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Crucifix Conundrums 0
- September/October 2010
- September 1, 2010
In November 2009 the Catholic Church in Italy was faced with a "Crucifix Conundrum." Catholic crucifixes adorn every room of the public school system. In northern Italy, Soile Lautsi, a mother of two, filed a complaint against the Catholic practice, claiming it violated the secular intent of public schools in Italy and denied her the
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An Empty Gesture 0
- September/October 2010
- September 1, 2010
One of its least important decisions ever in the jurisprudence of ‘church and state’&” is how Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union described the Supreme Court’s decision in Salazar v. Buono, which is only the latest twist in a legal saga that has been going on for more than eight years. What would cause a
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Talk of Many Things 0
- September/October 2010
- September 1, 2010
Sometimes things that seem impenetrable are merely wrong. Take the song &”I Am the Walrus,&” composed by John Lennon and released by the Beatles in 1967. Lennon purposely tried to make the language obscure to pay back a high school English class that he heard was analyzing his lyrics. He was distressed later to realize
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No Modern Inquisition 0
- July/August 2010
- July 1, 2010
I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern Inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division. —The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, quoted in Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, compiled and edited by Albert J. Menendez and
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"Give Us This Prayer"0
- July/August 2010
- July 1, 2010
It wasn’t supposed to work like this. An atheist organization filed a lawsuit earlier in the year challenging the National Day of Prayer as a violation of the establishment clause. The hope was that, if the organization won, the suit wouldn’t be challenged by the Obama administration. After all, a liberal democratic president (a &”socialist,&”
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No Safe Forum 0
- July/August 2010
- July 1, 2010
The way President Barack Obama sees things, Americans should be able to find unity in prayer—even if they disagree on the details of faith and politics. That’s true in the current debates about health care, poverty, and even gay marriage, he said at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast. &”Surely we can agree to find common
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