When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
Illustration by Scott Roberts Hardball litigation tactics are neither new nor particularly newsworthy—except when the aggressive litigant claims to represent God on earth. That scenario has driven the recent spate of articles commenting on the Catholic Church's increasingly bare-knuckle legal response to those accusing priests of sexual abuse. Church lawyers have repeatedly counterclaimed against the
READ MOREThe linkage of security and religious freedom is really not that new. In the United States the connection was first made in the 1663 Rhode Island Colonial Charter from England. "They have ffreely declared, that it is much on their hearts . . . to hold forth a livlie experiment, that a most flourishing civill
READ MOREIn the United States of America we often use slogans such as "truth, justice, and the American way" (last phrase in the opener for the 1950s television show Superman) and "with liberty and justice for all" (the closing phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance). These idealistic phrases can lull us into believing religious injustice happens
READ MOREIllustration by Ralph Butler In A.D. 135, at the end of the Jewish rebellion against Roman domination, the emperor Hadrian passed laws forbidding circumcision, the keeping of the Sabbath, and the study or teaching of the Torah. Though aimed at the Jews, these laws affected the course of the young Christian church to a greater
READ MOREIllustration by Jack Slattery Religion squared off with consumerism in Cypress, California, last May when the Cypress City Council voted unanimously to seize, through use of the city's power of eminent domain, 18 acres of land owned by the Cottonwood Christian Center in order to build a Costco discount store. "The city is trying to
READ MOREA State of Liberty "This Happy State," by Jim Walker (July/August 2002) presents a factual presentation of the intent of America's founders to keep the authority of the church separate from the authority of the state. But the article ignores the fact that there were Christian ideas behind the American concept of liberty. It was
READ MOREEnabling Laws? I am very concerned, not only with the way our government is enacting "religious liberty" laws, but also the way that some are proclaiming these as triumphs of religious liberty. In an article titled "Religious Freedom Act Passed in South Carolina" this statement is made: "Regardless of the amendment, the act which was
READ MOREBy John Graz France has been the leader of a very restrictive policy against sects and cults for several years. One man has illustrated this better than anyone else: Alain Vivien! He was already the anti-sect leader when I interviewed him in the 1980s for Conscience et Liberte.#1 At that time he was neither in
READ MOREHistory, as I remember it taught in my high school days, used to be little more than a recitation of wars and battles, with dates attached. I had thought those days long gone, with a more informed recognition of the complexity of human affairs enriching our contemporary view of events. But it seems we are
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