The killers, who were dressed in Western clothes, ordered all Muslims to leave, before carrying out rudimentary tests to see if hostages could recite the Koran and name the mother of the Prophet Mohammed. Read more» Paul Bentley and David Williams RESOURCES . . . Continue reading →
religious freedom
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 →
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 →
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 →
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.
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 →
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 →
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 →
First They Came For The Tea Party…
They Weren’t Boneheaded Mistakes
The Arizona Question
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 →
Legal Scholars Explain Arizona SB1062
SB1062 would amend the Arizona RFRA to address two ambiguities that have been the subject of litigation under other RFRAs. It would provide that people are covered when state or local government requires them to violate their religion in the conduct of . . . Continue reading →
No Patience For One Year And Counting
I’ve got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it, and we’ll make sure that, uh, we find out exactly what happened. —President Barack Obama, May 13, 2013 on the IRS scandal.
Frightening Times
The most ominous development in the IRS scandal is the confederation of executive and congressional authority in opposition to our fundamental rights. The accumulation of all government powers in the same hands, Madison warned, “may justly be pronounced the very definition of . . . Continue reading →
Christianity Is Not Private But A Bakery Is
When a candidate is elected to the United States Senate he or she takes the following oath: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that . . . Continue reading →
Social Justice Includes Religious Liberty
Here’s the thing about justice: it extends beyond political correctness. Each one of us has a duty to defend others who are being forced to act in a way that denies their deeply held moral and religious convictions. This moral obligation to . . . Continue reading →
The Twofold Government And Citizenship
Cal State Has Crossed A Line
In (1559) Institutes 3.19.15 Calvin wrote that God has instituted a “twofold government in man” (duplex esse in homine regimen). This truth means that we have a legitimate interest in both sacred and secular spheres. By distinguishing between sacred and secular spheres . . . Continue reading →
2009: No Federal Dollars For Abortion
(HT: Daily Signal)
The Big Factory
The Left’s model of society is still the model of Marx and Bismarck: one big factory to be managed by experts. The government schools are an assembly line for human widgets, who are in theory there to be taught what the state . . . Continue reading →
Dark Thoughts About The Future
Viewed objectively, these two recent controversies represent skirmishes rather than major invasions of religious freedom. But all of us view them with dark thoughts about the future. Our foreboding is justified. Progressives have long dominated an important American subculture: the university. It’s . . . Continue reading →