By Richard Epstein EXCERPT: What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. One glaring weaknesses of the modern law on religious freedom is that it turns a blind eye toward neutral rules with a disparate impact on members of minority groups. That is why Justice Scalia was wrong in Employment Division, Department of Human…
Category: Current Events
Campus Christian Groups Loses Appeal at Supreme Court (CNN)
EXCERPT: CNN – The Supreme Court has ruled against a Christian campus group that sued after a California law school denied it official recognition because the student organization limits its core membership to those who share its beliefs on faith and marriage. At issue was the conflict between a public university’s anti-discrimination policies and a…
‘Under God’ Spray-Painted On Secularist Billboard (WSOC)
EXCERPT: Charlotte, NC (WSOC) – A secularist billboard on the Billy Graham Parkway was vandalized over the weekend.The billboard, which was paid for by the The North Carolina Secular Association, shows an American flag and the words “One Nation, Indivisible.” Over the weekend, someone spray-painted the words “under God” on the billboard.Police were notified and…
Nikki Haley provokes question: What’s Sikhism? (CNN)
EXCERPT: By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN – While researching my prior post about Nikki Haley coming under attack by her fellow South Carolina Republicans for her Sikh heritage, I came across a local activist, Oran Smith of the Palmetto Family Council, who told CNN, “Most people can’t even pronounce ?Sikh,’ even the ones that…
North Carolina billboards challenge “one nation under God” (WBTV)
EXCERPT: Charlotte, NC (WBTV) – Some billboards popping up in Charlotte and across North Carolina are giving some drivers reason to pause. One of the billboards is on Billy Graham Parkway in west Charlotte. It shows an American flag with the words “One Nation Indivisible” superimposed. The billboard campaign has just started and will appear…
RLTV PODCAST – “Under the Blood Banner” Eric Kreye talks about Growing Up in Hitler’s Germany
Eric Kreye, whose story is told in the book Under the Blood Banner: The Story of a Hitler Youth talks with Michael Peabody about growing up in Hitler’s Germany. Born in America but raised in Germany, Eric describes how he was beaten by his teacher when he could not recite Hitler’s life story, how his father helped him avoid many of the Hitler Youth activities, how his family hid a Jewish woman and her daughter from the Gestapo, what it was like when the American military moved into Germany, and how he and his brother came to America.
RLTV PODCAST: Jason Hines – A Passion for Freedom
Attorneys Jason Hines and Michael Peabody discuss principles of liberty of conscience.
Ground-Zero Mosque Protest Organizer: “Not an Issue of Religious Freedom” (CNN)
EXCERPT: New York (CNN) — Protesters gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001. Protest organizer Pamela Geller, a conservative blogger, and her group, “Stop…
“Spritual but not religious” community growing (CNN)
EXCERPT: June 4, 2010 – (CNN) — “I’m spiritual but not religious.” It’s a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don’t need organized religion to live a life of faith. But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism. “Being spiritual but not religious can…
Religious leaders denounce Arizona immigration law (BBC)
EXCERPT: June 4, 2010 – Religious leaders in the US and Latin America have denounced Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. The law requires police to question people about their immigration status, if officers suspect the person is in the US illegally, and if they have stopped them for a legitimate reason. Archbishop Rafael Romo Munoz,…