When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
Content Moderation, Religious Freedom, and the Digital Public Square If religious freedom is advocated only for pragmatic reasons, it can and will be sacrificed to expediency.”1 Those words, spoken in 1983 by the late evangelical theologian and ethicist Carl F. H. Henry, were prophetic. They foreshadowed much of what was to come after his death
READ MOREIn the high-stakes world of international religious freedom advocacy, simply changing laws isn’t enough. In 1998 the U.S. Congress took an extraordinary step toward recognizing the importance of international religious freedom. Along with other measures, Congress created an independent, bipartisan body called the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF. Its task? To monitor
READ MOREWhy should social justice be cast as incompatible with Christianity? Even a cursory reading of the Bible leads to the conclusion that justice for the poor and oppressed is of vital importance to God. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord rebuked the religionists who enthusiastically engaged in worship rituals while neglecting the injustice all
READ MORETeresa Brown, raised by hardworking Seventh-day Adventist parents in California, was used to jumping through hoops to avoid working on Saturdays, her day of worship. At one of her first jobs, scooping ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins store, the manager kept scheduling her to work on Saturdays, and she repeatedly had to ask the owner
READ MOREThree decades ago, a BBC journalist reporting from Pakistan was appalled by the violence she saw directed against religious minorities—violence fueled by laws against blasphemy. Today, as cofounder of an international organization that tracks religious persecution, she explains how these laws continue to exact their brutal toll. You haven’t seen your children for eight years.
READ MOREAs a child of the pre-digital age, I’ve completed my fair share of connect-the-dot puzzles. You start at number one and draw a line to number two and by the time you get to number 300 or so, you’ve magically created an elaborate picture. The speech given by Russian president Vladimir Putin on February 21
READ MOREPhoto caption: As Russian missiles fell, leaders of different faith communities gathered on March 2, 2022, at Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral to pray for peace. In the sweep of history, Russia’s aggressions in Ukraine form the latest chapter in a tale marked by blood and turmoil. In the weeks leading up to February’s invasion, a
READ MOREEvery issue of Liberty magazine includes a declaration of principles, which begins with this statement: “The God-given right of religious liberty is best exercised when church and state are separate.” A recent survey by the Pew Research Center provides an intriguing snapshot of current beliefs about what role Christianity—and religion in general—should play in civic
READ MOREPerspective Fact-blindness, unreasoning partisanship, and a fast-growing deficit of compassion. Can people of faith help forge a path through our current political morass? Illustration by Jon Krause More than 100,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses in a 12-month period,1 overall life expectancy is falling,2 and our immigration system is, by all accounts, a catastrophe.
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