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The Irony in the “Religious Liberty” Argument

By Eric C. Miller

…lowed suit, and both schools continue to reject federal money to this day. Free to run their organizations as they see fit, they are also free from government dependence. Even if you disagree on the particulars, you have to respect the consistency. These days, there is reason for skepticism whenever “religious liberty” clamors to the fore. Researchers have found, unsurprisingly, that frames touting liberties and rights serve as rhetorical veils, a…

Christian Inmate Suing Indiana to Recognize Religion

By Daniel Silliman

…uled in Glenn’s favor on a preliminary motion, it’s notable for a prisoner free exercise case to get the court’s approval to go forward. Howard Friedman, who tracks prisoners’ free exercise lawsuits on his blog, Religion Clause, notes that since October there have been rulings in 31 of such cases, two-thirds of which were dismissed by the court. Most prisoner free exercise cases involve Muslim inmates, though neo-pagan groups, New Religious Moveme…

Beck’s Distortions Of It’s A Wonderful Life Mirror His Distortions Of Current Events

By Lauri Lebo

…nt controlling business—as opposed to the reality that the big banks got a free regulatory ride for so long, and that their political power is so vast, that the government had to bail them out to save the world economy from collapse, leaving the consumers ripped off and taxpayers footing the bill. Similarly, Beck asserts that Mr. Potter was evil, not because he was a greedy bigwig, but because he was in collusion with the government. Like his port…

Blasphemy and Betrayal: The Murder of Salman Taseer

By Anna Bigelow

…pulation traumatized by the upheavals of partition, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the State.” Would that Jinnah had survived longer (he died in 1948) to secure that principle in Pakistani society. Instead, the now over sixty-year struggle to…

Spiritualism and Sex Meet Evangelical Censorship, 19th-Century-Style

By Leigh Eric Schmidt

…for Princeton University Press. The second is a history of atheism in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the period after the supposed “golden age of freethought” in the late nineteenth century. At this point I see the 1920s and 1930s as a watershed moment. Again, that’s quite preliminary. The third one is a reflection on the quest for perfection in American culture. I take this to have significant religious roots, but the inquiry w…

Mitt Romney and the Ghost of Anti-Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…worried about Mormon theocracy as well. People use that word theocracy too freely. Mormons then would have said that their government was an expression of popular will. They believed in the franchise, and they exercised it. But they wanted Brigham Young to be the territorial governor. When federal agents deposed the territorial government, it looked to Mormons like tyranny. They would have said, “You are violating the Constitution, and we are the…

Transparent Season 3: The Intersectional Messiah

By Jodi Eichler-Levine

…ason 1, she reminded her congregation that “it’s only those that were born free, that were born in the wilderness—that get to see the promised land.” This fall in America, the promised land feels far away—particularly for those of us in female, or black, or trans bodies. The ones in Ali’s visions. Teshuvah, at its root, means “turning.” To turn freely we need space. We need to be able to breathe. When I reflect on our current crises of police viol…

Arcade Fire and the Suburban Soul

By Paul Harvey

…h the one I love but my mind holds the key set my body free, set my spirit free… And a symphonic explosion of sound highlights the climax to “Intervention”: Been working for the church while your life falls apart been singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart The Wilderness Downtown When Neon Bible was released in 2007, lead vocalist and songwriter Win Butler, who has spoken about his Mormon upbringing and religious influences, said that the…

Is Wisconsin Union-Busting Religiously Sanctioned?

By Julie Ingersoll

…f freedom. Labor unions, in this view, could only be biblical if they were free associations and if any other laborer was free to undercut the wages they negotiate by agreeing to work for less. Specifically, in terms of developments in Wisconsin, fifty years of spreading “biblical economics” has created a religiously sanctioned battle against labor unions: Labor unions are gangs of legalized thugs. They do not believe in allowing employers and emp…

Virginia High School Says Students May Post Ten Commandments on Lockers

By Lauri Lebo

…including the Giles County students, misunderstand the difference between free expression of one’s religious views and the endorsement by one’s government. Unfortunately, too many people misunderstand them as the same thing. In a yet another classic example from Giles County, members of the ministry All 10 Commandments were handing out yard signs of the Ten Commandments last week in opposition to the removal from the schools. For some reason, the…