AUTHOR
Jeffrey Murphy
Paralegal, researcher & amateur historian.
TOLERANCE
The news reminded me of my own visit to Stonehenge some decades ago. Like so many others, I was very curious about what drove a people lacking any sort of technology to haul 20-ton rocks many miles and place them in a precise order. The people who built it in multiple stages between 5,000 and 2,600 years ago left no written history of themselves, so we can only guess.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The case has drawn considerable attention not only because of the fate of plaintiff Gerald Bostock, a Clayton County employee fired by his superiors after they learned he’d joined a gay softball league, but because of fears that, in the words of the main dissenting opinion, the Court’s decision “will threaten freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and personal privacy and safety.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The U.S. Supreme Court will shortly decide whether the State of Montana can prevent the use of public funds for any educational institution controlled by a religious organization.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
A bill currently pending in the Ohio state legislature has resulted in statements that, if it becomes law, students would be allowed to give “wrong” answers in class should scientific findings conflict with their religious beliefs. One opponent was quoted as saying that if a student gave a biblically based answer of 6,000 years as the age of the earth, a teacher would be forced to accept it. Others have made similar charges.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Then there have been a slew of high-profile tragedies including the New Zealand mosque attacks, the Easter Sunday bombing of Christian churches in Sri Lanka and several synagogue shootings in the United States and Europe. We seem to be living in a time of increased bigotry and even violence against people who are “different” whether of the “wrong” religion, skin color, gender or whatever.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
According to the astronomers supporting the project, it “will allow us to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity. … When operational, [it] will provide new observational opportunities in essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics.”
MEDIA & ETHICS
It’s obvious why journalists are wary of those who offer to trade information for profit— such people are all too likely to say what they think the person paying them wants to hear, regardless of the truth. Put in cruder terms than in the SPJ’s Code: “You get what you pay for.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that a 40-foot-high cross honoring residents of the Maryland town of Bladensburg killed in World War I will be allowed to remain on the public land for which it has stood for almost one hundred years.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Religion is extremely valuable to society, but only when people are free to examine the subject for themselves and draw the conclusions that seem right to them.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
It is not “normal” for people to hate each other because they look different, come from a different place or have different ideas about the ultimate nature of God and the universe.
