Religion Dispatches
…e commercials and stay up until the last segment of the news. Sex sells. A free society needs a free press, of that the Founders were certain. Investigative reporting is the true fifth column, a crucial further “check and balance” on the relentless consolidation of power in the electronic age. But with increasingly scarce resources, isn’t it important that investigative reporters are working to save lives, both at home and abroad, rather than titi…
Read More…s that there needs to be some “play in the joints.” There needs to be some freedom for government to act in this area without being subject to a claim from the other side – some freedom for government to make religious accommodations without being subject to Establishment Clause challenges, and some freedom on government’s part to enforce the values of the Establishment Clause without being subject to Free Exercise claims. That’s not to say how an…
Read More…s on the cake makes it more complicated, because it implicates the baker’s free speech rights. It’s one thing to request that a baker furnish a cake that might be used to celebrate something to which the baker objects—that’s a kind of second-degree complicity argument. But requiring a baker to actually perform a speech act—writing on the cake and selling it—might be more problematic from a free speech point of view. But what if there was no speech…
Read More…uded almost all sites expressing positive or neutral views about Native American religion, Wicca, or new religious movements. In addition to the obvious free speech issues involved in Internet censorship, The ACLU argues that Netsweeper privileges Christian perspectives by categorizing minority religions as “occult” and “criminal skills.” Visitors to the Salem Library cannot, for example, access the Wikipedia page on Wicca, though they’re free to…
Read More…for free. In exchange for all this unpaid content, columnists are largely free to write about whatever it is they like. Consequently, Huffington Post’s living pages have long been filled with various anti-science sentiments and new age woo, from vitamin cures to the “science of distant healing.” Most egregiously, it has provided a place for Jenny McCarthy and others to peddle ongoing claims about there being a link between autism and vaccine shot…
Read More…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…
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…secular and democratic Bangladesh, where people have secure life and enjoy freedom of speech, freedom to publish, and freedom to express.” Still—what has he and his family lost? And what is Bangladesh losing as a result of this unchecked mayhem? Who Will Remain? As the attacks illustrate a deep problem in Bangladesh, these two stories illustrate a deeper success: since February 2015, more than a dozen writers, publishers, and activists—and, in som…
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…such as the “Islamic Corridor”—that wide green smudge from Atlantic West Africa to Indonesia—how will America be affected by new Muslim interests? This is where Nasr’s timely contribution most clearly shines; in Forces of Fortune, Nasr explores the deleterious effects of colonialism (a topic on which Simpfendorfer is unfortunately silent) and then despotism on retarding Muslim politics. It’s no surprise Islam is so preoccupied with the West. For o…
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…ular liberals. Instead, they should have done everything in their power to promote North Carolina’s Freedom of Religion Act and, more, fought to establish the Christian state of North Carolina as quickly as possible. And conservative evangelical legislators need not waste their time writing toothless resolutions establishing state religions. Rather, if the Christian Right would like religion to prosper in America, they should erect a wall between…
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…trictions is a matter of ongoing legal dispute. This should scare every American. As pandemic cases soar worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of Americans already dead from this virus, Barrett is virtually promising to allow churches to hold superspreader events every week—just like the superspreader event held at the White House to announce her nomination. This is reckless to the point of deadly and it clearly shows Barrett is unfit to be a judg…
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