When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
Thomas Becket, the son of a wealthy Norman merchant living in London, was born in 1118. After being educated in England, France and Italy, he joined the staff of Theobald, the archbishop of Canterbury.When Henry II became king in 1154, he asked Archbishop Theobald for advice on choosing his government ministers. On the suggestion of
READ MOREWith the rhetoric and rancor rising in the campaign for the White House, the election has increasingly become a call to the faithful, with candidates attempting to outdo one another in appealing to religious voters. Indeed, listening to these candidates, one could easily think this is a campaign for ecclesiastical rather than presidential office. One
READ MOREThe result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four words "Be just and good" is that in which all our inquiries must end. . . . My answer was "Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to
READ MOREIn its 1952 Zorach v. Clauson ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said it is constitutionally permissible for public school children to participate in released-time programs in which the children attended religious instruction classes away from school. Writing for the majority, the late Justice William O. Douglas observed: &”We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose
READ MOREYou don't have to believe in American "exceptionalism" to recognize that in the way it handles church-state matters the United States of America has made a vital and significant contribution to civilization. In a nutshell this means that government takes no side in religious disputes, does not prefer one religion above others, and does not
READ MOREJonathan Bean has put together a phenomenal work with Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader. For me, an African-American who interned with my church's religious liberty department while I was studying law, the book proved to be an amazing read, and I highly recommend it. I would state unequivocally that it would be
READ MOREEarly in 2011 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a reelected Conservative government would create an Office of Religious Freedom to ensure that defending persecuted religious minorities is a priority of Canada's foreign policy. Speaking to a packed room and an enthusiastic and diverse crowd, Prime Minister Harper praised the courage of those Canadians who
READ MOREThe United States, a demographically Christian nation, grants non-Christians the right to worship as they please. Religious conservatives, who often assert that the United States is a "Christian" nation in a public-governmental sense, increasingly have begun to connect this highly questionable claim with the norm of religious tolerance that prevails in "Christian" nations. They argue
READ MOREIt has long been a societal proposition that public education is designed to provide peoples of all socioeconomic, racial, and religious backgrounds with an equal and unbiased educational experience. The institutions of our society are claimed to reflect the separation of church and state, which has long been regarded as a fundamental element of our
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