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The Fire Next Time: Tibetan Protests Spread

…molated last year, says Tenzin Jigdal, program director for Students for a Free Tibet—India. Refugees born in Tibet cannot easily forget China’s repression, says Wangdue, 33, a “mountain boy” from Tibet with just one name. He hung out at his open-air clothing shop along the narrow path of Majnu Ka Tilla with Norbu Tsetam, 25, who was born in India. “He hears about Tibet, but he cannot see Tibet,” Wangdue says of his friend. “Sometimes I feel I’m a…

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Grassley Staff Memo on Televangelists Makes Clear Religious Right Opposition to Government Oversight

…t of the religious right which deems it an unconstitutional restriction on free speech and religious freedom. The rule, it’s true, is rarely enforced by the IRS, as the memo notes. But if it’s repealed, and churches are free from the possibility of an IRS investigation for endorsing candidates, churches would become even more politicized, and free to use their tax-exempt status to do so. UPDATE: Michael Batts, who has been appointed to lead the EC…

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

…partner on the basis of their own entirely self-selected reasons. They are free to conduct themselves in marriage precisely as they choose to do. They are free to initiate divorce if and when they choose and for whatever reason might seem compelling to them. In other words, a spouse has become a consumer product, to be bought, abandoned, or traded in for a new model at the will of the customer. I dunno. Like Gushee, I’ve married dozens of couples….

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‘Restart the Economy’ is a Prayer to a Conservative God Who Demands Human Sacrifice

…s fill of human flesh. If the blood of human sacrifice was the seed of the free market, its god remains hungry as ever today. As historians such as Kim Phillips-Fein, Kevin Kruse, and Lawrence Glickman have shown, wealthy followers of this god have been successfully proclaiming their gospel as the exclusive path to freedom for generations. Their message now seems obvious and their god feels like the only option. These disciples are sick of losing…

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Why Hobby Lobby is a Pandora’s Box: Ginsburg v. Alito

…why. This was not a First Amendment case. It was filed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Understanding this will require a little legal history but I promise to keep it brief. Prior to 1990 The Court ruled on First Amendment Free Exercise claims with a test known as the Sherbert Test. Constitutional rights are not absolute (think laws against human sacrifice). Essentially an infringement on Free Exercise was permitted if: 1) ther…

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What To Do When Fred Phelps Arrives in Your Neighborhood

…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 recent years: from W…

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How America’s Charismatic Christianity Helped Fuel the Fantasyland Presidency of Donald Trump

…, but there was certainly a great amount of freedom—and not just religious freedom. There was freedom to sell anything you want, to buy anything you want, to be anything you want, to believe anything you want, and to create any kind of religion you want. You may be persecuted for that, as the Mormons were, but if you’re willing to take on that risk, go nuts! So, yes—because we could, we did. That’s part of it. But I’m skeptical that this fully exp…

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Oklahoma Bill Would Violate Basic Freedoms, Rewrite the Ten Commandments

…orship every god from every holy book. Olsen’s commandments would prohibit free expression and art by outlawing the creation of graven images; prohibit free speech by making it illegal to take the Lord’s name in vain; and, per the tenth commandment, it would criminalize thought (potentially condoning slavery and the treatment of women as chattel as it does so). Instead of spending time paring down what they claim is the holy word of their god to c…

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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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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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