In ruling the way it did, the Supreme Court protected the right of a religious organization to select its clergy without government interference and avoided placing church doctrine under government interpretation. Civil magistrates will not be in a position to where they are forced to determine which religious view, that of the clergy member or the church, is correct.
As it now stands, churches and charities are welcome to speak truth to power on the issues that matter – from opposing human trafficking, to lobbying for workplace accommodation for religious employees, to pursuing justice. Religious organizations just cannot support or oppose particular candidates or political parties. This is a good thing.
Adventist News Network– Jan. 23, 2012 Abidjan, Ivory Coast Gilbert Weeh/ANN staff The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria is seeing a drop in church attendance and some church closures amid worsening religious conflict in the country. An upsurge of attacks against Christian churches by the extremist group Boko Haram beginning late last year has led to ongoing sectarian violence between […]
Excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, held that the "ministerial exception" bars a school teacher from bringing employment discrimination claims against her religious employer. The Court's ruling clearly grants religious institutions the freedom to employ (and terminate) employees who act as ministers of their faith. Yet the Court's decision does not clearly […]
In the Republican primaries this year, there is a bright spot for religious freedom and diversity. Amy Tarkanian, the state GOP chairwoman told The Associate Press that she has asked the Republican National Committee to weigh in on whether the religious voters should be accommodated by moving their voting to Saturday night, or moved forward to February 2. Casino titan […]
Despite promises of release in return for compromise, imprisoned Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani continues to refuse to renounce his Christian faith and accept Islam. Although he has been without any Bible or electronic access for over two years, and no contact with the outside world except for his wife and children, Nardarkhani continues to refuse to bow to pressure from […]
In the January/February 2012 issue of The Atlantic, Cullen Murphy writes about the history of torture and relates it to current events. Excerpt: "The new science of interrogation is not, in fact, so new at all: "extraordinary rendition" and "enhanced interrogation" and "waterboarding" all spring from the practices of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. The distance, in both technique and […]
OKLAHOMA -The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling that blocked the implementation of the "Save Our State" amendment. The amendment, approved by 70 percent of Oklahoma voters in 2010, barred "Islamic law" in the state, even though there was no movement to impose sharia law in Oklahoma. Judge Scott M. Matheson wrote on behalf […]
NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty addresses this question. Here is an excerpt followed by a link to the article: Americans' religious liberties are under attack – or at least that's what some conservatives say. Newt Gingrich warns the U.S. is becoming a secular country, which would be a "nightmare." Rick Santorum says there's a clash between "man's laws and God's laws." […]
Professor Joan Williams spoke with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about legal issues and the courts. Topics included abortion, gender equality, equal protection, the role of justices in political system, and working relationships between the justices. She responded to questions from the audience.
“For even if the whole world believed in resurrection, little would change until we began to practice it. We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.”
— Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical