DOES THIS LAW APPLY TO CHURCHES? Sometimes. Iowa law provides that these protections do not apply to religious institutions with respect to any religion-based qualifications when such qualifications are related to a bona fide religious purpose. Where qualifications are not related to . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch
Governmental Interpretation Of Religion? A Constitutional Problem
Almost immediately after the attacks on 9/11/2001 federal officials, beginning with the President of the United States, assured the world that the views held by and motivating the attacks by those who perpetrated the attacks did not represent true or genuine Islam. . . . Continue reading →
Barack Obama Opposed Gay Marriage In 2008
Was He A Bigot Then?
Office Hours With Senator Ben Sasse
For Reformed Christians there has never been any question whether Christ is Lord over all things. When the Dutch theologian, pastor, and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) declared in his 1898 Stone Lectures at Princeton that there is not one square inch . . . Continue reading →
Democratic Socialism Isn’t Free
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Does The IRS Have Secret Procedures For Auditing Churches?
Alliance Defending Freedom asked a federal district court Friday to order the Internal Revenue Service to identify records it has withheld for nearly two years that are related to secret procedures for investigating churches. The existence of the secret procedures became known . . . Continue reading →
The Strong Man Temptation
There are good reasons for Christians to be nervous about their place in the United States. The culture is in a period of rapid change of the sort not seen since perhaps 1967–77. That was the height of the Cold War, in . . . Continue reading →
From The Campus To The Culture: The Potential Death Of Free Speech
“If you believe as I do that ideas have consequences, what happens on American college campuses will eventually percolate its way down and through the culture as a whole. And if we lose free speech on college campuses, we will eventually lose . . . Continue reading →
Tocqueville On The Effects Of Socialism On Liberty
A third and final trait, one which, in my eyes, best describes socialists of all schools and shades, is a profound opposition to personal liberty and scorn for individual reason, a complete contempt for the individual. They unceasingly attempt to mutilate, to . . . Continue reading →
In The Middle Of The Slippery Slope
…But lay all that aside for now. I introduce the case because it forces us to focus on the logical implications of abolishing the conjugal understanding of marriage in our law and replacing it with the revisionist idea of marriage as sexual-romantic . . . Continue reading →
A Mortal Wound To Free Exercise?
The If nothing else, it’s comforting to know that Colorado can force an orthodox Islamic butcher to make sausages for a polyamorous bisexual bachelor/bachelorette party, so long as no one asks the butcher to outwardly promote swine and free love. Not only . . . Continue reading →
Even The Pagans Understood Marriage
They do not write a marriage contract between males: for though the pagans are assumed to practice homosexuality, and in fact, do practice it, they are not so far gone in derision of the commandment against it as actually to write a . . . Continue reading →
Bloom Was More Right Than He Knew
In 1987, who could have envisioned the two-year nadir of 2009‒10, when not only the Democrats, but indeed, the very caricatured and politically correct academia of Bloom’s nightmares, would come to control the entire government of the United States: both houses of . . . Continue reading →
Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Not Like Opposing Inter-Racial Marriage
Same-sex marriage advocates insist that the court’s Obergefell ruling is not like Roe v. Wade, which engendered undying controversy, but like Loving v. Virginia, the universally accepted decision that struck down bans on interracial marriage—a decision now so uncontroversial that most Americans . . . Continue reading →
Berger: Is Religion Like Pornography?
In a broader context what this means is the privatization (or, if you will, the domestication) of religion. There is an underlying, unspoken (perhaps unconscious) assumption: Religion is okay if engaged in by consenting adults in private, not so if it spills . . . Continue reading →
The Redefinition Of “Free Exercise”
When one judge asked whether an oil painter had to create a painting celebrating same-sex marriage, an ACLU lawyer replied yes, Tedesco noted. “And if they don’t want to have to do that, then they can close down their business and just . . . Continue reading →
Part Of The Answer: Americans Ignorant Of Basic Civics?
According to the 2015 State of the First Amendment Survey: When asked to name the five specific freedoms in the First Amendment, 57% of Americans name freedom of speech, followed by 19% who say the freedom of religion, 10% mention the freedom . . . Continue reading →
The Handwriting Is On The Wall
The handwriting is on the wall. You need only reflect on how a screaming mob managed to conjure up total surrender from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence so he would reject that state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Catholic Charities is closing its adoption . . . Continue reading →
Alito On The Consequences Of The New Orthodoxy
Today’s decision usurps the constitutional right of the people to decide whether to keep or alter the traditional understanding of marriage. The decision will also have other important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to . . . Continue reading →
Americans Are Independent But Are They Still Free?
A majority of the honorable Supreme Court of the United States has recently judged that, whereas as recently as 2013 the court had asserted that marriage law is the province of the states, homosexuals have a constitutional right under the 14th amendment to . . . Continue reading →