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The Cynical Use of “Freedom of Religion”

…mendment. ADF considers the restriction a violation of a church’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Pulpit Initiative White Paper states: The prohibition also violates the free exercise of religion. Under the Free Exercise Clause, laws are closely scrutinized by courts when they discriminate against religion or when they substantially burden religious exercise and other constitutional rights are also at stake… When the IRS th…

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Corporate Personhood Was a Radical Notion… In the 11th Century

…eady home to many thousands of corporations that enjoy a form of religious freedom. In the terms of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, these corporations are called “churches,” their “integrated auxiliaries,” and “conventions or associations of churches,” where churches are defined as a “subset of IRC 501(c)(3) organizations organized and operated for religious purposes.” Necessarily, such entities are artificial or fictive persons un…

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Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State

…ess creativity of the universe and the objective validity of human rights. Promoting and accepting religious images as universal will help heal culture war divisions and promote the formation of a broad-based progressive coalition. Frederick Clarkson: Thanks for hosting this discussion, Linell. I think these matters are integral to the functioning, the advance, and indeed the survival of Constitutional democracy. But I think that in order to give…

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Wichita, the Sequel: A Clinic Reopens at Ground Zero in America’s Fight over Abortion

…nst Dillard, she defended the letter as divinely inspired—an expression of free speech and freedom of religion. Burkhart had trouble finding doctors for her own clinic, when she started exploring the idea of reopening the practice several years ago. One in-state doctor expressed interest, but after his local hospital learned about it, Burkhart said, they threatened to terminate his contract. An anonymous doctor who will work at the clinic describe…

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Editor’s Picks: Remembering the Broken Promises — and the Possibilities — on Independence Day

Independence Day doesn’t tend to cause as much dissonance as Thanksgiving, as much confusion as Juneteenth, and isn’t as widely reviled as Columbus Day (aka Indigenous People’s Day). Yet, while it “is not America’s birthday,” as Peter Laarman argued nearly a decade ago, Independence Day is every bit as apt as the holidays above to initiate—for better and certainly for worse—a discussion about what the American project actually is, what it was mea…

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Rising Christian Right Movement, New Apostolic Reformation, Emerged as a Mid-20th Century Splinter of White Supremacy

…rally diverse coalition that promotes Christian Zionism as fervently as it promotes Christian nationalism in the US. And while the NAR’s philosemitism can itself be deeply problematic, it certainly isn’t as threatening as White supremacy’s conspiracy-laden antisemitism. However, as recently as the mid-twentieth century, the movements actually were the same. William Branham (1909-1965) was a revivalist and faith healer who served as a prominent fig…

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Trump’s Fervent Christian Zionists Poised to Lead the Military — And US-Israel Relations

…there’s Pete Hegseth, whose 2020 book, American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Jeff Sharlet wrote about this week. Nominated to lead the world’s most powerful military, the 44-year-old Fox News host served as a National Guard officer in Iraq and Afghanistan and served at Guantanamo Bay, the detention operation known for its flagrant human rights violations whose expansion he’s called for. Hegseth’s severe lack of qualifications for the Defense S…

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The Supreme Court Cleared the Way for the ‘President-King’—The Right’s Prize for 50 Years of Planning

…rocesses of legislative actions and referenda reshaping the Constitution—a freeing of the chief executive from checks and balances constraining his power. With its decision last Monday, the Supreme Court majority essentially crowned presidents (at least those the majority supports) kings above the law. Whether you call it the imperial, monarchical, or sovereign presidency—the conservative legal movement is finally ready for a king to help entrench…

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Already Beatified by the Right for Surviving an Assassination Attempt, Must We All Pray for Donald Trump?

I had some finessing to do on Sunday. I filled in for a colleague the morning after the attempt on former president Donald Trump’s life, you see. Just about everyone in the congregation had heard about it by that point, and they expected me to say something about it. But what? My denomination may have a progressive reputation but that’s not always the case, and in our neck of the woods it can be difficult to parse just how not-the-case a given co…

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Church Attendance is (Once Again) Correlated with Authoritarianism — So Why Do We Refuse to Acknowledge It?

Since 2016, I have been arguing here at RD that former president Donald Trump’s politics, and his appeal to White evangelical Christians, are best explained through the lens of authoritarianism. Pundits initially scratched their heads for entirely too long over how evangelicals could purport to follow Jesus and support Trump. The answer was always easy; he promised to do, and then did, what they wanted, which any disaffiliated former Christian sc…

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