When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
What is the truth when it comes to understanding the constitutional principles of the separation of church and state, and the free exercise of religion? In today’s passionate melee over the Health and Human Services’ “contraception mandate,” and on other issues such as gay marriage, school prayer, the placement of Ten Commandment monuments in public
READ MOREWhen Communism collapsed in 1989, capitalism was the alternative. If capitalism collapses, what is the alternative today? This question deserves serious consideration. The dearth of policy solutions to the current economic crisis, compounded by sharp partisan policy disagreements in the United States and political indecisiveness in Europe and Japan, puts the virtual collapse of capitalism
READ MOREIt’s cherry blossom time again in Washington, D.C., as I write these words. The groundhog shadow thing let us all down a bit this year, and the lingering winter chill threatened a bracing festival in the nation’s capital.Cherry blossom time in 1968 was of course far more fraught. On Thursday evening, April 4, Martin Luther
READ MOREOn December 18, 2012, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) presented a 90-minute documentary titled First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Liberty . An excellent introduction to this all-important subject, it traced the development of religious freedom in America from early colonial times to shortly after 1800, coming down firmly on the side of church-state separation.
READ MOREOne of the worst nightmares would have to be detention in an overcrowded prison without knowing why or for how long. You might have done nothing wrong, but you are treated like a murderer. You know yourself to be innocent, but someone made a mistake. Who? Why? Now imagine that the country in which you
READ MOREImagine you are a Christian living in a society permeated by religious fanaticism and extreme intolerance. With few rights in your own country, you are seeking the liberty to live in a country that was founded upon freedom. Yet the little dignity you have left is stripped away, and your hopes and dreams are crushed
READ MOREAfter the shock of September 11, 2001, it would seem that a certain numbness of sensibility has allowed the world to absorb a succession of otherwise near apocalyptic events. I might mention just a few examples. The storm that inundated the northeastern United States is predicted to be the first of many more global warming
READ MORESeeing the world through the eyes of John Milton would be both supremely enlightening as well as dark beyond all measure. It was likely the many years spent scrawling political pamphlets by candlelight that cost the English poet his eyesight at the age of forty-four, and ensured that the majority of his magnum opus, the
READ MOREThe confetti and popped balloons of the 2012 U.S. presidential race were hardly swept into trash bins before speculation started about the next presidential election cycle, a full four years away. Aside from the annoyance many feel about the “perpetual campaign mode” now afflicting American politics, the trouble into which one potential presidential candidate has
READ MORE