EXCERPT: Sex and civic education in schools in Europe is an “attack” on religious freedom, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday, following a Vatican row with Spain over a new course promoting liberal values. “I cannot remain silent about another attack on the religious freedom of families in certain European countries which mandate obligatory participation…
Category: Current Events
Citing persecutions abroad, Obama declares ‘Religious Freedom Day’ (Examiner)
EXCERPT: President Obama yesterday carried out what has become an annual tradition of declaring January 16 “Religious Freedom Day.” Citing Virginia’s 1786 “Statute for Religious Freedom,” in which Tomas Jefferson wrote that “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion,” the president said that although the…
Article18: Sudan — Referendum Could Split Nation in Two; Potentially Good News for Millions of Sudanese Christians and Muslims
By Martin Surridge – Quietly making news this week, nestled between the East Coast snow storms and the Arizona shooting, is an event which, if all unfolds as expected, will make history in a corner of the world that has so often been tragically forgotten. Welcome back to Article18–RLTV’s first weekly blog specifically dedicated to…
Article18: A New Weekly International Blog by RLTV Associate Editor Martin Surridge
Read the Latest Article18 Blog Posts Here. This is the first entry for Article18 –RLTV’s first weekly blog specifically dedicated to religious liberty issues in other countries around the world. Each week, we will be focusing on a different nation, and the struggles facing its different religious communities, be they Muslim, Christian, Hindu, or Jewish….
Egypt’s Coptic Christians Call for More Religious Freedom (AJE)
EXCERPT: Angry protests by Egypt’s Christian Copts have become a familiar scene. Hundreds clashed with police last November over plans for a new church building in Giza, leaving two protesters dead. And in January of that year, Copts protested in the southern town of Nag Hamadi after six members were killed in an attack on…
A Tennessee mosque, a good American story (First Amendment Center)
EXCERPT: By Charles C. Haynes, Director of the Religious Freedom Education Project December 31, 2010 — The No. 1 religion story of 2010 was the emotional, often ugly debate over plans for an Islamic center two blocks from ground zero in Manhattan, according to Religion Newswriters Association members – and just about everyone else making…
In Defense of Separation
In the past few months there has been a renewed debate about the principles surrounding the first amendment, and especially about what scholars call the religion clauses – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Prior to the midterm elections in November, Christine O’Donnell asserted that…
Religious Liberty 2010 – A Year in Review
By Jason Hines – 2010 has been an interesting year in the area of church-state relations, both at home and abroad. While we cannot cover every event of magnitude that took place this year in this forum, we will touch on some of the more important events have taken place over the last 365 days….
Greg Hamilton’s Book Shelf – 2011
Greg Hamilton, President of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association and advisory panel member of ReligiousLiberty.TV presents his book list for 2010-2011. Amazon.com Widgets 1) Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 by Pauline Maier 2) Decision Points by George W. Bush 3) The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in Nineteenth-Century America by Steve Green 4)…
Secrecy v. Transparency – Wikileaks and the Gospel
The keywords for today are “Secrecy” and “Transparency.” There are good secrets and bad secrets. Things to be concealed and things to be revealed. Some people want to know, others want to hide. Secrecy is an valuable commodity. From universities that want to protect professors’ academic freedom by keeping their controversial viewpoints from public criticism…