Religious Wars and Religious Freedom: A Troubled History
- March/April 2010
- March 1, 2010
Snow falls every year in the Northeast United States. It’s effects range from New England style picture postcard to the sheet ice and downed power lines that often accompany late winter storms closer to Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Most years snow is a hoped for accompaniment to the holiday season and
READ MOREAs I write these words the shock of the Fort Hood shootings has subsided, somewhat. Tragic as it is, in a time of war(s), we almost get used to reports of American service members being shot. That’s what military people sometimes do: get shot. But for such shootings to happen in the &”homeland&” itself, and
READ MOREAlthough today Western society generally accepts that freedom of religious belief and expression is an innate human right, that position emerged only after centuries of religious intolerance and persecution, and centuries of interreligious hatred so extreme that it frequently resulted in wars of religion. This article is the first in a four-part series exploring the
READ MOREI am in Canterbury, England, at Canterbury Cathedral, home of the archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican/Episcopal Church. I came to attend as an observer the annual meeting of the Council of Secretaries of the Christian World Communions. There are about 25 people attending the meeting: leaders from many denominations. Dr. John Graz, director
READ MOREI am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error. —Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, 1870
READ MORESparks of religious controversy can be kindled from even the most everyday circumstances in the United States. One recent flash point was ignited by a minor fender-bender in a San Diego, California-area neighborhood and briefly erupted into a media firestorm. The confusion and fear this controversy caused could have been avoided, and the U.S. constitutional
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