What’s Wrong with Conspiracy Theories?

 RLTV: What's Wrong with Conspiracy Theories?

 

  

 

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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Raw Majority Power: Why Checks and Balances Matter

rawmajoritydetailAn 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.

It was a powerful argument – that the people of the State of California have the “raw power” to change the state constitution in any way that they please.

Ken Starr, an esteemed advocate, may have won the battle but lost the war when he asserted that, “the right of the people is inalienable to change their constitution through the amendment process. The people are sovereign and they can do very unwise things, and things that tug at the equality principle.”

Chief Justice Ronald George stretched Starr’s argument to explore its dimensions. He leaned in and asked a hypothetical – if Proposition 8 said that homosexuals had no right to form a family relationship or raise children, could that still be done by amendment? Starr said it could. Then George took the argument to the constitutional wall – could the voters also remove the right to free speech? Starr said yes, the voters have this right.

(Read the full article)

VIDEO: California Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Prop 8

Video includes historical background on the court – to watch video of the March 5 advance to approximately 18 minutes and 46 seconds.

Strauss et al. v. Horton (Hollingsworth et al., Interveners)
(and two other cases, S168066 Tyler et al. v. State of California et al.
(Hollingsworth et al., Interveners) and S168078 City and County of
San Francisco et al. v. Horton (Hollingsworth et al., Interveners))

The court issued an order to show cause in Strauss, Tyler, and City and County of San Francisco directing the parties to brief and argue the following issues: (1) Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution? (See Cal. Const., art. XVIII, §§ 1–4.) (2) Does Proposition 8 violate the separation of powers doctrine under the California Constitution? (3) If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?

For more case materials including the many amicus briefs and actual court filings, visit the California Supreme Court website at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/highprofile/prop8.htm

 

 

For more

Religious Persecution on the Horn of Africa (American Spectator)

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/03/religious-persecution-on-the-h

By Doug Bandow on 3.3.09 @ 6:06AM

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.

Eritrea poses an early challenge to the Obama administration. Border disputes with Ethiopia continue to threaten to flare into combat. Moreover, U.S.-Eritrean relations deteriorated steadily during the Bush years, as Asmara banned operations by the U.S. Agency for International Development and Washington imposed an arms embargo because of Eritrea’s weapons shipments to next door Somalia. Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki now has approached the Obama administration lobbying for a change in U.S. policy — expressing his hope in his congratulatory letter to Obama on his election that the U.S. will now “advance the cause of regional peace, justice and legality” — but Washington should make Eritrea’s atrocious record of religious persecution part of any dialogue.

Read more at http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/03/religious-persecution-on-the-h

In wake of Supreme Court decision, ‘clear defense needed of church-state wall’ (Des Moines Register)

The following analysis is from: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090227/OPINION03/902270335/1110

 

EXCERPT:

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.

. . .
Reading between the lines of this collection of opinions, it appears the justices worried that a decision upholding the Summum position would have the ultimate effect of forcing government bodies across the country to take down public monuments. That’s a fair concern. It’s one thing to say that all points of view should be heard in a public park; it’s another to say those views should be expressed in permanent monuments.

Whereas there is nearly an infinite amount of time and space for speeches and placards in the public square, there’s only so much room for slabs of granite. That was reasonable in this case, perhaps, but eventually the court must be more clear that government can’t use those slabs of granite to endorse one religion over others.

Read the full article at
Reading between the lines of this collection of opinions, it appears the justices worried that a decision upholding the Summum position would have the ultimate effect of forcing government bodies across the country to take down public monuments. That’s a fair concern. It’s one thing to say that all points of view should be heard in a public park; it’s another to say those views should be expressed in permanent monuments.

Whereas there is nearly an infinite amount of time and space for speeches and placards in the public square, there’s only so much room for slabs of granite. That was reasonable in this case, perhaps, but eventually the court must be more clear that government can’t use those slabs of granite to endorse one religion over others.

Reflection: The Trouble with the Future

 

–Is that you can’t see it for the present.

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. 

In terms of foretelling the future, even over the brief time span of ten years, the experts could not get it right. So why not?

“The problem with trying to see the future is the present. What we know usually overpowers our ability to see what might be coming. What is is; it has the advantage of tangible existence. This makes the present hard to shake, no matter how smart you are.” (Robert G. Kaiser of the Washington Post service in International Herald Tribune, Nov. 10, 1999.)

Makes us think about our message about the future, and our own response. Is the present also a problem to us? Does what we know overpower our ability to see what’s coming? Is the present hard to shake?

We may think we’re smart, and have the answers. But the present can fool us too, unless we’re open to the thought that the present is not the dominant factor. Of all people, we cannot let the strength of the definite present overpower the undeniable truth of a God-planned future, with all that such a future means. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV).

The Link Between Religious Freedom and Economic Freedom

Theodore Malloch has written a fascinating article that describes the link between religious and economic freedom from an international perspective.  In short, where economic freedom increases, religious freedom also tends to increase.  It follows that the inverse is also true.  As we navigate through these economically challenged times, I hope that we do not compromise our freedom, either religious or economic.  Some highlights are posted below and links to the full article (in .doc format) and a PowerPoint presentation follow.   Michael Peabody

Some highlights:

The concept of economic freedom is considerably younger than that of religious freedom. In the last four decades it has grown out of the writings of notable, mostly neo-classical, economists. Its agreed cornerstones are: personal choice rather than collective action; voluntary exchange coordinated by markets rather than allocation via the political process; freedom to enter and compete in markets; and protection of persons and their property from aggression or harm by others. While there is considerable debate on which specific policies best promote economic freedom, there is broad agreement that controls on government size, expenditures, and taxes, coupled with the right to form enterprises, and a legal structure that provides security of property, are key to its flourishing. Other important features are access to sound money, transparent capital markets, freedom to trade internationally, and minimal regulation of credit, labor, and business, especially entrepreneurship.

             . . .

The greater the diversity and number of religious practices available in a given country, the greater the competition, which in turn promotes greater interaction between religions and a higher quality “religious product,” more religious participation, and the spread of religious belief systems.

The religion market model used by Barro, Becker, and others stresses the effects of competition as well as of the way government interacts with religion and influences participation in religion, or even the extent of religious beliefs. Since secularization theories have declined, there has also been an attempt to explain the resilience and growth of religion by stressing competition and markets. There is evidence that competition among religious providers leads to a growing market for religion. The greater the diversity and number of religious practices available in a given country, the greater the competition, which in turn promotes greater interaction between religions and a higher quality “religious product,” more religious participation, and the spread of religious belief systems. Government control or monopoly religious systems lead to a low degree of religious pluralism, reduce competition, and lower church attendance.   (Emphasis added.)

 

. . .

 

Religious liberty and economic freedom draw on and encourage similar traits. New data on economic liberty and religious freedom suggest that religiously free societies encourage entrepreneurs whose new enterprises benefit themselves, their companies, employees, shareholders, consumers, stakeholders and the entire community. In other words, religiously free societies usually display the highest concentration of companies that generate prosperity and broad development. Closed religious systems foul economic development and stunt growth. Closed economic systems are unkind or worse to religious sentiments and practice. Open systems in both areas are necessary to sustain human flourishing. Hence, if we desire more economic freedom and prosperity, then we should have a strategy of promoting religious liberty. If we want economic growth and development, we need to tolerate and permit religious groups and persons to follow their beliefs. Competition for religious activity creates healthy conditions for economic competition and activity.

 

 . . .

 

The promotion of spiritual capital requires that a robust variety of religious, and secular, ideas and practices be permitted in society. It requires the give and take of discourse and practice between and across different religious groups, including the “non-religious.” Linking religious liberty and economic freedom to form enterprises of lasting value is a cause for humane people, robust economies, and enlightened nations today.

 

 

Article: http://crf.hudson.org/articledocs/FreetoChoose.doc
 
PowerPoint:  http://crf.hudson.org/articledocs/PowerpointPresentationbyTheodoreRooseveltMalloch.ppt

 

Theodore Roosevelt Malloch is chairman and CEO of the Roosevelt Group and the founder of the Spiritual Enterprise Institute. He headed consulting at Wharton-Chase Econometrics and has worked in capital markets at Salomon Brothers. He has held positions at the United Nations and has served in senior policy positions at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and in the U.S. Department of State.

Read the full article and view the PowerPoint presentation:

BREAKING NEWS: President Obama Creates New Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

By Derek H. Davis, J.D., Ph.D.

Director, UMHB Center for Religious Liberty
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Belton, Texas

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Thursday, February 5, to create the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  The office replaces the controversial Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives that  George W. Bush  created to provide government grants to churches and other faith-based organizations to administer welfare programs.   ”The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another–or even religious groups over secular groups,” Obama stated when announcing the new office at the annual National Prayer Breakfast.  The purpose, he said, “will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.” 

The president’s announcement follows his selection last week of Pentecostal minister Joshua Dubois, 26, to direct the new office.  DuBois previously directed a religious outreach program in Obama’s former Senate office and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.  DuBois also headed the Obama campaign’s religious outreach efforts, which included organizing nearly 1,000 meetings with clergy across the country to discuss how government might work with faith-based and other community groups to improve the lives of people on the margins. 

Obama now faces the task of revamping the faith-based initiative while avoiding the criticism that was frequently directed at President Bush for ignoring prevailing church-state law. 

Obama now faces the task of revamping the faith-based initiative while avoiding the criticism that was frequently directed at President Bush for ignoring prevailing church-state law.   For example, many faith groups are now waiting to see if Obama will fulfill his campaign promise to prevent religion-based hiring for federally-funded positions within faith-based organizations that receive grants.   Under Bush, faith-based groups receiving government dollars were allowed to exclusively hire those of the same faith, a practice that defied traditional law and custom. Obama said in a campaign speech last summer, “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion.”  Obama has not specified how he will handle the hiring issue, but the executive order he signed Thursday calls for collaboration between his new office and the attorney general for advice on “difficult legal and constitutional issues.” (See www.pbs.org, 2-5-09).

No previous president had been as bold as Bush in crafting a specific program that would so dramatically challenge the American principle of church-state separation.  Grants to faith-based charities during the Bush years, more than 1300 total awards, averaged more than $2 billion annually.  While campaigning last summer, Obama criticized Bush’s plan, saying it “never fulfilled its promise.” Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of the Bush plan was the way it failed, as promised, to end discrimination against religion generally and against various religious groups specifically.  When the Bush plan was first announced in 2000, well-known evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson voiced objections to the plan because it threatened “Christian America” since groups like Scientology, the Unification Church, and Wicca might receive government money.  But this concern proved toothless, since according to one study in November 2006 reported by the Boston Globe, 98.3% of all Bush administration grants to faith-based agencies from the Office of Faith Based Initiatives were awarded to Christian groups.  The practice of excluding non-Christian groups was confirmed by a former staffer in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.  David Kuo, in Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, asserted that applications for federal faith-based funds were often rejected by reviewers because they came from non-Christian applicants.   Kuo reported being told by one grant reviewer, “When I saw one of those non-Christian groups on the set I was reviewing, I just stopped looking at them and gave them a zero. A lot of us did.” (Americans United Press Release, October 12, 2006).

President Obama faces a strong challenge to administer his new office in a way that fairly and effectively distributes government grants to worthy faith-based organizations while respecting settled American law governing the interplay between church and state. 

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The mission of The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Center for Religious Liberty is to advance religious liberty for all persons, in all parts of the world, without regard to their religious, ethnic, gender, racial or national background. Religious liberty is a basic human right that must be nourished and protected by all human societies; it is the cornerstone of modern societies’ efforts to build a more peaceful world. The Center advances this mission by publishing relevant literature, hosting and sponsoring lectureships and conferences, sharing its expertise with media and other public information outlets, and partnering with other persons and groups who share the goal of advancing religious liberty.  The web site for the Center can be found at www.umhb.edu/academics/crl    

Embracing Exclusivity: How civic religion at inauguration abridges religious freedom

Michael Newdow is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to ban recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States because of its inclusion of the phrase “under God”. Most recently, he filed a lawsuit to prevent references to God and religion from being part of President Obama’s inauguration. You can read Dr. Newdow’s legal briefs and other materials at http://www.restorethepledge.com/

When we asked him if he had any editorials he would be willing to share with us, he forwarded the following essay prepared in advance of the January 2009 inauguration. While you may not agree with Dr. Newdow’s theology, his views on religious equality are thought provoking.  What do you think?  Post your comments below.  Editor


By Michael Newdow, Esq.
Posted on ReligiousLiberty.TV with the permission of the author.

In 1892, the 1/8th black Homer Plessy was convicted of violating Louisiana law by sitting in a “Whites only” railroad car. He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was upheld by an 8-1 margin. “A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races,” wrote the Court, “ … has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races.”

The lone dissenter in that case was Justice John Marshall Harlan, who refused to buy into the majority’s logic. Although it was true that whites and blacks were treated “equally” in a literal sense (since the law prohibited whites from riding in colored cars just as much as the opposite), Justice Harlan focused upon the “real meaning” of the legislation: “that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens.”

It took fifty-eight years for the Supreme Court to recognize that Justice Harlan’s view was correct. In Brown v. Board of Education, the “real meaning” of “separate but equal”– i.e., that the nation’s white majority was using the government to affirm its self-proclaimed racial superiority – was put to an end. As a result, the whole of American society changed, so much so that we now have an African American poised to become the nation’s president. Surely, Barack Obama would never have been elected had Plessy remained the law of the land.

And yet not everyone has learned the lesson of Brown, including, of all people, Barack Obama. The message that “we” in the majority are “better” than some minority to which our Constitution guarantees equality is once again about to be sent. This time, rather than with race, it is in the realm of religion, as Mr. Obama plans to continue the practice, first introduced in 1937, of having clergy espouse the view that belief in God is superior to disbelief.

Mr. Obama plans to continue the practice, first introduced in 1937, of having clergy espouse the view that belief in God is superior to disbelief.

The hypocrisy of this “tradition” might best be seen by simply reading from his inaugural committee’s website. There one can read of a “commitment to … ensure that as many Americans as possible … will be able to come together to unite the country and celebrate our common values and shared aspirations.” With the official theme being “Renewing America’s Promise,” Mr. Obama is quoted for the proposition that “in America, we rise or fall as one nation and one people. That sense of unity and shared purpose is what this Inauguration will reflect.” Thus, in this inauguration, there is alleged “a commitment to organizing activities that are inclusive.”

Mr. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, is surely aware that (as Justice Scalia has written) “government may not … lend its power to one or the other side in controversies over religious … dogma.” After all, he was teaching at the University of Chicago Law School when the Supreme Court instructed the nation that “the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer.” More importantly, having undoubtedly reviewed Justice Harlan’s dissent in Plessy on numerous occasions, the President-elect has to realize that the “real meaning” of such formal espousals of God’s supposed existence is to brand believers as “superior” and Atheists as “inferior” citizens, in precisely the same way as the “separate but equal” laws did barely half a century ago.  Actually, that’s incorrect. “Separate but equal” at least pays lip service to the notion of equality. There is nothing equal when the government explicitly chooses to place one belief system above another. It is only Monotheism that is provided with an official platform at the nation’s premier celebration.

There is nothing equal when the government explicitly chooses to place one belief system above another.

Does Mr. Obama really think that this divisive religious claim helps “to unite the country?” What message does he believe is conveyed when he asserts that proclaiming the glory of God is a “common value?” What could possibly lead him to argue that a “sense of unity and shared purpose” results from intruding into the inauguration a religious ideology that, like every religious ideology, is divisive? He’s a graduate of Harvard Law School, who must have reviewed the text and the history of the First Amendment numerous times. How can such a learned man reckon himself “inclusive” by paying homage to a Supreme Being denied by millions of those he represents?

Two months ago, when the American people chose Barack Obama to serve in the highest office in the land, it seemed that Homer Plessy’s dream had finally been realized. America, we thought then, truly stands for the justice and equality guaranteed in its Constitution. Yet, in a few days, as our new president steps up to the inaugural podium, the reality will be that government-sanctioned favoritism – now for religion, instead of race – will continue. Perhaps some day, as the leader of our nation swears “to preserve, protect and defend” the document upon which Homer Plessy’s dream was founded, he or she won’t simultaneously be ripping it … and us … apart.

ANALYSIS: The Apocalyptic struggle between Jefferson’s Wall and the Church

 

A few days ago,  January 25, 2008, we posted Dr. Robert Moon’s response to the speech by Cardinal J. Francis Stafford given to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.   Pastor Bill Cork, has granted us permission to repost his view on the subject, originally posted on his blog at http://billcork.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/stafford-on-religious-liberty/   Dr.  Cork received his  M.A. (1986) and M.Div. (1989) from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He has also has D.Min. from the Graduate Theological Foundation, and has been blogging on current issues since 2002.

At RLTV we are pleased to present thoughtful essays from a number of viewpoints, and we would like to hear yours as well.  Editor

On November 13, 2008, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, gave a speech at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in which he discussed the role of religion in public life.  It was an important speech, and critical for understanding contemporary Catholic teachings on religious liberty and the relation of church and state.

It’s a highly philosophical discussion, starting with this point, “A person’s public life is not encompassed within the State as the highest social organism, and not subject ultimately only to the political power.”

We can agree with that, I think.

But then comes this:

President Thomas Jefferson’s celebrated 1802 letter to the committee of the Danbury Baptist Association asserting “a wall of separation between Church and State” formally denied the reality of res sacra in temporalibus. He introduced a latent and powerful virus which would eventually be used to diminish and then to wound mortally a theology of discourse in the public arena. It has led to the increasingly secularized states of the American union and their active hostility towards the Catholic Church.

Does the “wall of separation” keep people of faith from acting according to their conscience? Does it keep them from having a voice in the “public square.” No. It simply means that there is freedom of religion and that no church is supported by the state. We are not now, and never have been, a “Christian nation.” But we are a nation in which Christians, Jews, and believers and unbelievers of all other kinds have always had a voice. That’s different than the secularism of Europe. But it was crafted specifically in opposition to the history of church/state relations in Europe, as supported by traditional Catholic teaching (as well as the modified forms in Anglicanism and Calvinism).

He speaks of attacks on individual conscience and blames Jefferson.

Some of these governments are threatening Roman Catholic adoption agencies because of their refusal to select same-sex couples as potential adoptive parents. They are forcing Catholic hospitals to accept medical procedures which are contrary to the dignity of the human person. They are insisting on hiring practices which will destroy the Catholic identity of health and social services under Catholic Church auspices. They have not refrained from coercing the individual conscience. Here the federal and state governments are enshrining the primacy of secular laws over against religious principles. These decisions are the legal and moral progeny of Jefferson’s insistence on debarring personal faith from the public forum.

Jefferson didn’t say that. He said there’s a wall of separation. He said there is individual freedom. He did not believe that the state should run rough-shod over the individual conscience. Stafford refers to the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, but what does it say?

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others ….

And the actual heart of the legislation:

That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Jefferson’s ideas, far from being the cause of infringement on conscience, are the remedy. Rather than rejecting them as evil, Stafford should embrace them as the proper response. This is our American heritage; it protects him as much as the Quaker, the Jehovah’s Witness. It puts all beliefs on the same playing field and says no one should suffer civilly because of their beliefs–which are not things that are for personal reflection only, but which they have the right “by argument to maintain.”

Ah, but it is the Catholic tradition against which Jefferson rails. A tradition in which one church is favored by the state, and its teachings have a privileged place. So we have to ask Stafford if this is what he is really seeking. If Jefferson’s clearly stated concepts, the foundation of American liberty, are odious to him, what does he want us to return to, the Catholic understanding of “Christendom,” against which Jefferson railed?

He doesn’t answer the question. He shifts to a his main topic, human sexuality, and the struggle between the cultural shift of the 1960s and the Catholic response, Humanae vitae.

And he does so in an apocalyptic framework. This is worth mentioning.

Furthermore, since this month, November, is the time in which the liturgy of the Church reflects on the final things – heaven, hell, purgatory and death, I will be attempting to strengthen the Catholic faithful, as St. John did in the Book of the Apocalypse, against the ever increasing pretensions of the state making itself absolute. For the next several weeks the Book of the Apocalypse will be read at daily Mass. The theme of that final book of the Bible is that the Battle of the Logos has always already been won on Calvary. In the immense conflicts associated with the teaching of Humanae Vitae, the overarching task of the Church is to make manifest for the faithful the apocalyptic victory of the Lamb in our historical time.

The emphasis is his. He sees the struggle as one between an absolute state and the Church–and the Church will triumph over the “absolute” state “in our historical time.” He sees the struggle between the Catholic understanding of church/state relations and Jefferson’s as an apocalyptic one, and is sure the Catholic ideal will triumph over Jefferson.

Stafford may be an American, but he seems to have no love for the nation or its ideals. It has moved in recent decades from being “a mansion to a dirty house in a gutted world.” It’s history is characterized by “meanness.” Roe v. Wade is just the latest step for him in a procession that includes slavery and hostility to Indians, with nary a bright spot along the way.

In today’s society, he argues, all that matters is power. Technology, politics, economics, all are tools to maintain power, without religious or philosophical moorings. Instead the human being seen as body and soul, the soul has been suppressed in the service of technology. Here’s his connection to Jefferson–Jefferson’s “wall of separation” removed the “soul” from the body politic. His separation of church and state left the state without a moral conscience. The solution for Stafford: reunite the two.

The response of the Church’s magisterium has been based on the ancient Catholic imagination recaptured happily by Pope John Paul II in his now famous phrase,”the nuptial meaning of the human body created as male and female.” The response includes “being true with the body and the soul.” … David L. Schindler in a recent paper on human sexuality summarized his first principle supporting the differentiated unity of body and soul: “The Soul as it were lends its spiritual meaning to the body as body, even as the body then, simultaneously, contributes to what now becomes in man, a distinct kind of spirit: a spirit whose nature it is to be embodied”.

He carries on the discussion with references to marriage and the Eucharist, noting that the physical is never separable from the spiritual. Salvation is not a matter of freeing the soul from the body; we are essentially human as a unity of body and soul.

The subject of moral acts is each person, a dual unity of body and soul, a psychosomatic whole. Anything that smacks of a body-soul dualism is firmly rejected. One cannot attempt to free the soul from the body. When a human being seeks the truth and the good, his body is not an afterthought or an accident or a ‘tomb’ for the soul.

This anthropology has implications for how we understand civil society, as well.

As Archbishop of Denver, in 1996 I addressed a Pastoral Letter to the people of northern Colorado on the historical importance of a culture formed by the medieval Anglo-Saxon Sarum Rite and by the even more ancient Gregorian Sacramentary. Peoples in such a culture intuitively interpreted reality through the covenantal and bridal relationship of God and creation and of Christ and the Church. Consequently, they would find absolutely inapprehensible the acceptance and promotion of homosexuality activity as a valid moral option. Such activities are a direct assault not only upon the Sacrament of marriage but also upon the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Here the emphasis is mine. This is the goal. This is his desire: that we “intuitively interpret reality through the covenantal and bridal relationship of God and creation and of Christ and the Church.”

The human spirit finds its inner completion only as something honestly externalized, since the human spirit in this life is always already embodied. The body is the externalization of the spirit.

He wants to return Catholic faith to its role as the spirit of the body politic, rendered soulless by Jefferson’s doctrine of separation of church and state. Morality can’t just come from within–that leads to relativism and subjectivism. Jefferson’s vision of a society where each person is free to argue can only lead to chaos, for Stafford. There must be an external reference in truth. He doesn’t spell out his vision, but leaves it for us to complete the analogy, quoting a medieval poem in which the separated Divine Lover pines for Man’s Soul.

In the autumn of 2008 we must begin anew with that sentiment of our medieval brother. Quia amore langueo. With Jesus we are sick because of love toward those with whom we are so tragically and unavoidably at variance. The reader has now become one with the narrator who is addressed in line one as “Dear Soul”. As Humanae Vitae with the whole Catholic tradition teaches, we are to “be true with body and soul”.

Stafford expresses well traditional Catholic teaching on the relationship of Church and State. His talk is in harmony with the teaching of Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quas primas (November 12, 1925), establishing the Feast of Christ the King in the Catholic calendar, by which he sought to exalt Christ’s “necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created,” through the application of Christian principles to secular government. Stafford’s criticisms of American society echo those made by Pius XI of the western world in general, and identify the same root problem:

What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day. “With God and Jesus Christ,” we said, “excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.”

Stafford’s criticisms of American church/state separation likewise echo complaints made by prior popes. Consider, for example, Pope Gregory XVI,Mirari Vos (15 Aug 1832):

14. This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. “But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say.21 When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly “the bottomless pit”22] is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws–in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Likewise, Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura (8 Dec 1864):

4. And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that “the people’s will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right.” But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests?

Later in the 19th century, Leo XIII wrote Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, denouncing “Americanism,” fearful that its teachings (freedom of thought, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, even democracy) might infect the Church.

But, beloved son, in this present matter of which we are speaking, there is even a greater danger and a more manifest opposition to Catholic doctrine and discipline in that opinion of the lovers of novelty, according to which they hold such liberty should be allowed in the Church, that her supervision and watchfulness being in some sense lessened, allowance be granted the faithful, each one to follow out more freely the leading of his own mind and the trend of his own proper activity. They are of opinion that such liberty has its counterpart in the newly given civil freedom which is now the right and the foundation of almost every secular state. …

These dangers, viz., the confounding of license with liberty, the passion for discussing and pouring contempt upon any possible subject, the assumed right to hold whatever opinions one pleases upon any subject and to set them forth in print to the world, have so wrapped minds in darkness that there is now a greater need of the Church’s teaching office than ever before, lest people become unmindful both of conscience and of duty.

Some thought that Catholic teaching on religious liberty was changed by the Vatican 2 document Dignitatis Humanae. Let us be clear about the teaching of the Council. It affirmed religious freedom, that is, “immunity from coercion.” But it insisted on the Church’s right to a place in civil society. Here is a key paragraph:

Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.

During his 2008 visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI frequently praised the American tradition of religious liberty–but carefully avoided mentioning separation of church and state. He emphasized that religious liberty is not merely a right of the individual conscience, but also must include the right of Christians and churches to freedom of action in the public sphere. See, for example, his remarks to the UN:

It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order. Indeed, they actually do so, for example through their influential and generous involvement in a vast network of initiatives which extend from Universities, scientific institutions and schools to health care agencies and charitable organizations in the service of the poorest and most marginalized. Refusal to recognize the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute – by its nature, expressing communion between persons – would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would fragment the unity of the person.

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was simply the theologian, Joseph Ratzinger, spoke often of a “hermeneutic of continuity,” meaning that the Second Vatican Council should be interpreted in harmony with prior teaching, not as a new break. Cardinal Stafford’s talk gives us insight into how the Council’s teachings on religious liberty can be understood in continuity. The state cannot coerce the conscience, while at the same time it  must give freedom to the Church to teach and guide those consciences and social policy. The Church claims to be the sole authoritative teacher of truth; it sees that its moral teachings will triumph over all societies in the “social reign of Christ the King.” It sees this as the solution to the crisis of the contemporary world.

Let’s be careful, then, that we speak not only of religious liberty, but that we uphold the American tradition of separation of church and state as well. It has served us well. It allows individuals to be guided by their own religious teachings and morals, but it does not give a privileged place to any church. It affirms the freedom of individuals to believe, and to act in accordance with those beliefs, without fear. If that freedom is threatened–and I agree with Stafford that it is–then the solution is not to tear down the wall, but to build it even higher.

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April 13th, 2010

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.

Conference Held to Relaunch Protection of Work-Free Sunday at European Level (ARLP)
April 13th, 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 [...]

Gendercide: China’s shameful massacre of unborn girls means there will soon be 30m more men than women (Daily Mail)
April 10th, 2010

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 [...]

John Paul Stevens Retires from Supreme Court (AP)
April 10th, 2010

Americans United Praises Justice Stevens’ Record On Church And State
April 9th, 2010

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.

Church-state advocates urge strong successor for Stevens (ABP)
April 9th, 2010

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 [...]

Soldiers Fight a Battle of Conscience
April 9th, 2010

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 [...]

French PM advised against total Islamic veil ban
April 6th, 2010

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 [...]

HISTORICAL SKETCH: Roger Williams, Apostle Of Religious Freedom
April 6th, 2010

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.”

RLTV PODCAST: Ryan Bell – “I’m a Social Justice Christian”
April 5th, 2010

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.

 PODCAST: Ryan Bell - "I'm a Social Justice Christian" [8:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Video: Oregon Governor Repeals Ban on Teachers’ Religious Dress
April 2nd, 2010

Oregon Governor Signs Bill Repealing Ban on Teachers’ Religious Dress
April 1st, 2010

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.

Maryland State Legislature considers a Workplace Religious Freedom Act (HB 381)
March 31st, 2010

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 [...]

Should Europe recognize Sunday as the official day of rest? (BBC Video)
March 30th, 2010

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 [...]

Arrests Made in Christian Militia Police-Killing Plot (CBN)
March 29th, 2010

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 [...]

NJ county’s Sunday buying ban may be checking out (AP)
March 29th, 2010

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 [...]

Stephen Colbert Tests Columbia Prof On Textbooks (Comedy Central)
March 25th, 2010

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. [...]

9th Circuit Upholds the Term ‘God’ in Pledge and on Currency
March 21st, 2010

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.

9th Circuit Holds ‘Ministerial Exception’ Bars Seminarian Employment Case
March 21st, 2010

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
March 18th, 2010

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
March 17th, 2010

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 [...]

Texas education board rejects in-depth study of First Amendment (DallasNews.com)
March 12th, 2010

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 [...]

RLTV Podcast: Martin Surridge on Swiss Minarets and the French Burqa Ban
March 9th, 2010

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 | Download

Religious Tension Leads to Clashes in Jerusalem (From Al Jazeera English)
March 8th, 2010

Conference to Relaunch ‘Sunday Protection’ at European Level to be Held (COMECE)
March 5th, 2010

At 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 [...]

Tension over Religious Sites Leaves Dozens Hurt in Jerusalem Clashes
March 5th, 2010

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 [...]

Faith Healing Couple Guilty of Murder
March 3rd, 2010

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 [...]

The Winter Olympics and Inequality in Global Athletics
March 3rd, 2010

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 [...]

RLTV PODCAST: Jason Hines on The Church, Same-Sex Marriage, and Public Policy
February 26th, 2010

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 | Download

UN condemns Gaddafi jihad call
February 26th, 2010

EXCERPT 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 [...]

Oregon Legislature Ends Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress – Goes to Governor for Signature
February 25th, 2010

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 [...]

Washington House of Representatives Attempts to Facilitate Union Take-Over of Religious Child Care Centers
February 24th, 2010

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.

HISTORY: Nine Children Face an Angry Town (Adventist Review)
February 23rd, 2010

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 [...]

Obama speaks up for Tibetans, but in a hushed voice (India Times)
February 19th, 2010

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
February 13th, 2010

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.

RLTV PODCAST: Monte Sahlin on How to Help Haiti
February 10th, 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 [...]

 Monte Sahlin: How to Help Haiti [9:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Oregon House Votes to Repeal Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress
February 10th, 2010

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 [...]

The European Attack on Religious Liberty
February 8th, 2010

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.

Haiti Quake Report (ADRA)
February 7th, 2010

First hand reports of Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s assistance to the earthquake victims of Haiti. Visit ADRA.org for more information.

Russia plan to “kick out cults” could also affect religious freedom (RT)
February 6th, 2010

The damage of the anti-vaccine movement (Los Angeles Times)
February 6th, 2010

Childhood diseases once mostly eradicated are making a comeback. And children are dying.

RLTV PODCAST: Martin Surridge on the Decline of Islamic Terrorism
February 1st, 2010

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.

 The Decline of Terrorism - Martin Surridge [8:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Some Thoughts on the Implications of the Same-Sex Marriage Trial for Religious Minorities
January 31st, 2010

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.

RLTV PODCAST: Attorney Karen Scott on the Current Problem of Human Trafficking in the United States
January 29th, 2010

Michael Peabody interviews  Karen Scott about the  problem of modern day slavery and human trafficking in the United States.

 Standard Podcast [9:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Bumper Music: “What’s the Matter with the World” by C Sharp.  Music obtained through MusicAlley.com.

Is the Era of Large-Scale Islamic Terrorism Coming to an End?
January 25th, 2010

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 [...]

RLTV PODCAST: Scott Ritsema on the Gun Sight Controversy
January 25th, 2010

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.

 Scott Ritsema on the Gun Sight Controversy [10:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
BUMPER MUSIC:  ”Guns or Butter” performed by [...]

Muzzle Flash Evangelism: Outrage over Biblical References on Military Gun Sights (From ABC News)
January 21st, 2010

Walla Walla – Shelter for Freedom Screens Documentary Film “Cargo: Innocence Lost”
January 21st, 2010

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 [...]

Spiritually transformed killing machines of Christ (Civics News)
January 20th, 2010

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 [...]

VIDEO – Pat Robertson Gives Religion A Bad Name With His Disaster Comments – CNN
January 16th, 2010

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, [...]

Pat Robertson, the Earthquake in Haiti, and the Righteousness of God
January 15th, 2010

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.

Blue Laws and Sunday Legislation-why do they exist? CNN Video
January 13th, 2010

A video describing some of the religious and secular rationale behind American Sunday blue laws.

‘Aye, those be slighting words against the Lord:’ Ireland’s blasphemy law (National Post)
January 10th, 2010

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, [...]

Pope Benedict: “the Great Consolidator” (American Spectator)
January 10th, 2010

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 [...]

Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves (AP)
December 23rd, 2009

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 Westney Passes Away
December 18th, 2009

      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 [...]

Event “Slavery: The Fight We Thought Was Over” – Walla Walla – January 14-18, 2010
December 15th, 2009

    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 Movie
December 15th, 2009

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 [...]

Jan Paulsen on Freedon
December 12th, 2009

Pastor Jan Paulsen, world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church discusses freedom as a foundational value for human dignity.

Faith, Freedom, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor (Liberty Magazine)
December 10th, 2009

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 [...]

Michigan Church Has the Right to Help Poor People, ACLU Tells Court (ACLU Release)
December 10th, 2009

“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.”

China and a Canadian Newspaper call for worldwide one-child policy
December 10th, 2009

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 [...]

Pastor Boissoin’s Lawyer: Case Will Positively Impact Religious Freedom in Canada (LifeSiteNews)
December 7th, 2009

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 [...]

The Manhattan Declaration: Approach with Caution
December 7th, 2009

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.

Huckabee and Colson on the Manhattan Declaration
December 3rd, 2009

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: Rigid Sunday law used against Scientology which is considered “business” by gov’t. (Der Spiegel)
December 3rd, 2009

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 [...]

Interview with Jeff Sharlet: The Secret Political Reach Of ‘The Family’ (National Public Radio)
November 24th, 2009

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 [...]

The Dangerous Idea of Protecting Religions from “Defamation” (USCIRF)
November 22nd, 2009

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, [...]

INTERVIEW: John Marcotte, Author of the 2010 California Protection of Marriage Act
November 17th, 2009

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 [...]

Calif. Initiative Round-up – Outlawing Divorce, Legalizing Pot, and Christmas Music
November 17th, 2009

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 [...]

US court rules against “I Believe” car license plates (APD)
November 17th, 2009

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.

UK – Health and safety snoops to enter family homes (TimesOnline)
November 16th, 2009

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 [...]

Washington DC – New Turn in Debate Over Law on Marriage (The New York Times)
November 16th, 2009

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 [...]

House Healthcare Vote – A Huge Triumph for the Catholic Church (America Magazine)
November 16th, 2009

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, [...]

A Church Scorned: Church, State, Marriage, and the Quest for Power
November 11th, 2009

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 [...]

Scholarship contest asks high school students to revisit JFK speech on separation of church and state
November 9th, 2009

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 [...]

Religious freedom requires Baptists to hold in tension certain principles (The Baptist Standard)
November 9th, 2009

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 [...]

PBS Series “Liberty’s Kids” Now on YouTube
November 3rd, 2009

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/

HISTORY: Sousa’s Band Under Ban of Sunday Blue Law
November 1st, 2009

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.

Sec. Clinton condemns “Religious Defamation” laws and addresses international issues in annual Religious Freedom Report
October 27th, 2009

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 [...]

OPINION: When Did “Conservative” Become Anarchist?
October 27th, 2009

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.

Texas execution looms after jury consult Bible (Amnesty International)
October 21st, 2009

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 [...]

What’s Wrong with Conspiracy Theories?
October 19th, 2009

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.

Northwest Religious Liberty Association Honors Oregon Speaker Dave Hunt
October 16th, 2009

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 [...]

Colbert on Religious Symbol on Government Land
October 15th, 2009

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.

Why America should not be declared a “Christian Nation”
September 24th, 2009

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.

Faith in Context: President Obama & Faith-based Initiatives
September 12th, 2009

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.

Chris Seiple: Religious Freedom: The Ultimate Counterterrorism Weapon?
September 4th, 2009

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.

Pope Benedict XVI on Religious Freedom (CNA)
September 3rd, 2009

A short Catholic News Agency overview of international religious persecution and the importance of preserving religious freedom.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Undergo Persecution in the former Soviet Union
September 3rd, 2009

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.”

3 states still ban religious clothing for teachers (Associated Press)
September 2nd, 2009

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 [...]

Civil Rights Pioneer E.E. Cleveland talks about meeting Martin Luther King, Jr.
September 1st, 2009

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 [...]

Religion in Public Schools: Academic, Not Devotional (J. Brent Walker – Washington Post)
September 1st, 2009

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, [...]

Adventist Golfer put his faith ahead of on-course success (Tulsa World)
August 28th, 2009

 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 [...]

Religious-freedom groups mourn Kennedy, cite church-state views (ABP)
August 28th, 2009

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 [...]

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet (CNET)
August 28th, 2009

  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. [...]

‘We have so many uncanonised martyrs’ – Christians in Pakistan are living in daily fear of violence from extremists (Catholic Herald)
August 21st, 2009

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 on media indifference to international religious freedom
August 21st, 2009

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 [...]

Open Forum: What does religious freedom mean to you?
August 16th, 2009

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 [...]

Tennesee governor signs Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law
August 16th, 2009

  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 [...]

Arthur Caplan – The Bioethics of Engineering Children
August 9th, 2009

First religious liberty festival in Jerusalem draws hundreds (ANN)
August 9th, 2009

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 [...]

Baptists Mark 400th Anniversary, Celebrate Religious Freedom (BeliefNet)
August 9th, 2009

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 [...]

When work and religion collide
July 21st, 2009

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 [...]

Governor signs Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act
July 21st, 2009

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, [...]

Justice Department Files Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Against Essex County, New Jersey (DOJ Release)
July 19th, 2009

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.

SB 786: Workplace Religious Freedom Act
July 17th, 2009

Speaker Dave Hunt delivers a floor speech on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signs the Workplace Religious Freedom Act
July 17th, 2009

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 [...]

Oregon law is too strict on teachers’ religious garb (Oregonian)
July 17th, 2009

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 [...]

Law Professor Alan Brownstein on California marriage debate (Liberty Magazine)
July 15th, 2009

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.

Shabbat in Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King
July 10th, 2009

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
July 3rd, 2009

July 2009 News and Opinion – The Economy, Marriage, and More Posted using ShareThis

Bronwyn Winter: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate
July 3rd, 2009

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 Baker: Demonisation and Witch Hunts in Religion and Politics
July 3rd, 2009

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 [...]

Jerusalem: The Pope in Search of Christians (LinkTV)
June 28th, 2009

(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.

Religion, Politics, and the 2008 Election
June 25th, 2009

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: [...]

Mormonism & American Politics: Noah Feldman
June 10th, 2009

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.

Economics: Lawrence W. Reed on the Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy
June 9th, 2009

  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 [...]

Russian President may push ‘new world currency’…
June 9th, 2009

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 [...]

Reza Aslan: The Future of Religious Nationalism
June 3rd, 2009

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.

1967 U.S. Supreme Court Decision sheds light on California marriage debate
June 1st, 2009

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.

Doug Kmiec on a Court Packed with Catholics (Wall Street Journal)
June 1st, 2009

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 [...]

Oregon House of Representatives passes Workplace Religious Freedom Act
June 1st, 2009

SB 786 has passed both houses of the legislature and is now on the Governor’s Desk.

The dangers of relinquishing liberty for a quiet and “safe” life
May 29th, 2009

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 [...]

Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor’s rulings on religious issues
May 26th, 2009

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.

On the Table
May 20th, 2009

 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 [...]

China and Brazil Plan to Dump Dollar (FT)
May 19th, 2009

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 [...]

US Commission on International Religious Freedom Issues 2009 Report – 13 Nations of concern
May 12th, 2009

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 [...]

TURKMENISTAN: Old “offences” still used to punish current religious activity (Forum 18)
May 12th, 2009

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 [...]

Around the globe, religious freedom under assault (Read it News)
May 12th, 2009

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 [...]

Pope urges religious reconciliation (Al Jazeera)
May 12th, 2009

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 Freedom Week – CBN.com
May 8th, 2009

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

Oregon Senate Passes Workplace Religious Freedom Act
May 7th, 2009

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 [...]

Preliminary Analysis: Congress Passes Hate Crime Legislation
May 1st, 2009

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 [...]

ANALYSIS: European Sunday Weekly Rest Day Legislation Remains Unlawful
April 29th, 2009

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.

Interview: Scott Ritsema talks about his new book “The Way, the Truth and the Sword”
April 24th, 2009

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 [...]

Richard Land and Jim Wallis: Faith and Politics
April 13th, 2009

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

Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee hears testimony on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act
April 13th, 2009

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 [...]

Canada: Fundraisers planned for Alberta pastor punished for expressing beliefs
April 7th, 2009

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 [...]

Alan Greenspan: Gold and Economic Freedom (1966)
April 5th, 2009

[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 [...]

London Telegraph Describes G20 Plan For Bank Of The World, Global Currency
April 3rd, 2009

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 [...]

UN Human Rights Council approves proposal for limits on religious speech
March 29th, 2009

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 [...]

EXCERPTS: Douglas Laycock on dangers of protecting liberty ‘only for ourselves’ (Baptist Joint Committee)
March 26th, 2009

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 [...]

Documentary: The End of America by Naomi Wolf
March 24th, 2009

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 [...]

Obama puts believers and non-believers on the same footing in speeches (WSJ)
March 23rd, 2009

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 [...]

Benedict XVI to release encyclical outlining moral and social issues behind economic crisis
March 23rd, 2009

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 [...]

World Trends in Religious Freedom – Hudson Institute
March 22nd, 2009

Dayton Tennessee Christian School Sued by U.S. Department of Labor (ASINet)
March 17th, 2009

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.

Raw Majority Power: Why Checks and Balances Matter
March 17th, 2009

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.

CLASSIC: The Proper Relation of Church and State
March 10th, 2009

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?”

PRECEDENT – A century ago religious groups tried to change the California Constitution to enact a religious law
March 7th, 2009

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.

AUDIO: Karen Scott – “Rethinking the Premise of Religious Liberty”
March 7th, 2009

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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Obama makes plans to remove ‘conscience clause’ for health-care workers
March 6th, 2009

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.

VIDEO: California Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Prop 8
March 5th, 2009

Watch the March 5, 2009 proceedings and read the briefs on both sides of this contentious issue.

Senator – Conservative and Christian broadcasters could still be threatened by proposed broadcast regulations (KIITV)
March 5th, 2009

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.

Religious Persecution on the Horn of Africa (American Spectator)
March 4th, 2009

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.

Emotion, misunderstanding mark religion-in-school cases (The Tennessean)
March 4th, 2009

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.

In wake of Supreme Court decision, ‘clear defense needed of church-state wall’ (Des Moines Register)
February 27th, 2009

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.

Soros sees no bottom for world financial “collapse” (Reuters)
February 22nd, 2009

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.

Reflection: The Trouble with the Future
February 22nd, 2009

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.