Seattle Pacific University, a private school associated with the Free Methodist Church, claims its rights are being violated by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office launched an investigation into the school’s hiring practices. At issue is the school’s policy, prohibiting . . . Continue reading →
Free Speech
Consider The Implications Had Kennedy Lost
In Kennedy v Bremerton, the Bremerton, WA School District argued that, were Coach Kennedy allowed to go to the 50 yard line to pray after games, student-athletes might feel pressured to join him for fear of losing playing time etc. Continue reading
SCOTUS: 1st Amendment Protects Americans From Gov’t Reprisal For Engaging In Personal Religious Observance
Did The Court Just Replace The "Lemon Test"?
Held: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression…. …Here, no one questions that . . . Continue reading →
University Settles Suit Over Professor’s Right Not To Use Student’s Preferred Pronoun
Shawnee State University will pay a professor $400,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to settle a lawsuit over not using a student’s preferred pronoun. In 2018, Shawnee State philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether called a transgender student “sir” during a lecture when she . . . Continue reading →
The Apotheosis And The Emperor’s New Clothes
In the last few days Twitter has banned a number of highly visible accounts for describing a member of President Biden’s administration, the assistant secretary for health, by his former name. This person, who also holds the title of Admiral, is biologically . . . Continue reading →
When Elite Law School Students Reject Free Speech In Principle And Practice
The people who dominate American public life come from a few elite schools. Yale Law School (YLS) is one of those institutions. Continue reading
Self-Censorship In The Post-Modern Academy
Each week, I seek out the office hours of a philosophy department professor willing to discuss with me complex ethical questions raised by her course on gender and sexuality. We keep our voices low, as if someone might overhear us. Hushed voices . . . Continue reading →
Concordia University Of Wisconsin Bans Tenured Prof From Campus For Criticizing DEI
Dysphoria is another word for “restlessness.” It doesn’t mean being fidgety or ill at ease; it means being depressed, disquieted, overcome by Angst. Much like the term euphoria at the other end of the emotional spectrum, dysphoria connotes being under the influence. My Concordia university is experiencing dysphoria because it is coming under the influence of Woke-ism (that is, a potent cocktail of Progressivism, Neo-Pragmatism, and Marxism). Continue reading →
On The State Of Higher Ed In America And The Hope Represented By A New University
This is a bold and indeed a risky undertaking, but one that we wholeheartedly support. The educational establishment in this country is worse than moribund. It is a disaster—and not (to adapt an image from the philosopher David Stove) a static disaster . . . Continue reading →
House Of Representatives Passes Law To Combat “Islamophobia”
The key sentence in the AP story about HR5665, which passed the House on a strict party-line vote (219–212) vote is this: “The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate.” The second salient fact about this bill is that it offers . . . Continue reading →
Religious Liberty And Free Speech Suffers Another Defeat As LGBTQ Lobby Continues To Demand Affirmation Of Gay Marriage
A federal court in New York dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Christian wedding photographer who refused to photograph same-sex weddings. The woman, Emilee Carpenter, filed the federal lawsuit in April, arguing that New York’s nondiscrimination laws forced her to choose between . . . Continue reading →
UK Christians Respond To Proposal To Ban “Conversion Therapy”
These Laws Already Exist In Some US States
We are Christian ministers and pastoral workers from a broad range of churches, who have in common that we hold to orthodox, historic Christian teaching on sexual ethics. We are writing in response to the consultation on ‘Banning “Conversion Therapy”’ presented by . . . Continue reading →
Shrier: One Need Not Be A Troll To Find Oneself At The Center Of Controversy. One Need Only Refuse To Submit To The Mob
I began writing a few op-eds for our local Jewish paper, one of which was spotted by a Wall Street Journal editor, who invited me to submit to the Wall Street Journal. I did, and in the course of that year, published . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page On Social Media And Wikipedia
In a very short period of time, social media has become one of the dominant forces in our age. Who does not have a social media account of some kind? Your Grandmother knows how to use Facebook and teens use and switch social media platforms the way they choose fashions, rapidly. Every social media platform, however, is a trade-off. We use them to connect with friends and to communicate but the social media platforms are using us at the same time. They are ostensibly “free” but that is because we, the users, are the content. Continue reading →
Another Reason Not To Rely On BigSocMedia
Twitter’s new CEO has introduced new rules which would appear to create an opportunity to de-platform certain views out of favor with our BigSocMedia overlords. Continue reading
First Amendment Liberties Wounded: Baronelle Stutzman Forced Out Of Business
“We’re all in trouble – whether we’re religious or not—when we don’t have the freedom to live consistent with our faith and our beliefs, when I don’t have the freedom to run my business according to my beliefs, live my life according to my beliefs” Continue reading →
A Canary In The Cultural Coal Mine
Rasanen and Pohjola are being charged with “hate speech” for respectively writing and publishing a 24-page 2004 booklet that explains basic Christian theology about sex and marriage, which reserves sex exclusively for within marriage, which can only consist of one man and . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Tent-Making Pastor Threatened With Loss Of Realtor’s License
Warning. You don’t have to say anything reasonable people would see as “hate speech” to be sanctioned for “hate speech.” Missoula, Montana realtor Brandon Huber is a part-time realtor as well as the lead pastor of the Clinton Community Church in the . . . Continue reading →
University Professor To Be Fired Because He Did Not Apologize For Students Rushing To Judgment
Theater students study the principle of the “willing suspension of disbelief,” meaning that in order to enjoy a show, audience members must suspend their critical thinking and believe that the performance onstage is really happening. To make sense of Coastal Carolina University’s . . . Continue reading →
Sometimes The Side Effects Are Intended
Individual monomania is rarely a social problem. One person who is obsessed with butterflies or with a particular celebrity, or who sees everything in sexual, economic, or religious terms, is just an eccentric, although sometimes a tiresome one. The monomaniac may suffer . . . Continue reading →