TAGS
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
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
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
Turns out they were attending a meeting of Baptist pastors at the hotel. Once we straightened out our respective denominational preferences, we quickly realized we had something in common. Both of us had observed that religion in general—whether Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Scientology or other—was under attack by secular forces.
MEDIA & ETHICS
I actually saw this question in an online forum the other day: “If I wanted to start my own cult, how would I do it?” Now to begin with, the word “cult” is simply a pejorative word for some group the person using it doesn't like.
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
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!”
TOLERANCE
While training as an Army officer, I was taught not to discuss politics and religion. This seemed eminently practical advice at the time. However, I have come to realize the flaw in this thinking. Communication is the universal solvent.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In the weeks prior to the tragic raid, one such demagogue, the notorious convicted felon Rick Ross of the now defunct Cult Awareness Network, appeared on several network news shows and revealed that he had been “briefing” both the FBI and the ATF with his poisonous rhetoric.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The case seems simple at first. Dominique Hakim Marcelle Ray was convicted in 1995 of the rape and murder of a 15-year old girl and sentenced to death. Ray subsequently converted to Islam in 2006 while incarcerated. The death sentence was to be carried out Feb.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Reading this recent article about a jailed neo-Nazi trying to hide behind “religious freedom” to protect his hate speech reinforced my faith in our collective ability to differentiate between legitimate arguments and specious ones—between those worth protecting and those who would go to any lengths to hurt others so they themselves could somehow feel strong.
