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Rage or Courage?: YouTube Terrorism Take Two

…well as their bodies and their polities, are shackled; they will never be free unless or until they embrace freedom as an absolute, unqualified good. In light of this genealogy, one must recognize the beguiling simplicity of the blame game—that ‘rage’ is entirely the problem of those enraged. They are not like us. They take religion to be a sacred cow, while we know that freedom of expression is the first, fundamental, basis of democracy, and tha…

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Blankets, Booties, and Jesus: Spiritual War on the Uterus in Rick Perry’s Texas

…ders must meet are “maintain[ing] a pro-life mission and agree[ing] not to promote, refer, or counsel in favor of abortion or abortifacients as an option to a crisis or unplanned pregnancy” and “agree[ing] not to promote the teaching or philosophy of any religion while providing services to the client.” Yet most, if not all, of the centers maintain that Christian faith is central to their mission. Many are affiliated with Care Net, which describes…

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NPR Gives a Free Pass to Biblical Literalists

…not ceded and will never cede the Bible to those who devoutly want God’s Word and God’s will to align with their own prejudice. NPR should be embarrassed to broadcast an ostensibly analytic piece that concludes by giving a free pass to the literalists and by reinforcing the notion that those of us who read the Bible for its core message are really not reading it at all. Eagerly awaiting the next pledge drive, (Rev.) Peter Laarman Los Angeles…

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Don’t Let Bigoted Campaigns Sour You to the Revolutionary Idea of Religious Freedom

…remaining unburdened by the many contemporary issues related to religious freedom. Those promoting the model resolution include BJC (The Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty), and organizations from American Atheists to The Interfaith Alliance and the American Humanist Association—all of which are members of the Blitz Watch Coalition, which was formed to combat the Christian nationalist and Dominionist state legislative campaign called Pr…

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Supreme Court Rules Religion is Special… This Time

…ly is special. This is why the First Amendment grants us both the right to free speech and the right to the free exercise of religion—because speech and religion are not the same thing. I think the Founders were right. The basic principle that the free exercise of religion requires that government should refrain as much as possible from getting involved in ecclesiastical decisions is surely sound. For the same reason, on the other hand, we must st…

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Gordon Gekko Gets God: The Heritage Foundation of Theology

…e the facts of chemistry or astronomy. But too many Christian leaders feel free to ignore the basic facts of economics. Indeed. Or the Bible. Richards uses the old false dichotomy technique to make his case that free-market capitalism is fully consistent with Jesus’ teachings and Christian tradition. He wants to save us from believing either that private accumulation is “bad” and causes much of the world’s suffering, or that “God wants you to pros…

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LGBTQ Equality Pendulum “Abruptly” Swinging Back as Religious Exemptions Gain Victories

…orms of speech. While Miller’s attorneys based their arguments on both the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the Constitution, Judge Lampe declined to comment on the latter “because the case is sufficiently resolved upon Free Speech grounds.” But his ruling made clear that Miller denied service to the lesbian couple because she “is a practicing Christian and considers herself a woman of deep faith.” Not long after Judge Lampe exempted Mille…

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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Historian’s Latest Reveals the Problem with Today’s ‘Religious Freedom’

…than a historical summation, described by Rakove thusly: “Disestablishment promoted free exercise, and free exercise made establishment superfluous.” Beyond Belief recounts this history, and, while Rakove touches on the present, his focus is the past. But it’s impossible to read Beyond Belief and not notice that, in their desperation to “make America great again” Trump, Pence, and the other Christian nationalist politicians and judges have turned…

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Are Kosher Delis Like Catholic Hospitals?

…other words, Soloveichik charged the administration with trampling on the Free Exercise rights of employers while ignoring the wrong of religious coercion of their employees. Sarna, who writes that he hopes Congress will ignore Soloveichik’s testimony, shines light on how Soloveichik and the other Issa witnesses ignored the Establishment Clause in favor of the Free Exercise Clause: In fact, the government makes no such assumption at all. Instead,…

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What’s So Troubling About Funding a Playground? How Trinity Lutheran Undermines the First Amendment

…affirmative, finding that the Missouri policy violated Trinity Lutheran’s free exercise rights by forcing the church to choose between its religious identity and participation in a government benefit program. In an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court held “the Department’s policy expressly discriminates against otherwise eligible recipients by disqualifying them from a public benefit solely because of their religious character… such a pol…

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