In its Founding Statement, the European Sunday Alliance argues that, in the interest of synchronicity, Sunday is the appropriate day of rest for all of Europe, and makes no allowance or acknowledgment of what should be done for those whose faith requires them to rest on a day outside of Sunday. In fact, it is not hard to see how those who rest on a different day might be an annoyance or hindrance to Sunday rest, and even in the debate may be portrayed as roadblocks, troublemakers, or even anti-religious. Businesses who open on Sunday could be fined, and those who conduct their own entrepreneurial endeavors on Sunday could also find themselves operating against the law.
Category: History
Tennesee Senate Approves Bill to Ban Teaching of Homosexuality in Schools (Boston Globe)
EXCERPT: A bill passed yesterday by the Tennessee Senate would forbid public school teachers and students in grades kindergarten through eight from discussing the fact that some people are gay. Opponents deride the measure as the “don’t say gay bill.” They say it is unfair to the children of gay parents and could lead to…
Church, State, and the Postal Service: The Contentious History of Sunday Mail Delivery
Between its inception in 1775 and 1912, postal employees delivered mail seven (7) days a week. In the early 1800s, religious leaders became concerned that employees were forced to work on the “Christian Sabbath,” or Sunday, and began to petition Congress to use its Article I powers to disallow Sunday delivery. This concern reached a fevered pitch in 1810 when Congress required post offices to open at least one hour on Sunday. Outraged that Congress had thus enforced Sunday desecration, religious leaders began to clamor for legislation that would outlaw Sunday operations.
OPINION: The Good Old Days? Not Quite
By Brent Buttler – In these days in which people’s rights seem up for grabs there is a tendency to wish we could go back to the good old days when people had more freedom to live as they chose to live. However, upon further research I have discovered that people’s freedoms have been eroding…
EDITORIAL: Hero without a gun – Washington Times
Desmond T. Doss was 23 years old when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942. The lanky Lynchburg, Va., native was much like other young men of the Greatest Generation, but one thing set Desmond apart from the other new troops. He was a devout Seventh Day Adventist and refused to touch a weapon. Some of the men in his training unit made jokes about him, others threatened him, but Desmond held firm to his beliefs. . . . >>>
Obama Administration Changes Its Approach to the Defense of Marriage Act
During the brief window between the California Supreme Court’s decision finding a ban on same-sex marriage in violation of the California Constitution on May 15, 2008 and the ballot-initiative amending said constitution on November 5, 2008, Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer got married.
While same-sex marriages during this window period have been recognized in California since they were presumably “constitutional,” the newlyweds filed a case against the federal government in state court that was transferred upon motion of the federal government into federal court alleging that “the refusal of all states and jurisdictions” to recognize the validity of their marriage resulted in the denial of their marriage status by other states, and federal rights and benefits that other married couples received so long as they were of the opposite sex.
Secularism isn’t the same everywhere: Three models in Europe highlight various church-state relations (ANN)
23 Feb 2011, Berne, Switzerland Corrado Cozzi (Reprinted from Adventist News Network) Understanding three models of church-state relations in Europe is a key first step in addressing issues of religious freedom here. As recently as a decade ago, religion in the West was considered to be facing extinction. Now more than ever, matters of religious…
The Health-Religion Connection by Joshua Crouch
The struggle between faith-healing and public health services may not be a mainstream topic, yet it continues to rage throughout our nation. Oregon has recently had a string of adolescent deaths tied to extreme Christian conservatism. The Christian Science Church has pushed law makers to allow parents to exempt their children from all medical treatment,…
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…
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)…