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Our Common Home 0
- November/December 2015
- December 1, 2015
As Pope Francis visited the United States for the first time—addressing a joint session of Congress as well as the United Nations during his September 22-27 stay—his recent narrative on the global environment provided much grist for talking points and debate. Even before he spoke in the United States, however, the pope said he hoped
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Courtship Between Church and State 0
- November/December 2015
- December 1, 2015
In September 2015 Pope Francis I made history by addressing a joint session of the United States Congress. His address to the U.S. Congress was historic for several reasons. Not only is he the first pope to speak before the bicameral legislature, but also his actions call into question the American concept of separation of
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Perception and Reality 0
- November/December 2015
- December 1, 2015
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling last month in Obergefell v. Hodges,1 holding that state bans on same-sex marriages violated the Fourteenth Amendment, was undoubtedly an important constitutional decision. It meant different things for different parties. Three of the dissenting justices, 2 along with many commentators, noted their grave concerns that Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion
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If the Cap Fits 0
- September/October 2015
- October 1, 2015
A Sikh wearing a turban, a Hasidic Jew wearing a hat, a Muslim wearing a hijab, and a Catholic nun in a habit walk into an Abercrombie & Fitch interview: not the beginning of a cringe-worthy joke but rather a hypothetical by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to Abercrombie’s lawyer. The context was oral argument in
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If My People 0
- September/October 2015
- September 1, 2015
It was the Elizabethan poet Thomas Dekker who wrote of the “merry month of May.” And so it must have seemed to some living during what his society perceived to be the most admirable time to be alive. It remained for the dour T.S. Elliot living through the Great War to stamp the times since
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God and Government 0
- September/October 2015
- September 1, 2015
Anyone who knows him, or at least about him, will have a strong opinion about the Reverend Barry Lynn. A former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Lynn has since 1992 been the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU). Thus, your sentiment about Lynn most likely depends upon what you
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