By John Marini – Imprimis – In light of the differences between the ideas and policies of Roosevelt and Reagan, it is not surprising that political debates today are so bitter. Indeed, they resemble the religious quarrels that once convulsed western society. The progressive defenders of the bureaucratic state see government as the source of benevolence, the moral embodiment of the collective desire to bring about social justice as a practical reality. They believe that only mean-spirited reactionaries can object to a government whose purpose is to bring about this good end. Defenders of the older constitutionalism, meanwhile, see the bureaucratic state as increasingly tyrannical and destructive of inalienable rights.
Category: Top Story
Fifteen years later, home-school parents say legal battle was worth it
By Lorie A. Shane – Michigan Education Report – Chris DeJonge was in her second week of homeschooling when the knock on the door came. She opened it to find two employees from the local office of the Michigan Department of Social Services (now the Department of Human Services), who informed her that her children were truants and that she and her husband were breaking the law by teaching them at home.
OPINION: Obama vs. Pope Benedict (Washington Times)
“The first thing I will do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” Obama said at an address before Planned Parenthood on July 17, 2007. And if he does, it will trigger a harsh response from Pope Benedict XVI, as well as a political revolt among practicing American Catholics.
An idea lost on fanatics: Those behind the Mumbai attacks will never fathom religious liberty (LA Times)
By Tim Rutten – Los Angeles Times – The places the killers struck — luxury hotels, a railway station, a hospital for women and children, the Chabad Jewish center — are all powerfully linked in the popular mind with the modern world. As the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy has argued, the jihadis have linked anti-Americanism, anti-British sentiment (the assumption is that London is Washington’s lap dog) and anti-Semitic antagonism toward Zionism into a potent new ideology. To the extent it seems to find an increasingly sympathetic hearing in some fashionable sectors of the intellectual West, including the U.S., Levy correctly labels it “the socialism of imbeciles.”
VIDEO – Sign company removes pro-atheist billboard at request of California city
The city of Rancho Cucamonga, CA asked the General Outdoor sign company to remove an atheist billboard after several complaints from religious groups. Yet, religious groups would be up in arms if they were asked to remove a religious sign.
VIDEO – BREAKING NEWS: Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, on the Rule of Law
Earlier this year, he gave a lecture for the ACS convention regarding the importance of restoring the rule of law. He called upon the United States to reverse “the disastrous course” set by the Bush administration in the struggle against terrorism, arguing “the next president must move immediately to reclaim America’s standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights.”
Double Standards? – Supreme Court to hear two religious groups battle over monument
PLEASANT GROVE, UTAH – The U.S. Supreme Court today will hear an argument where two religious groups are fighting over whether one or both of them have the right to have their viewpoint heard. Summum, a small religious group wants to erect a monument on public land listing of the “Seven Aphorisms,” but conservative Christian groups oppose it on the basis that it does not reflect their traditional values. The small plot of land already has a 10 comandments monument that has been there since 1971.
Barack Obama on Religious Tolerance and Persecution
Obama: Over time, what we are doing is setting up new norms and creating a universal principle that people’s faith and people’s beliefs have to be protected.
OPINION – President Obama: Bad News For the New Atheists and Other Fundamentalists (Frank Schaeffer – Huffington Post)
Into the all or nothing culture wars, and the all or nothing wars between the so-called New Atheists and religion the election of President elect Obama reintroduces nuance. President elect Obama’s ability to believe in Jesus, yet question, is going to rescue American religion in general and Christianity in particular, from the extremes.
The loser in this election is religion. (AP)
With a few exceptions, whatever seemed odd or fringe trumped serious discussion about how candidates’ religious beliefs shape their approach to governance.