John Graz, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association (http://www.irla.org) reports that 40,000 people attended the IRLA meeting in Luanda, Angola on June 28. On July 5, a meeting will be held in St. Petersburg and on July 12 a Festival of Religious Freedom will be held in in Honolulu, and meetings are planned…
Articles
Unlikely Allies on Prison Reform – Coming together on a wedge issue (New York Times)
For conservatives and liberals, issues such as crime and punishment are losing their divisiveness as the left recognizes the importance of fighting crime and the right finds practical reasons for reform. We will see more of this as the former religious right is pushed into irrelevance. By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN EXCERPT: In those moments of…
VIDEO: Michael Newdow in Panel at Boston College on Religious Freedom and the Pledge of Allegiance
This is particularly relevant this election year. From http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/newdow/ October 18, 2006 – Boston College – Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life Every day millions of schoolchildren pledge allegiance to the American flag and “the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Michael Newdow…
Historical Profile: John Wycliffe – Morning Star of the Reformation (Excerpt from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs)
One of my favorite reformers has to be John Wycliffe, who translated the language of the Latin Vulgate into language that everybody could understand. This weekend, as part of our weekend inspirational series, we are pleased to present this excerpt from the classic, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, not because of any connection with a particular…
ADVOCACY: There’s More to Faith than James Dobson (FaithfulAmerica.org)
Is Focus on the Family president James Dobson’s opinion worth more than the beliefs of the entire American population? The cable news networks seem to think so. Early this week, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a groundbreaking survey of 35,000 Americans documenting the diversity and tolerance of people of faith and…
This Fourth of July, Celebrate Religious Freedom (The Baptist Standard)
Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty says that it is time to celebrate our religious freedom this 4th of July. Our founders protected our God-given freedom by barring government from meddling in religion or taking sides in religious disputes. As a result, and as a consequence of their foresight…
Professor Steven Calabresi on Enforcing Morality (Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy)
In this essay published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Steven Calabresi, the George C. Dix Professor of Constitutional Law, Northwestern University School of Law, comments on Judge Robert Bork’s thought-provoking book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, specifically focusing on governmental efforts to enforce morality. Calabresi argues that there is a place in the…
VIDEO: Increasing American Religious Comity (Pew Forum by way of Spectrum Magazine)
Thanks to Alexander Carpenter for finding this great video. Click here to watch and review the analysis: http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/06/25/pew_video_increasing_american_religious_comity Although a majority of Americans say religion is very important to them, nearly three-quarters of them say they believe that many faiths besides their own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum…
RAW MATERIALS: This week’s Obama / Dobson broughaha
To help understand what’s going on between Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, we have assembled the raw materials and news stories about the subject. 1. Read Obama’s Speech from June 28, 2006 “Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a…
“A Call To Renewal” – Barack Obama on the Role of Religion in Public Life
BARACK OBAMA TRANSCRIPT: ‘Call to Renewal’ Keynote Address Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Washington, DC Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here at the Call to Renewal‘s Building a Covenant for a New America conference. I’ve had the opportunity to take a look at your Covenant for a New America. It is filled with…