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What the USCCB’s New “Religious Liberty” Initiative Took from Evangelicals

By Sarah Posner

…and even some Eastern Orthodox Christians joined hands in protecting their freedom from the scourges of LGBT rights, reproductive freedom, feminism, and secularism. At the time, a handful of Catholic bishops signed the document. Now the USCCB seems to have been motivated by its success: it is, after all, touted widely at conservative and religious right gatherings and now claims nearly half a million signers. Religious liberty, the document procla…

Romney’s Debate Coach and his Religion Answer

By Sarah Posner

…inciple. As I wrote at the time, Romney had a conundrum: needing to defend free exercise of religion (an in particular, his religion), but realizing that the Republican base demands the “Judeo-Christian” answer. Given that many conservative evangelicals don’t even think Romney’s religion is part of Christianity, when he gave the “Judeo-Christian” answer last night I cringed—because he didn’t balance it with a free exercise answer. In other words,…

NC’s Gay Marriage Ban: “It’s Going to Hurt the Church”

By Nicole Greenfield

…hing of a “toxic and counterfeit gay-affirming gospel” to being injured by the church as a child. “In some ways he’s right,” Bakker told me in response. “It’s called empathy.” He continued: “Every time someone accuses me of cheap grace, I go back and say no, it’s free grace. Grace is free. The reason I understand the Bible the way I do is probably because I interpret through the pain that I’ve been through. But it’s not me compromising. I know wha…

Despising the Holidays: When Christians Led the ‘War on Christmas’

By Ed Simon

…and plentiful, and the collapse of the licensing laws insured a degree of free speech hitherto unknown in the British Isles. The World Turned Upside Down would prove so enduring that it has been an English folk ballad for more than 350 years. The song’s opening verse, “Holy-dayes are despis’d, new fashions are devis’d. /Old Christmas is kicked out of Town” remains pertinent. It seems that a supposed “War on Christmas,” whether real or imagined, h…

‘Religious Freedom’: Constitutional Principle or Electoral Politics?

By Frances Kissling

…s its case for an exemption from the policy, which would not only allow it freedom from following the law on contraceptive insurance, but also to assert without scrutiny that any number of health services violate its religious beliefs. In her interview with Kaiser Health News, Sr. Keehan acknowledged that the CHA still has “some very real concerns in the Church that even if you get rid of the coverage of contraceptives, [there may be] problems in…

Searching in Vain for a “Pure” Elie Wiesel

By Martin Kavka

…th leftist intellectuals who reject it. Perhaps another generation will be free enough to criticize Israel; I cannot. [Italics added.] Was this a betrayal of his other broadly humanist commitments? Absolutely. There is no reason why critics should not continue to take Wiesel to task for what he said about Palestinians, or why they should not point out how especially unprepared Wiesel was for the recent growth of Israeli racism. But if we have anyt…

How to Prevent Ethnic Cleansing in Syria

By Haroon Moghul

…Europe, the solution to the mess of collective sovereignty and individual freedom was ethnic sorting; nations were gradually cleansed, frequently through blood and fire, while in South Asia, mere talk of new boundaries in the 1940s precipitated horrific violence. That process has begun in the Arab world, or at least threatens to, and we would do well to pay closer attention. There are, I would argue, three regions the Arab world can be loosely di…

Mister Rogers’ Radical Pacifist Neighborhood

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…are for the killer whale Shamu, These children had seen the popular movie “Free Willy” and were saddened and disturbed by Mister Rogers’s apparent unwillingness to free Shamu from the confines of the Sea World tank. The letters are very touching in the care they express for a killer whale in need of the freedom afforded by a vast ocean. They are also moving in the sense that they are the product of Rogers’s own creation—his handwork in encouraging…

Anti-LGBT Culture Warriors On The March; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…l is taken up in the legislature. “It is seriously inadequate, as parents, freedom of speech and religious freedom, along with conscientious objection, all need full protection,” said Senator Eric Abetz. Late-night comic John Oliver mocked the anti-marriage-equality campaign as a “dispiriting” and “pointless” process. Georgia: Support for gay rights earns soccer player criticism, support A far-right nationalist group called for soccer player Guram…

Is the Satanist Behind 10 Commandments Challenge Sincere?

By Joseph Laycock

…legal team. Future plans involve legally ordaining ministers and using the free exercise clause to claim privileges for Satanists. Satanic ministers could, for example, illegally marry a gay couple and then, when the state refuses to recognize the marriage, claim that their free exercise rights have been violated. Other projects involve the Satanic ideal that one’s body is sacred and inviolable. Expressing disgust that corporal punishment is still…