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In 2012 Bishops Join Fight to Repackage Discrimination as ‘Religious Freedom’

By Sarah Posner

…jectionable, “when HHS is disbursing taxpayer money to meet certain public policy objectives—in this case life-saving ones—then taxpayers should have a reasonable expectation that their money is being invested wisely.” What’s more, the notion that the federal government has somehow discriminated against Catholics is rendered even more absurd by the hard numbers: in 2011 alone, according to the federal government database at www.usaspending.gov, Ca…

Tragic Violence in Libya: No Excuse for Perpetrators—or for Provocateurs

By Haroon Moghul

…ng harm upon their fellow Muslims, and seem to think nothing of it.) Does Jones selfishly think himself the only brave American, naively upturning delicately constructed foreign policy and difficult questions of strategy and policy, in the name of some kind of stand for freedom? That is too easy an excuse….

What’s So Scary About the Inclusion of ‘God’ in the Russian Constitution?

By Katherine Kelaidis

…year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would seek major changes to the Russian Constitution. Most of the media coverage rightly focused on what such reforms would mean for Putin’s future at the country’s helm (there’s little doubt that the primary motivation for these reforms was to allow Putin to remain in power beyond the 2022 expiration of his presidential term). However, the opening of Russia’s first democratic constitution…

The Antisemitism Awareness Act Just Passed by the House Would Actually Increase Anti-Jewish Violence

By Nathan Leach

…ot). If, however, one claims that the State of Israel has carried out this policy because it’s run by Jews and that’s how Jews act, then it is, at the very least, anti-Jewish; or further, if one claims that Jews act this way because it’s in their nature to do so, then it’s antisemitic. The principles here aren’t complicated, but their application requires nuanced distinctions which make it difficult to characterize whole groups of people with a br…

White House Unveils Contraception Accommodation Plan [UPDATED]

By Sarah Posner

…ions accountable for a rigorous, fair and consistent implementation of the policy, which does not compromise the essential principles of access to care.” While praising the accommodation as a “reaffirmation of the commitment to ensuring contraceptive coverage,” NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan will be “committed to ensuring that the policy is implemented fully and fairly, so that women receive this basic health-care benefit without…

Scientology: All-American or Aging Hoax?

By Gordon Haber

…m therapy to religion as a pragmatic or bureaucratic decision. In the 1962 policy letter that Urban quotes, Hubbard describes the religion of Scientology as “entirely a matter for accountants and solicitors,” and that religion is “where the money is.” Religion also had the added benefit of tax exemption—until the auditors were audited, that is. In 1967, the IRS revoked the church’s tax-exempt status, ruling that Scientology—and Hubbard—were prof…

LDS Church and the Birth Control Controversy

By Joanna Brooks

…heard from Catholics and evangelicals, but what of the LDS Church? Church policy supports all methods of contraception except surgical sterilization. Birth control is widely used and accepted among LDS Church members (as it is among Catholics and evangelicals). Church-owned Brigham Young University’s student health center offers premarital health classes that present a range of birth control options, and affordable contraception is dispensed at t…

Michael Sean Winters is Right: Pope Francis Should Not Address Congress

By Patricia Miller

…ted States as we address growing income equality, a disastrous immigration policy and the challenge of climate change, but because the forum is inappropriate. Even Pope John Paul II, who was a much more political pope than Francis, made most of his historic addresses in the United States at large, open-air masses and similar venues where his comments where clearly situated within the appropriate religious context. But no religious leader has ever…

Tweeting ISIS Attacks: A Lesson in Not Learning a Lesson

By Haroon Moghul

…Russia’s intervention in Syria astonished many parochial American foreign policy commentators. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony.) Many of us are of the opinion that we can act in violation of international law, because the rules that bind other, lesser peoples are merely “guidelines” for us. (The Jack Sparrow School of International Parley.) But, of course, what happens when people use our very same arguments against our interests? Iraqi Govt doesn&#…

Tony Perkins Will Fit Right in at Religious Freedom Commission

By Caroline Matas

…ude monitoring religious freedom violations around the globe and providing policy recommendations to the president, the Secretary of State, and Congress. Nevertheless, since the USCIRF’s inception, the commission has largely been populated by conservative Christians and has received significant pushback from advocates of religious pluralism, especially those interested in Muslim citizens’ religious freedom at home and abroad. In 2010, Safiya Ghori…