How Not To Build A Christian America
By January 1 next year all public school classrooms in Louisiana, from kindergartens to universities, will display posters of a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font.” Depending on your perspective, this is either a much-needed step toward “acknowledging the Christian foundations of America” or a disturbing step toward an America…
Read MoreReflections of a Recovering Prime Minister
Interview with former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. On the wall of his office in Australia’s Parliament House, Scott Morrison hung a framed newspaper dated May 1, 2019, proclaiming: “ScoMo’s Miracle!” It was a headline that appeared the morning after Morrison’s poll- and pundit-defying election to Australia’s top political job. The evening before, Morrison had…
Read MoreThe X Factor
Mapping the unique experiences of women and religious persecution What do these individuals have in common? Gulmira Amin. Wife and moderator of a Uyghur news and cultural website who is imprisoned for her ethnoreligious identity and protesting against the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs. She is serving a 20-year sentence in the Xinjiang Women’s Prison.…
Read MoreParsing the Pronoun Wars
A state court resists an all-or-nothing approach. Controversy continues in courts across the nation over pronoun use for transgender students in public schools. It’s a controversy that state legislatures are increasingly engaged with as well. In April, for instance, Colorado adopted a law—which is certainly likely to be challenged—requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns…
Read MoreProceed with Caution
Faith-based charities come to grips with new church-state rules for government funding. The Biden administration recently has revised the regulations that govern how faith-based organizations can participate in federal, state, or local social service programs funded by federal dollars. These rules cover a broad range of services, from low-income housing and workforce development programs to…
Read MoreReligion Goes to the Games
The more than 10,000 Olympic athletes competing in the Paris Olympic Games this summer will have access to more than just sports doctors, physiotherapists, and masseuses. They’ll also have the option to receive spiritual care. The Paris Games organizing committee has credentialed some 120 chaplains representing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. In a large…
Read MoreCelebrating Common Ground
At a time when fierce partisanship defines American politics, a gala dinner at the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill showcased religious liberty as an American value that transcends political and religious differences. Representatives from Congress, civil society organizations, and faith groups came together May 3 for the 18th annual Religious Liberty Dinner, co-sponsored…
Read MoreGod, Gold, and the Indigenous “Other”
A church-state tragedy in three acts The day after Pope Francis II made his historic July 25, 2022, apology to survivors of the residential schools for Indigenous children run by the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, the New York Times ran a front-page story and photo of the pontiff amid white crosses. They were grave…
Read MoreA Messiah Problem
Today there is a national political leader who is deliberately and strategically draping his political aspirations in religious imagery in ways that are, frankly, sacrilegious. He has implied that his quest for power has the stamp of divine approval. His language, at times, is messianic. As national elections approach, he’s exploiting emotionally powerful tropes about…
Read MoreThe Free Exercise Flip
Can religious exemptions be saved from culture-war politics? Illustrations by Jon Krause Religious freedom is important. Not everyone is religious, of course. But for religious people, religious commitments often rank as the most important commitments they have—as commitments that, in a way, define them. Religious people therefore see religious freedom as a natural…
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