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

…church adopt a more conciliatory approach to same-sex marriages, but the House of Bishops refused to back formal blessings, and forbade gay clergy from marrying. Ireland: Bishop Questions Catholic Group’s Donation to LGBT Center The Independent reported last week that Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan sent a letter to the Society of St Vincent de Paul “demanding clarification as to the grounds” of a donation made by the group to “a Galway LGBT group…

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What 19th-Century Marriage Controversies Can Tell Us About The Fight Over Gay Marriage

…eteenth-century polygamy controversy. Marriage is a unique institution because it is always both public and private, and both religious and civil. What then are the freedoms and limitations to religious expression in marriage? With nineteenth-century polygamy some of the debate was over the validity of the religion and Joseph Smith as a prophet, but a significant part of the debate was about the treatment of women in polygamy. There were sensation…

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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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What To Do When Fred Phelps Arrives in Your Neighborhood

…ive. Yet, fantasy picketing in my imagination allows those of us who favor free speech (even free horrifying speech—remember Skokie and the Nazis) to express our outrage without giving up our commitment to free speech and, indeed, to express our outrage without being as offensive as those we find despicable. Not to mention avoiding the violence. And, of course, fantasy picketing gets around the many ways our culture has come to limit dissent in re…

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Might, Right, and White Privilege: It’s Morning in America, the Sequel

…might, right and white privilege. Reagan truly believed that his notion of freedom—democracy, free markets and religious liberty—was God’s plan for America. He also believed that America was God’s tool for spreading freedom worldwide. In the years following his presidency, his vision was enacted through domestic and foreign policy. Welfare reform, trade agreements, and the War on Terror may have seemed to further neoliberal or neoconservative aims…

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Porn, Abuse, or Just Plain Incompatibility… Is Divorce Ever a Sin?

…that 37% of all Americans consider it to be a sin to leave your spouse because of abuse within the relationship. That’s two points higher than those who think it’s a sin to ditch a spouse addicted to pornography. Thankfully, only 28% of pastors surveyed agreed, which is still too high for comfort. Still: Christians are much more likely to say divorce as a result of abuse is a sin than non-Christians (43% to 22%); within Christians, Evangelicals sa…

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There is No Religious Freedom: A Lesson from a ‘Pastafarian’ Stunt

…ve found another way. The solution is that no one is entitled to religious freedom because there is no such thing as religious freedom. Straining Credulity On what grounds could we conclude that the man in the pasta strainer deserves less deference from the state than the woman in the hijab or the man in the kippa? Is it that their faiths are “real,” and his fake? There are two ways that the state could judge that a faith is real as opposed to fak…

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In Vitro v. Dignitas Personae: Teacher Fired for Fertility Treatment Sues Diocese

…rings us, finally, to the fundamental and intractable problem of religious freedom in a modern, contentious, pluralistic society. I expect many of us have some sense that St. Vincent school should be free to level religious conditions for employment even though we may disagree with the teachings on which those requirements are based. Oh, sure, the rules should be enforced in ways that are fair and above board. The rules should not simply provide a…

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Corporations, Religious Conscience, Citizens United, and Contraception

…ligious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Free Exercise, Establishment, and Free Speech Clausees of the First Amendment. On the RFRA claim—one that conservative opponents of the HHS rule have portrayed as more or less open and shut—the judge ruled that the coverage requirement does not “substantially burden” (the relevant legal standard) O’Brien’s religious practice: Frank O’Brien is not prevented from keeping the Sabbath, from providing a religiou…

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Bachmann Weaves Own Salvation Story into Christian Nation Mythology

…settling,” by knowing Jesus Christ “in his fullness” can someone be truly free, free in the way that Jesus intended when he “set captives free” by the founding of the country. It’s all wrong, of course, historically, constitutionally. But Bachmann found the precise sweet spot where testimony and Christian American exceptionalism mythology intersect. Bachmann took her speech even further, invoking the biblical story of Joshua and Caleb, who led a…

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