Religion Dispatches
…ally business groups—have the most influence. The lowdown is that American policy is indeed largely determined by securities and investment companies, oil companies and Big Pharma. A close second are professional organizations like the Association of Trial Lawyers, the Health Insurance Association and the (less-than-scary but apparently influential) Independent Insurance Agents of America. What does this have to do with religion? Well, the study a…
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…litical groups at public schools. The courts consistently upheld the DOE’s policy—until 2001. The Supreme Court’s 2001 ruling in Good News Club v. Milford Central School changed everything, opening up new possibilities for the Bronx Household of Faith to challenge the City’s policy, and the court proceedings began anew. The Good News Club decision created a new legal theory for opponents of church-state separation. The Court held that religion is…
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…You are not. When liberals appeal to a shared religious identity to guide policy decisions, then, the argument becomes about the faith, not the policy. Jim Wallis has been talking about all the scripture passages concerning the poor for like 40 years, and it hasn’t changed much of anything, because conservatives don’t understand the priorities the same way. It turns out that if you want someone to change a political position, about the worst thin…
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…out of public politics extends to his own hesitance to prescribe specific policy solutions to the current stalemate between “religious freedom” and LGBT rights. During a two-hour conversation with RD, Mero repeatedly sidestepped requests to clearly identify the dividing line between these two camps, suggesting that state and local governments should navigate these issues independently, ideally without the interference of faith-based groups. “I wo…
Read More…tts of companies that fail to meet its standards of “decency,” Fischer (no policy wonk, despite being director of “Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy”) has taken the public rhetoric to a new, ugly level. According to former employees of the AFA, the views represented by Fischer are not only tolerated within the organization, but any opposition to its anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant invective—including reliance on white nativist…
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…cit with Ellis out of the way. Selective prosecution According to Baylor’s policy for tenured faculty, grounds for dismissal include: “Failure to perform assigned University duties in a competent manner”; “Repeated failure to comply with University policies”; “Gross abuse of trust in faculty-student relationship”; or “Misconduct involving moral turpitude, conduct constituting a felony under state or federal law, intemperance in the use of alcoholi…
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…ights, including LGBTI rights, “at the heart of the European Neighbourhood Policy.” The ENP organises relationships between the EU and its closest Eastern and Southern neighbours*, and has a budget of more than €15 billion (2014-2020), part of which goes to civil society. The policy was set up after the 2004 enlargement round, with the objective of creating a “ring of friends” around the European Union. Ulrike Lunacek MEP, Co-President of the Inte…
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…omes pregnant from a rape. I think most don’t particularly care that their policy decisions can impact what control a woman does or doesn’t have over her own body. But if Mourdock believes that God creates all life and that to end a life created by God is murder, then all abortion is murder, regardless of the circumstances in which a pregnancy came about. But in her attempt to accuse liberal critics of misreading Mourdock, Sullivan misreads Mourdo…
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…o make sure LGBTQ+ students were being well advocated for by reversing the policy and removing the ban.” The resolution passed by a 2/3 vote, and, after some delay, was accepted by the board. According to Cayla Hailwood, a queer senior who was instrumental in drafting the SGA resolution, “LGBTQ+ students definitely take this as a victory.” Hailwood doesn’t just cite the fact of the policy change itself, but also “the opportunity for more discussio…
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…s. In other words, if right-wing Christians can’t exert total control over policy in a particular area, they will try to create their own alternative in which they can exert total control, if that’s at all possible (all while repeating ad nauseam, of course, that “God is in control”). To be sure, it has proven possible to carve out these enclaves while simultaneously attempting to exert control over society and policy outside them, as we see today…
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