When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
The U.S. Constitution does indeed afford students the right to pray while at school, so long as it is not state-sponsored or required. Many advocates of student-led prayer have fought to ensure this right. But who is fighting to ensure the rights of those individual citizens who want to gather in private homes to pray?
READ MOREThe freedom to exercise one's religion is arguably the most precious liberty Americans enjoy. The very first clauses of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution read: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . ." For more than two centuries this "prohibition" has
READ MOREChris Carter was a state policeman-a very good one. He has a sheaf of commendations, awards, and positive media coverage an inch thick. Obviously, he was the kind of officer any law-enforcement agency would want to employ: honest and conscientious. Too honest and conscientious not to obey his deeply held belief that God requires him
READ MOREChristian to the Core I am finally writing this letter in response to an article I saw in Liberty some years ago (actually, May/June 1996). I was a bit surprised when I read "Our Godless Constitution." As a teacher and historian I was alarmed at your article. Over the years I became fascinated with early
READ MOREThe closing days of 1999, while full of talk of millennial possibilities, were curiously lacking in real optimism (blame Y2K if you like). Curious because the stock market (which may now have descended the depths) was at that time and the time of this writing sailing well beyond the 11,000 mark-an all-time high, buoyed up
READ MOREThe Kansas State Board of Education recently decided to demphasize the teaching of evolution in the Kansas public schools. This recharged the ongoing debate across America about the relative merits of evolution and creationism as curricular subjects in the nation's public schools. Evolution is the scientific theory that organisms evolve over time by adopting traits
READ MORERecent developments, however, indicate that some churches might be seeking to protect the observance of their holy days by means of civil legislation, even if it means violating the First Amendment. For example, the new Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly states: "In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek
READ MOREThis article has become the cornerstone of the international instruments defending religious freedom. In the General Comment we read: "The fundamental character of these freedoms is also reflected in the fact that this provision cannot be derogated . . . from even in time of public emergency."2 Another key document is the Declaration on the
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