On October 5, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that will permit terminally ill patients to obtain medications that will enable them to end their own lives. The legislation had been opposed by disability rights groups that were concerned that people would choose to end their lives because of financial worries or depression.
Dr. Norman Farley examines the issue of immigration, the rule of law, and the search for solutions.
On Friday, September 25, 2015, the World Summit opened at the United Nations in New York City with a keynote address delivered by Pope Francis in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by the member states later in the day.
Political careers are made by identifying, or in some cases creating, amorphous bogeymen who have nothing in mind but the destruction of “The Constitution” and the “American way of life.” The call to get rid of the bogeyman and “all will be well” is a pernicious promise.
“In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.”
Have you ever wondered what legal mechanism existed that permitted the legalization of slavery in the United States after the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791? How it was that men, women, and children were held in bondage after Francis Scott Key wrote the famous words, “land of the free, and the home of the brave” in 1812? How segregation persisted in law until the late 1960s?
Even though the Court has granted accommodation requested by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, eliminating an independent judiciary is the real target.
Davis has made a decision according to her conscience, has had the willingness to not only follow it through, but also to go to jail for it. I am surprisingly both outraged by and sympathetic to her plight. I would love to talk about the legal ramifications of what she is doing (and I still might do that briefly), but tonight my mind turns primarily to the spiritual consequences of Davis’s actions.
Rowan County, Kentucky, is the flash point of a culture war that threatens to take us away from a Constitutional democracy and toward an American theocracy.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued an open letter to the mayors of Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC, among other government leaders on August 31, 2015 calling for them to maintain separation of church and state during Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. in September.