AUTHOR
T. Riggs Eckelberry
When I was growing up, we lived everywhere, and to this day I can number my friends from school on one hand. I have served as a commercial ship captain, wine importer, film production manager, and above all, technologist. Today, I’m the CEO of a public company that licenses a unique technology for treating water. I believe that technology has the potential to save the world, but also to undermine our rights and our independence. The many people working in the spiritual arena are the vital counter-balance, and I’m proud to be one of these, with my wife, Sigrid.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The Pew Research Center just updated its 10-point scale Government Restrictions Index. And it’s depressing: the score has risen steadily since 2011.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Don’t be an accomplice. At the very least, step away. Even better, write a letter. Tell the editor what the freedoms above mean to you.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It means something that freedom of religion is grouped with the freedoms of thought and conscience because, over the ages, human beings who thought about being and ethics naturally also thought about religion.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It was April 2019, the beginning of Easter celebrations in France. That’s when, to the world’s horror, the 850-year-old Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral erupted in flames. Was it just an accident, terrible timing, or did someone intend to set this fire?
TOLERANCE
Interestingly, the two “discriminations”—racial and religious—have historical intersections in this land of the free. They stem from the same root, after all, the root called bigotry.
TOLERANCE
Imagine you’re Hollywood. You’re not like everyone else. You’re passionate about your causes; about injustice and the relentless pace of climate change. You consider yourself tolerant. Liberal. Progressive, even. You oppose anti-Semitism in all its forms.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
There is nothing more personal—and, for many of us, there is nothing more precious—than the right to live as we believe and worship God as we choose.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
There’s a day that now comes right after the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. Because hand in hand with terrorism comes Violence Based on Religion or Belief.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
More than 30 years ago, Ivanir dos Santos began combating racial discrimination and promoting rights of members of minority groups; he has never faltered in that mission. Today a priest of the much-discriminated-against Candomblé religion, Mr. dos Santos’ most visible achievement is the “Walk in Defense of Religious Freedom” in Rio de Janeiro. The walk has become “an annual event that draws some 50,000 participants from diverse religious backgrounds, including Candomblé, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Spiritualists, and atheists.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It was a big event: on its final day, a participant reported, “Close to 900 members of civil society and religious groups attended. By my count, we had 36 panels and 186 speakers over those two days (give or take a few). Over 100 governments coming today!”
