Big week for religion in the Supreme Court. First, the court struck down the Chicago hand gun ban. Religious? Of course. In gun culture, guns are invested with all sorts of sacred American significance: individuality, liberty, power. More obviously, the court ruled that the Hastings College of Law did not violate the First Amendment when it withdrew funding from the Christian Legal Society. At The Atlantic, Wendy Kaminer argued that “private religious groups have essential First Amendment rights to exclude heretics; public officials have an obligation to protect them.” The LA Times seems to agree with her. Over at the Huffington Post, Adam Goldstein argues that it’s not about damage to the CLS, rather, “the rationale of this opinion could end up doing more violence to student expression rights than any decision in the last 22 years.” But RD’s own Sarah Posner and Candace Chellew-Hodge point out how the ruling is a civil rights victory.
Meanwhile, on capital hill Elana Kagan faced the Senate Judiciary Committee. Did her nomination signal the “Triumphant Decline of the WASP”? Maybe, but she still had to sit in front of a bunch of them and answer questions about Chinese food and Christmas. But is Kagan’s Jewishness being used against her? Or, as Joanna Brooks noted, could it help her win over Orrin Hatch?
The United Methodist Church has lifted its sanctions on the Claremont School of Theology. Claremont had announced it would begin training Muslim imams and Jewish rabbis alongside its usual Christian pastors. For Daniel Schultz, Claremont’s situations reflects “the agony of the seminary.”
Secularization has been a theme this week. The Immanent Frame has been debating it. The Pope is going to create a new office to fight it. And last week’s secular billboards have been vandalized. It’s causing problems in Europe too. Italy objected to a European courts ruling that bans crucifixes from school classrooms. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said the crucifix teaches students to love and respect others and asked “How could someone not share such a symbol?” Like crucifixes in Italy, Muslim veils are facing bans in many European states. The Council of Europe urged countries to reconsider and passed a resolution stating that all-out bans on the veil violate women’s human rights. Some folks are even asking “Should I Quit My Religion?” And if you’re an atheist looking for a way to get the kids out of the house, think about Camp Quest, a camp for kids of “atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other nonbelievers, though kids from religious families are welcome, too.”
Speaking of leaving religion, Liberty University removed Ergun Caner as dean of the seminary after questions arose regarding his Muslim background. Apparantly, Liberty wasn’t sure if and how Caner left his former tradition. Caner’s removal prompted RD’s Hussein Rashid to ask, “does one have to be an ex-Muslim to be a good Christian?”
The Gulf oil spill continues to generate a response among conservative Christians. Governors and churchgoers throughout the region continue to turn to God in prayers asking for help. Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Baptist Theological Seminar keeps up his evangelical crusade to go green. But at First Things, R. R. Reno asks, why all this evangelical fuss now? And what is especially Christian about Christian ecology? Lauri Lebo points out that not everyone involved in the cleanup is an evangelical Christian. Some of them just used to be.
Malaysia is abuzz about the new hit reality series Young Imam. The winner of the show gets a scholarship, a job at a Kuala Lampur mosque, and a free trip to Mecca. On American TV, Fox’s comedy Glee will be adding a Christian character.
