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Obama Administration Gives Free Pass for Faith-Based Groups to Discriminate

…the memo was “based on a far-fetched interpretation of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” In a 2010 letter, CARD charged that continued reliance on the 2007 OLC memo “threatens core civil rights and religious freedom protections” and that the administration’s vague case-by-case approach “raises the problem of religious selectivity and provides scant opportunity for transparency or accountability. Following this approach indefinitely whi…

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The Tebow Superbowl Ad: Offense, Defense, or Interference?

…trage it did because it was perceived to be an act of sacrilege within the free-floating social sacred that is the Super Bowl. So long as the religion is non-sectarian, non-denominational, devoid of anything other than marketing content (and not too nude) it is free to be aired at the Super Bowl. That is one reason why the American viewing public seems prepared to stomach Super Bowl advertisements that offend any number of other ethical sensibilit…

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Court Rules in Favor of For-Profit Employer Seeking Exemption from Contraception Rule

…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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“Mitt Romney Style”—A Virtually Religion Free 2012 Contest?

…d, the Hartford Courant / Religion News Service reports that the “God gap” between religious and non-religious voters has shrunk this election year.  In fact, it’s smaller than the gender gap for the first time since 1960.  That means, voters are more likely to split according to their gender (women strongly prefer Obama) than they are according to whether they attend church. Or could it be as well that the late twentieth century LDS effort to pus…

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Not All Choice is Free

…seem overdrawn at first glance. There seems to be a fundamental difference between a citizen and/or organization withholding taxes for state services with which they do not wish to be identified, and a citizen and/or organization being asked to provide those services themselves. The problem is that this creates a false distinction between the state as an actor and people as actors. State services are, all of them, provided by organizations and by…

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Why Hobby Lobby is a Pandora’s Box: Ginsburg v. Alito

…why. This was not a First Amendment case. It was filed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Understanding this will require a little legal history but I promise to keep it brief. Prior to 1990 The Court ruled on First Amendment Free Exercise claims with a test known as the Sherbert Test. Constitutional rights are not absolute (think laws against human sacrifice). Essentially an infringement on Free Exercise was permitted if: 1) ther…

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The Theological Hijacking of Religious “Freedom”

…law is being used to legislate a vision of freedom that defines religious freedom as “freedom from.” Unlike the early American Baptists, who faced serious persecution, these advocates seek to use the law to protect their vision of worship in the workplace as a purity ritual. It is a vision of religious expression free from interference in the form of difference, free from the conflicting demands of our common lives, and free from any obligation t…

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DeSantis is a No-Show, the Right’s ‘Secret Sauce,’ and Final Thoughts on Pray Vote Stand

…rsonally promised him many years ago that “the court will uphold religious freedom and free exercise…but I don’t know if—but if you [faithful Americans] can uphold it in your daily life and culture.” Brownback seems to tell the crowd that weaponizing the “free exercise” clause will remain a crucial tactic for the Christian Right moving forward. “If you want to have a traditional set of values,” he tells the crowd—“if you just wanna claim life is s…

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International ‘Pro-Family’ Summit Calls for New Anti-Gay Laws: Global LGBT Recap

…man Rights office has produced a video commemorating the first year of its Free & Equal campaign to promote the rights of LGBTI people. According to the video, “In the past year, more than a billion people around the world have read, seen, or heard the campaign’s message of respect and acceptance.” It says UN country teams around the world are preparing or have launched their own campaigns. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is among the human rights advocat…

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Stem Cell Chronicles: Why Politics and Science Most Certainly Should Not Be Separated

…commitments. The lifting of the ban was a crucial moment in the defense of free speech and the exercise of free expression, said the President. This kind rhetoric is maddening to conservatives and rightly so; it places their moral concerns on a back burner, by suggesting that the articulation of such concern makes one anti-scientific. Don’t get me wrong: President Obama is surely right to announce, and in bold terms, that the nightmarish condition…

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