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Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History

By Lauri Lebo

…at teaching this nation’s Christian heritage. “This is a guy talking about freedom of religion as part of the history of the United States,” said Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network. “And what happened to Ann Hutchinson is why separation of church and state is so important. And now they want that example taken out of the standards.” “It’s a perfect example of censoring ideas you don’t like and distorting history to feed an agenda.” Panel Leader…

Global LGBT Recap: Homogeopolitics; Dalai Lama Says Gay is OK; Pope Says Civil Unions May Be

By Peter Montgomery

…of U.S. Freedom to Discriminate Debate While Americans debated “religious freedom” or “freedom to discriminate” laws, a British politician, Lewes councilor Donna Edmunds, got into hot water suggesting that business owners should be free to refuse to provide services to women and gays. After an outcry, she said she regretted her comments: “I in no way endorse any form of discrimination. I believe in cutting red tape for business and I also strongl…

George Weigel’s Revisionist History Casts Vatican II as a Christian Nationalist Handbook

By Patricia Miller

…igious Freedom, which declared the “right of the human person to religious freedom,” including the right to be free from government coercion of religious practice or belief. Weigel quotes approvingly from Wojtyla who said during the council that “the right of religious freedom must always be tethered to the responsibility to seek and adhere to the truth, including the truth about God.” In other words, religious freedom must be oriented to the “tru…

Is Proselytizing Ever Okay? Are We All Proselytizing All The Time?

By Chrissy Stroop

…ating my religion,” you should feel free to tell them that their religious freedom ends where your own religious freedom and moral autonomy begin. The fundamental fact remains that you haven’t asked them to change their mind about anything; you’ve only asked them to leave you alone. If we want to have a functional pluralist society at all, we need people, broadly, to respect such boundaries. Stalking and harassment shouldn’t get a pass simply beca…

RD Turns Six: What’s New, What’s Next…

By The Editors

…rades to the site—an enhanced reading experience, better integration with social media, peace on earth. (We’ll be updating via our newsletter, here.) It’s our birthday, but it’s you who deserve the party (and the gluten-free, kosher, vegan, cruelty-free cake). Thank you for reading, for writing, and for your thoughtful and dynamic engagement with the ever-evolving question of religion in public life and culture. Yours, The Eds. …

Hell 101: A Back-to-School Reflection on the Persistence of Belief in Eternal Punishment

By Hollis Phelps

…ial, though often disavowed, supplement to grace: even though salvation is free one must still work hard to run the race well. It’s easy to be dismissive of such beliefs, to chalk them up to superstition. But such simplistic dismissals aren’t very helpful or interesting in the long run. I’m sure there are many reasons why hell lingers in the religious imaginary, and belief in hell is certainly overdetermined. But what I find interesting is the way…

Is it Okay to Celebrate the Death of Rush Limbaugh — or Should We Let the Dead Judge the Dead?

By Daniel Schultz

…, is more than a little too rich. Which does not mean that Limbaugh gets a free pass. The Christian injunction against judgment gives no exemption from being held accountable for one’s misdeeds, even in death. Christians hold back on judging others because we are taught that all—all—have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You and I might be able to stand taller before God than Rush Limbaugh, but so can an ant over an aphid when viewed fr…

Hagee and McCain Part Ways

By Ira Chernus

…ed States. But we might remind our European friends that a political arena free from religious concerns is the exception to the global rule. Even among their own “I” nations, while Iceland’s politics may maintain a secular purity, Ireland and Italy are decidedly more complicated cases. Which is all prelude to reflecting on this electoral season’s “pastor wars,” now mercifully in abeyance, but liable to heat up again at any time. Linking one’s poli…

David Brat: Catholic, Calvinist, and Libertarian, Oh My!

By Julie Ingersoll

…this called this “theocratic libertarianism”: it creates an economic zone free of government regulation, but it does not create a zone free of the regulations of religion. This is the model in which care for the poor is the responsibility of the family and the church and any government safety net is labelled “socialism.” It is the model in which education is the sole responsibility of families, leading to the goal of eliminating public education…

RDBook: Whither the Religious Left?

By Bill Berkowitz

…m hordes that drive the work of say, John Hagee, and his ideology is about free market fundamentalism more than it is about overt religious and political triumphalism. This, along with an avuncular personality gives him an image of moderation that will fit more comfortably with the corporate wings of both major parties. Only a few years ago John McCain denounced Falwell and Robertson as “agents of intolerance“ while Warren claims both McCain and O…