Showing Proper Respect
- May/June 2005
- May 1, 2005
It seems religious freedom has become an object of perpetual litigation. As a consequence, the struggle over church-state relations is vulnerable to a high level of crisis-mongering-especially in those ubiquitous fund-raising appeals. It is difficult to sort out real threats from mere shadows, and even harder to know where best to invest one's time and
READ MOREDownload the High Resolution Graphic of the Ten Comandments
READ MOREThe legal conflict over the public display of the Ten Commandments provides a wonderful opportunity to examine the content of the commandments. Although almost universally revered, the Ten Commandments are often thought of as rules that cannot be kept, or as an ideal that no one is really expected to attain. Or else, if the
READ MOREOne of the most famous scenes in American cinematic history unfurls near the end of Casablanca, when the police inspector declares to Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) that he's "shocked shocked!" to learn that there's gambling in Rick's nightclub. A moment later another man walks in and hands the inspector money, saying, "Your winnings, sir." Of
READ MOREAccording to the narrative in Exodus, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tablets of stone engraved by the finger of God Himself. The words on the stone were a visualization of the words that God had previously thundered out to the multitude gathered at the base of the mountain. However, when Moses came
READ MOREFor centuries Protestants have found a convenient division between the first and second tables of the ten-commandment law. Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, was the first American to associate two concepts: the separation of church and state and the two tables of the law. It was Williams, not Thomas Jefferson, who coined the
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