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Holy Land Blues 0
- March/April 2014
- March 1, 2014
In the hostile atmosphere of Israel/Palestine, liberty and tolerance are losers all around, and religion is part of the unpleasant mix. Let us begin with the Palestinian scene. We have, in effect, two Palestines: Gaza and the West Bank; and the ruling faction of each wants to represent both. To understand more of their mutual
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My Constitution 0
- March/April 2014
- March 1, 2014
On the desk beside me is a booklet titled The Constitution of the United States, with an impressive picture of George Washington on its cover. In the forefront of the booklet are a number of quotations by Washington, an introduction to the booklet, and in the rear an index, a page with dates to remember
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Powerless Prayer 0
- March/April 2014
- March 1, 2014
Despite the First Amendment’s ban on government establishments of religion, opening government meetings with prayer is a longstanding tradition in many American communities. Indeed, in Marsh v. Chambers (1983) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld chaplain-led prayers before the Nebraska state legislature after a Nebraska lawmaker challenged the prayers as an unconstitutional advancement of religion. The
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A Divine Project 0
- March/April 2014
- March 1, 2014
In Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that the “wall of separation between Church and state ” was a “metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor” that “should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.” The history Rehnquist was referring to is of the formulation of the metaphor by Thomas Jefferson and
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