Pastor Stephen Boissoin got himself in hot water with the Alberta Human Rights Commission when he wrote a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate that was critical of the “homosexual agenda.” The community newspaper published the letter and the pastor was promptly sued. Limits on free speech can [...]
[Given the recent state of the economy, it is important to explore whether there is a strong correlation between religious freedom and economic freedom, or individual property rights and the interest of the state. The following was published in Ayn Rand's "Objectivist" newsletter in 1966, and reprinted in her book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in 1967. Regardless [...]
EXCERPT: A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order. “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,” it said. SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper [...]
Last week 23 of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council approved a resolution urging member states to provide ”protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.” The act, primarily promoted by Muslim nations, is designed to shield religion, primarily Islam, from criticism in the [...]
From: http://bjconline.org/news/news/0209laycock.htm Douglas Laycock is the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He is one of the nation’s leading authorities on religious liberty law. He made these remarks on January 15 in accepting the National First Freedom Award from the Richmond, Va.,-based First Freedom Center. EXCERPTS: If I [...]
In a stunning indictment of sweeping policy changes during the Bush years, best-selling author Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth) makes a chilling case that American democracy is under threat. Investigating parallels between our current situation and the rise of dictators and fascism in once-free societies, Wolf uncovers a number of deeply unsettling similarities-from the use [...]
The Wall Street Journal has published an interesting take on Barack Obama by Laura Meckler. Obama has managed to be even more religious than George W. Bush in his speech, but also reaches out equally to non-believers. Meckler’s article discusses whether Obama can reach out to one end of the spectrum without alienating the [...]
In a BBC News article dated March 12, 2009, the author indicates that Pope Benedict XVI is slated to release a new encyclical that discusses the moral and social issues behind the global economic crisis. Apparently it is proving quite a challenge to write. Benedict XVI “says it is proving more difficult to write than [...]
Last year an injunction was brought against the Laurelbrook School by the US Department of Labor. It alleged that Laurelbrook’s vocational program was in violation of juvenile labor laws. The trial, currently in recess, is scheduled to resume on March 30.
An epic battle played out on two levels at the California Supreme Court on March 5. On a surface level, attorneys fought over a technical issue of whether the Proposition 8 prohibition on gay marriage represented a revision or an amendment. On the deeper level, the question asked was whether there are any limits on the majority to impact the rights of the minority.
Originally published in Liberty in 1921 – “Why should we Christians desire that the non-Christian be required by law to observe our religious institutions? Why should we ask that the state punish offenders against our church institutions, when God has withheld such authority from the church?”
J.O. Corliss – Liberty Magazine – 1908 – “California is the only State in the American Union without a Sunday law. From 1858 to 1883 a Sunday-rest statute in that State was made so annoying to many of its citizens that it became an object of political contention. The supposed dominant party, through church affiliations, inserted a plank in its platform, pledging itself to maintain the Sunday law for the betterment of the laboring class. The other party went to the polls, on a pledge to repeal the existing statute requiring Sunday rest, on the ground of its hostility to religious rights.”
The result was a political upheaval in favor of repealing all Sunday laws in the State of California. About the same time the State supreme court handed down a decision in the case of ex parte Newman, declaring a Sunday law unconstitutional. Since then three attempts have been made by the churches to have the legislature re-enact a Sunday-law statute. These advances have been coldly met, on the ground that any such statute could have no force in the face of the constitutional limitation.
Each year, the Walla Walla University Church in College Place, Washington celebrates religious liberty. On February 28, 2009, Karen Scott delivered an address entitled, “Rethinking the Premise of Religious Liberty.”
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The Catholic Culture blog has posted a link to a set of articles about Obama’s plans to rescind the “conscience clause” that protects health-care personnel from pressure to participate in procedures they regard as immoral, such as abortion.
Watch the March 5, 2009 proceedings and read the briefs on both sides of this contentious issue.
In a floor speech, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe noted that while the Senate voted last week against reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, it approved another amendment saying federal regulators should promote diversity in media ownership and ensure that broadcasters operate in the public interest.
Somalia continues to implode, as Islamists gain increasing control over what remains of the impoverished, conflict-ridden nation. But it is not the only human tragedy in the region. Eritrea, which won its independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of war, has earned a reputation as one of the world’s youngest tyrannies. It also is one of the world’s worst religious persecutors.
Most people have a mistaken understanding of what the First Amendment means, says Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center.
“People tend to carry around two failed models in their head,” Haynes said. “Either we keep religion entirely out of public schools or we keep on doing what we used to do in the good old days and promote religion in school.”
Because of those failed models, schools end up making poor decisions when it comes to religion.
Considering the U.S. Supreme Court’s contentious struggles over free speech and religion, it was a surprise to say the least to see Wednesday’s ruling unanimously endorsing a government installation of the Ten Commandments in a city park.
While this ruling will likely have limited impact, it raises troubling questions about how dedicated this court – particularly the younger justices, who will be shaping it for decades to come – will be to maintaining the proverbial wall separating church and state.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.
In the context of the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, one journalist took the time to look back and see what the pundits said would happen next. No one, but no one, got it right. No one foresaw the rapid collapse of European communism and the demise of the Soviet Union. By 1991 The U.S.S.R. was no more, and no one saw this future with any degree of precision. Instead they got it wrong. The end of communism will be a long time coming. Wrong. If the Warsaw pact goes, so does NATO. Wrong. Germany will not be allowed to re-unite. Wrong. A united Germany will become a nuclear power before the end of the millennium. Wrong. Gorbachev will long continue. Wrong.
