Religion Dispatches
…agency) issues a rule that requires any organization that offers the poor free meals to include meat on its menu, with the single exception of religious organizations that offer only coreligionists free meals. In the statement announcing the new requirement, the government points out that most people do eat meat, and that most doctors believe meat is good for you in the right amounts, since it provides important nutrients that are difficult to fi…
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…uslim worshippers last month in New Zealand, and the 2015 murder of nine African-American Christian worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina. In Earnest’s twisted worldview, “every Jew is responsible for the meticulously planned genocide of the European race,” and he scapegoats Jews as the “root cause” of every progressive movement he opposes, from feminism to immigration reform. As is true for the alt-right as a whole, Earnest’s xenophobia refle…
Read More…Restoration Act, not on the plaintiffs’ claims under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise, Establishment, and Free Speech clauses. Under that standard, the court determined that the Newlands and Hercules would suffer a substantial burden on their free exercise of religion should they be required to provide contraception coverage under their self-insurance that that provide to the company’s employees, and that the government had not implemented the…
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…girl” who was deceived by a violent and unscrupulous husband, which helped promote identification with audiences. Today, however, such profiles are supplemented by actual visuals. Images of hard-working and non-threatening gay couples with their children enhance that audience identification even further. I’m interested in your observation that religion is a “malleable tool” where marriage debates are concerned. Right now the UCC church in North Ca…
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…vilize the wilderness, bringing order where there once was only chaos. The free American must always face danger lurking somewhere “out there,” beyond the edges of civilization. The gun represents his confidence that he has the strength and courage to fend off that danger, whatever form it may take. But the gun also represents the fear that his little piece of civilization might at any time come under threat from savages who would destroy it. The…
Read More…es, at least momentarily, the boroughs of New York City a Glenn Beck radio free zone. (Word has it syndicators are looking for a new outlet.) Perhaps Beck’s self-styled turn to the prophetic last summer and fall—which included forays into the world of Black theology and the mysteries of the Bat Creek Stone, as well as his lachrymose and prayer-scented DC Rally in August —didn’t go over so well with hardboiled conservatives in the City? Beck’s tel…
Read More…ogy in March has earned him an entire issue of the Church of Scientology’s Freedom magazine. The issue is dedicated to attacking him and his claims about the church. A Moscow court convicted two art curators of “inciting hatred” against Christians for their 2007 exhibition of various controversial pieces, including an image of Jesus with a Mickey Mouse head. Convicted serial killer David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, has found religion in pr…
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…saw these three things as the great accomplishments of his life: political freedom, religious freedom, and educational freedom and opportunity. Of the three, he thought religious freedom was the foundation because without freedom to think and believe, you could not have the other two. A republic could not work if government and church officials (what Jefferson referred to as an alliance of “kings, nobles, and priests”) were trying to control what…
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…of messianic violence.” Friendly Muslims! Seemingly integrated! Beware, America. Freedom of religion might doom you: Must we continue to be neutral in handling all people from different groups even though we know that there are differential risks posed by people of one group? The problem here is a heightened version of the airport security problem, where we check all people—including Chinese grandmothers—regardless of risk profiles. But can we aff…
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…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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