The question isn’t whether businesses run by people opposed to gay marriage on religious grounds should provide their services for gay weddings; it is whether they should be compelled to by government. The critics of the much-maligned Arizona bill pride themselves on . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch
They Weren’t Boneheaded Mistakes
First They Came For The Tea Party…
The Power Of The Fear Of Social Isolation
The elites who wield politically correct agendas – whether in academia, in the media, or in Hollywood — know these social dynamics very well. They understand your fear of social isolation perhaps better than you do yourself. How else could they manipulate . . . Continue reading →
The God Complex Of Social Elites
If nothing else, Dylan Farrow’s letter is a wake-up call. It’s time for us to pour a lot of cold water on the notion that the elites – those controlling the media, Hollywood, politics, and academia — are entitled to a separate . . . Continue reading →
We Will Not Surrender Our Liberties
We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but on the contrary, shall ever glory in being the loyal subjects of a Protestant prince descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can . . . Continue reading →
Ben Is Speaking Up About Religious Liberty
An Insurance Company With A Navy
Most of us were taught that government exists to provide for the common defense—a military and a social-safety net—but the actual budgets show that our government has become a big insurance company that also runs a navy. Read more» —Ben Sasse January . . . Continue reading →
Religious Liberty And An Indefinite Article
Over a century and a half passed, and the Supreme Court began to muddle the meaning, especially in 1947’s Everson v. Board of Education. Justice Hugo Black took it upon himself to change the phrase from “an establishment of religion” into “the . . . Continue reading →
Doris Lessing On The Habits Of Mind Inherent In Political Correctness
…Of course, I am not suggesting that the torch of Communism has been handed on to the political correctors. I am suggesting that habits of mind have been absorbed, often without knowing it. There is obviously something very attractive about telling other . . . Continue reading →
It’s Here Before They Announce It
It was not until the outbreak of war, on September 1, 1939, that the Nazi regime became openly totalitarian and openly criminal. —Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin Books, repr. 1992), 68.
Religious Freedom Watch: Prescribing The Good Life
Just changing terminology from “medical care” (curing illness) to “healthcare” (maintaining physical and emotional health) and then making government responsible to ensure the latter puts the state in a position to define the good life, i.e., the correct values people should have. . . . Continue reading →
What The Nuns Once Did
This is so grotesque that they have probably concluded it is exceptional. On the contrary, thousands of British children are being snatched from their natural parents in secret each year, after totally unfair hearings against which it is almost impossible to appeal . . . Continue reading →
Turley And Rosenkranz: The President Has Crossed A Line
People of good faith can clearly disagree on where the line is drawn over the failure to fully enforce federal laws. There is ample room given to a president in setting priorities in the enforcement of laws. A president is not required . . . Continue reading →
Scalia On The Lemon Test As Late-Night Ghoul
Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches . . . Continue reading →
Freedom From Religion Foundation v Lew: What Now? (New Links Added)
Links are being added below. Refresh the page for updates throughout the day. For elders and parishioners and not infrequently for ministers, clergy taxes are one of the more difficult aspects of ministerial finances. Those difficulties just became potentially greater last week. . . . Continue reading →
A Constitutional Crisis?
If civil freedom, including religious freedom, is the relative absence of restraint and the restrainers (those charged authority to uphold the law) are to be constrained by a constitution, then when the constitution is ignored freedom is necessarily jeopardized.
The Intoxicating Power Of Moral Superiority
A while back some of us were discussing the problem of political correctness on university campuses, freedom of thought and speech, and speech codes. If universities were meant to be places of open enquiry, where theories may be proposed and debated, then . . . Continue reading →
The Irony Of The Coming Dark Age (Updated Again)
The old schoolbook story of the middle ages describes the entire period as the “dark ages.” Of course that’s rubbish. There was a period of chaos in the early medieval period but there were also periods of remarkable learning and the renewal . . . Continue reading →
Liberal Education, Religious Freedom, And Weak Arguments (Updated Again)
Originally Published October 8, 2013. Updates below. The University of South Florida is at the center of another debate about religious freedom (HT: David Murray). This time it involves a planned event at which Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, a former Lesbian, is to . . . Continue reading →