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Never Hostile to Religion 0
- July/August 2005
- July 1, 2005
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution "affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance of all religions, and forbids hostility towards any." Anything less than accommodation would require "callous indifference," which was never intended by the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Looking at the initial drafts of the First Amendment makes it clear that
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First Amendment Religious Liberty Guarantees Neutrality, Not Hostility 0
- July/August 2005
- July 1, 2005
Benjamin Gitlow's 1925 day before the United States Supreme Court opened the door to vigorous legal disputes testing First Amendment religious liberty guarantees in all jurisdictions. Hardly a church-state activist, Gitlow, an avowed anarchist, unleashed inflammatory rhetoric that pushed the limits of free speech under New York state law. The court responded with a ruling
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The Bill of Freedoms A Christian looks at the meaning of God's ten rules. . .0
- May/June 2005
- May 1, 2005
The 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
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The Ten Commandments 0
- May/June 2005
- May 1, 2005
Download the High Resolution Graphic of the Ten Comandments
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Church-State Relations in America What's at Stake and What's Not 0
- 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
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Showing Proper Respect 0
- May/June 2005
- May 1, 2005
The United States Supreme Court will consider two cases challenging Ten Commandments displays under the First Amendment's establishment clause this term. One case, Van Orden v. Perry (03-1500), involves a Ten Commandments monolith donated in 1961 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and displayed with the authorization of the Texas legislature on the grounds of
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