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‘Manufactured’ Smear Campaign Attempts to Intimidate Church ‘Fasting From Whiteness’— It Didn’t Work

By Frederick Clarkson

…tice Christianity is a crime. Our Constitution guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion. A campaign of threats like this is intended to do one thing: intimidate us into changing how we practice our faith.” First United Church of Oak Park, a mostly white, suburban Chicago congregation with more than 600 members, is affiliated with two mainline protestant denominations—the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ. The…

United Methodists Elect 1st Gay Bishop; Canadian Anglicans OK Same-Sex Marriage

By Peter Montgomery

…ute protects their rights under the 2011 Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. These rights they claim include freedom of religion, equality before the law, the right to a healthy environment, and the right to privacy. They also claim that gay men must be banned from having sex because that will inevitably lead to the exploitation of children. “During the hearing of the applications, the court stated that some of the churches’ allegations se…

Israel Votes to Limit Sheldon Adelson

By Sarah Posner

…o to close this loophole.” The anti-Adelson bill is like Israel’s Citizens United—in reverse. Although launched a few years before the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision, Israel Hayom is like a Citizens United effort, where a political advocacy group attempted (and ultimately succeeded) in circumventing campaign finance limits by portraying an anti-Hillary Clinton film as media subject to First Amendment protection, rather than independent political ex…

Exclusive: Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz, Hasn’t Gone Away, It’s Just Gotten More Secretive

By Frederick Clarkson

…ren’s participation in public school system sex education programs. Campus Free Speech Act—Based on a Wisconsin Senate bill, “Campus Free Speech Act,” which was introduced in 2019. The playbook acknowledges that it “substantially follows a model bill proposed by the Goldwater Institute.” The Goldwater Institute is a business/libertarian think tank affiliated with the State Policy Network, which parallels the Christian Right Family Policy Alliance,…

Republicans To Get Free “Spiritual, Historical” Trips to Israel

By Sarah Posner

…ining sustainable freedom is righteousness — the same virtue that produced freedom — what is the greatest threat to freedom? Unrighteousness. America has left God.” Lane also aims to persuade 1,000 pastors to run for political office. Lane has already taken Rand Paul to Israel, after which the Kentucky Republican said, “Absolutely we stand with Israel. What I think we should do is announce to the world — and I think it is pretty well known — that…

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

By Frederick Clarkson

…n the possibility of democracy for all. The authors of the First Amendment knew that without the right to think and believe differently than religious, governmental and economic elites—speech could not be free. Nor could there be a free press. That’s why freedom of religion is called the “first freedom.” Without it, democracy itself is impossible. And that’s why it’s up to the rest of us to not only remember, but to refresh and reclaim religious f…

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

By Patrick Hornbeck

…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…

Jewish Studies Is a Free-Speech Zone, and It Needs to Stay That Way

By Aaron Hughes

…the creation of a positive identity for Jewish students, but it is not a “free speech” zone. This is territory that needs to be monitored, but many in university administrations, not to mention many of my colleagues, are unwilling to do so. Although Hillel exists in the university, it does not operate within its rules and regulations. Executives are often comprised of wealthy alumni, many of whom live far from the schools. They don’t see how thin…

Free Yiddish Lessons, Vacation Liberty School, and Brangelina’s Universalism: The Week in Religion, Poetically

By Michael J. Altman

…o Glenn Beck here. Muslims still face opposition to mosque building in the United States. A mosque in Temecula, California is facing opposition from the Baptist church next door because of “the whole issue of Islam and what it stands for.” It seems it’d be easier to build mosques if they didn’t have any connection to Islam. In New York, the Cordoba House mosque (a.k.a. the dreaded “Ground Zero Mosque”) is still embroiled in controversy. The latest…

NPR Gives a Free Pass to Biblical Literalists

By Peter Laarman

…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…