When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
Ever since President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, the chattering classes have speculated endlessly regarding the impact she might have on the future of American jurisprudence.1 She would bring wide-ranging experiences to the Court: prosecutor, civil litigator, federal trial judge, federal appellate judge, law school instructor, and Hispanic woman.2
READ MOREThe Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of mind—each convinced that it alone had a monopoly on the truth and therefore eager for the state to impose this truth on others. Often, the leaders and practitioners of absolutist religions were unable
READ MOREI thank you very much, and to receive an award from you is a special pleasure. Liberty magazine is a source not only of pride to Seventh-day Adventists, but a resource that’s been invaluable to all of us who work on behalf of religious liberty. That’s very special. . . . America is an extraordinary
READ MOREThe Christian lobby came to Capitol Hill in a big way in 1888. And that meant that the nation’s lawmakers were certain to hear from the &”counter-lobby&” spearheaded by the American Sentinel magazine as well. (The Sentinel was the precursor to Liberty magazine.) As discussed in part 1 of this series, the main purpose of
READ MOREThe experience of the Religious Right is a cautionary one. Successful in putting together a coalition with enormous electoral clout for over three decades, they were mainly unsuccessful in changing American life. In addition to adopting a hectoring tone that embarrassed many evangelical Christians, they were wrong about what the United States Constitution means in
READ MORESometimes it’s an indignant murmur, sometimes it’s an angry tirade, but lately you hear it louder and louder. &”America is taking God out of everything, and we wonder why our nation is experiencing so many problems,&”1 posted someone identified as &”T&” to the Amboy Times in response to a blurb about the removal of &”In
READ MOREThe trouble with the American Sentinel, wrote Rev. W. T. McConnell in 1887, was that it seemed &”determined to oppose the progress of this nation in fulfilling its vocation as an instrument in the divine work of regenerating human society.&”1 The rebuke to Liberty magazine’s predecessor from the Youngstown, Ohio, preacher was on target. Then
READ MOREWhat is liberty? It is freedom from undue restraint; it is the sum of the rights and immunities of all the citizens of an organized civil community, with provision for guaranteed protection against interference with their civil, political, personal, and religious activities. What pictures the word &”liberty&” conjures up! It brings to mind opened prisons,
READ MOREIn a pluralistic society a fundamental assumption of public policy is the recognition that everything immoral need not be declared illegal. The public morality that is expressed in law reflects a consensus derived from public debate. . . . Social realities as well as religious principles must be taken into account in judging the wisdom
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