September/October 1999

Another Look At the Separation Issue…That Wall 0
- September/October 1999
- September 1, 1999
The concept of separation evolved during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from two movements. The Enlightenment view, so ably expounded by people like John Milton and John Locke, emphasized liberty of conscience in religious matters and implied a minimum of state involvement with religion. As early as 1644 Milton affirmed in his Areopagitica, "Give me
READ MORE
Lessons From the Field of Blackbirds 0
- September/October 1999
- September 1, 1999
Death came with a frigid dawn and the thump of mortar fire over the sleepy town of Prekez, Serbia. Marie Kodra, 38, fled with her five children as Serbs fired into the houses. Avoiding the streets that were crawling with police, Mrs. Kodra led the children into the hills. Seeing a police patrol and hoping
READ MORE
Religious Liberty–Self-evident Truth?0
- September/October 1999
- September 1, 1999
"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free . . ." So begins the 1776 Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, widely recognized as influential in the subsequent framing of the Constitution. Here clearly stated is the frequently unspoken assumption of free will and choice as an inborn ability possessed by all. Even more significant are
READ MORE

Protecting Free Exercise 0
- September/October 1999
- September 1, 1999
For 10 years Grant Bennett and his fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) had been gathering in a simple meetinghouse for religious services in Belmont, Massachusetts. Then, in October of 1995, church officials decided the time had come to erect a proper church–an elaborate 70,000-square-foot temple with tall
READ MORE
Protecting Free Exercise 0
- September/October 1999
- November 1, 1998
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's invalidation of RFRA, Congress is considering legislation (The Religious Liberty Protection Act) that would once again enable religious believers and institutions to challenge, in court, government interference with religious practice. Under this bill, believers could obtain exemptions, or accommodations, if the government lacks a sufficiently strong justification
READ MORE