EXCERPT: Two Muslim religious leaders say they were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. Masudur Rahman, who is also an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said by phone from the terminal at Memphis…
Category: Human Rights
Chinese police detain members of unregistered church (LA Times)
EXCERPT: Chinese police on Sunday detained more than 100 churchgoers who tried to hold an outdoor prayer service on a pedestrian bridge in Beijing after having failed to secure permission to open a church. Although it is not uncommon for police to raid unregistered churches, this latest bust in the very heart of Beijing suggests…
Polygamy law doesn’t breach religious freedom guarantee, lawyer argues – Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Polygamy+doesn+breach+religious+freedom+guarantee+lawyer+argues/4544448/story.html
Justice Department sues on behalf of Muslim teacher, triggering debate – The Washington Post
Do religious accommodation requirements cover a 3 week trip to Mecca? http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-sues-on-behalf-of-muslim-teacher-triggering-debate/2010/07/28/ABfSPtEB_story.html
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. . . . >>>
Conversation is the True Work of Peacemaking – Huffington Post
Last week I spent three days at a gathering of the leaders of the Religious Peace Fellowships in Stony Point, N.Y. There were representatives from more than a dozen Christian denominations — from Catholic and Orthodox to Mennonite and Brethren — as well as Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist peace fellowships. And me, from the Adventist Peace Fellowship. It was the first time such a gathering had taken place in many years. It was clear that while peacemaking in our increasingly violent world was an urgent priority for all of us, working together across denominational and religious lines was something we didn’t understand as well.
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.
Advanced Citizenship: The Cost of Free Speech in America
By Jason Hines – One of my favorite movies is “The American President,” (1995) starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. It is the story of a widowed president who falls in love with a liberal lobbyist. He struggles to navigate his relationship with her while also doing his job as the President. It’s a good…
The End of the Community Action Program?
By Monte Sahlin – One of the items on the hit list of the new majority in the House of Representatives to “balance the budget” is the Community Action Program (CAP) or what is currently labeled Community Service Block Grants. This is a program begun in the 1960s in the Lyndon Johnson administration. It is…
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…