When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
“Speech Climate” On Campuses Declines Recent clashes between pro-Palestinian students and those supporting Israel—as well as a sharp increase in reports of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on American college and university campuses—are fueling a national debate about free speech. But according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), on-campus free speech problems were already
READ MOREFifteenth-century European geopolitics and a long-overdue conversation. We were just boys doing boy stuff. We crossed the country highway to each other’s front yards. We rode bikes together. We ran around with our dogs through the fields and woods around our homes. We played with magical sticks that morphed into swords, spears, guns, and whatever
READ MOREWhat could “interest convergence theory” mean for the religious liberty rights of Muslims and Christians? Illustrations by Michael Glenwood In December 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court in Tanzin v. Tanvir ruled unanimously in favor of three Muslim men who say they were placed on the no-fly list by FBI agents in retaliation for their refusal
READ MOREHow the digital world is remaking our political order. Illustration by Mary Haasdyk Vooys For more than a decade I have worked at the intersection of the two things we are told not to bring up at holiday gatherings: religion and politics. These topics often elicit visceral reactions—especially conversations about politics, which at times take
READ MORETracing the origins and legacy of the Maryland Act of Toleration of 1649 (This painting by Emmanuel Leutze entitled “The Founding of Maryland” (1634) depicts the Piscatawy Indians meeting with the colonists in St. Mary’s City. The figure on the left is believed to be Jesuit missionary Andrew White. In front of him, the chief
READ MOREThe lead sentence of a recent news release from America’s foremost atheist organization neatly sums up the feelings of many Americans today. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation celebrates a new Gallup poll showing that the percentage of Americans identifying as ‘nonreligious’ now exceeds those identifying as ‘religious.’” For a growing number of people, not just
READ MOREAssessing the hazards of the Supreme Court’s “one-sided” separation of church and state. Illustration by Robert Hunt In 2017 the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision involving an obscure issue about the relationship between church and state. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources provided grants to public and nonprofit schools and day-care centers
READ MOREThe rapidly evolving technology of artificial intelligence presents a slew of unknowns for humanity. For those who advocate for religious freedom, perhaps the key question is this: How far could the use of AI change the way our laws, our government, and other important social institutions relate to religion and religious practice? For answers, Liberty
READ MOREThe Supreme Court case of 303 Creative v. Elenis was cast as a standoff between religious free exercise and LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination. But what did the Court really decide? Illustration by Jon Krause In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything else his own.—John Trenchard and
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