Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Controversy Over British Mosque's Proposed Broadcast of Call To Prayer
Britain's Muslim Council says that increasingly Muslims are receiving the call to prayer by high-tech alternatives-- a special FM frequency or by a text message on their cell phones.
William & Mary President Resigns After Contract Non-Renewal
Nichol added: "[T]he Board of Visitors offered both my wife and me substantial economic incentives if we would agree 'not to characterize [the non-renewal decision] as based on ideological grounds' or make any other statement about my departure without their approval. Some members may have intended this as a gesture of generosity to ease my transition. But the stipulation of censorship made it seem like something else entirely. We, of course, rejected the offer."I altered the way a Christian cross was displayed in a public facility, on a public university campus, in a chapel used regularly for secular College events -- both voluntary and mandatory -- in order to help Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other religious minorities feel more meaningfully included as members of our broad community. The decision was likely required by any effective notion of separation of church and state. And it was certainly motivated by the desire to extend the College’s welcome more generously to all. We are charged, as state actors, to respect and accommodate all religions, and to endorse none. The decision did no more.
The Board of Visitor's in a statement, however, said that its decision "was not in any way based on ideology or any single public controversy." It added that "so there is no doubt, the Board will not allow any change in the compromise reached on the placement of the Wren Cross." The Board also announced that Law School Dean W. Taylor Reveley will serve as acting president unitl a successor is found.
Today's Washington Post reports on the resignation. [Thanks to Chip Lupu for the lead.]
Colorado Marriage Amendment Challenged On Establishment Clause Grounds
Custody Cases Increasingly Involve Religious Issues
4th Circuit Finds Employer Adequately Accommodated Religious Observances
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Archbishop of Canterbury Explains His Views On Sharia and British Law
Today's London Times surveys reaction to Williams' latest statements.The lecture was written as an opening contribution to a series on Islam and English Law.... [I]t posed the question to the legal establishment of whether attempts to accommodate aspects of Islamic law would create an area where the law of the land doesn't run.... I concluded that nothing should be recognised which had that effect. We are not talking about parallel jurisdictions; and I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank cheques' in this regard, in particular as regards ... the status and liberties of women. The law of the land still guarantees for all the basic components of human dignity.
So the question remains of whether certain additional choices could and should be made available under the law of the United Kingdom for resolving disputes and regulating transactions.... If ... this were thought to be a useful direction in which to move, there would be plenty of work still to be done, with the greatest care, on what would and would not be possible and appropriate areas for such co-operation.
Today Is Darwin Day
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Look To Restrict Valentine's Day Celebrations
New Website Suggests Jesus For 2008 White House Bid
Putin's Role In Reviving Orthodox Church Is Examined
Under Putin, government officials have become more pious --at least outwardly --and have deepened their contacts with the church hierarchy, according to both supporters and critics of the church..... The apparent rise of clerical influence has alarmed secular critics, who charge that it threatens the separation of church and state mandated in Russia's 1993 Constitution. "Soon the church will be represented in all the places where there used to be cells of the Soviet Communist Party," said Vitaly Ginzburg, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and outspoken critic of the church. "It wants to be everywhere." Yet at the same time, Putin has restrained some of the church's more controversial initiatives, such as an effort to add an Orthodoxy class to the nationwide school curriculum....
Damages, Staff Training, Imposed in Church in England Discrimination Case
Monday, February 11, 2008
Rep. Tom Lantos, Human Rights Advocate, Dies
Florida Board Will Vote On Requirement To Teach Evolution
President Speaks At National Prayer Breakfast
Voice of America reported that the keynote speaker at the breakfast was Ward Brehm, head of the U.S. African Development Foundation, a federal agency that assists small businesses in Africa. The National Prayer Breakfast is advertised as non-denominational, though it is sponsored each year by The Fellowship Foundation, a Christian outreach group.Every President since Dwight Eisenhower has attended the National Prayer Breakfast -- and I am really proud to carry on that tradition. It's an important tradition, and I'm confident Presidents who follow me will do the same. The people in this room come from many different walks of faith. Yet we share one clear conviction: We believe that the Almighty hears our prayers -- and answers those who seek Him. That's what we believe; otherwise, why come? Through the miracle of prayer, we believe he listens -- if we listen to his voice and seek our presence -- his presence in our lives, our hearts will change. And in so doing, in seeking God, we grow in ways that we could never imagine.
Pope Strains Interfaith Relations In Revised Tridentine Rite Prayer For Jews
Recent Articles and Books of Interest
- Benjamin L. Berger, Moral Judgment, Criminal Law and the Constitutional Protection of Religion, (Supreme Court Law Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2008).
- Ira C. Lupu & Robert W. Tuttle, The Cross at College: Accommodation and Acknowledgment of Religion at Public Universities , (William & Mary Bill of Rights, Vol. 16, 2008).
- Frederick Mark Gedicks, Three Questions About Hybrid Rights and Religious Groups, (Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, Vol. 117, Forthcoming).
- Patrick McKinley Brennan, The Contributions of Catholics to the Socio-Political Order, 56 Catholic University Law Review 1221-1235 (2007).
- Charles P. Kindregan, Jr., Religion, Polygamy, and Non-Traditional Families: Disparate Views On the Evolution of Marriage In History and In the Debate Over Same-Sex Unions, 41 Suffolk University Law Review 19-48 (2007).
- Samuel J. Levine, Reflections On Responsibilities In the Public Square, Through a Perspective of Jewish Tradition: A Brief Biblical Survey, 56 Catholic University Law Review 1203-1219 (2007).
- Gregory P. Magarian, The Jurisprudence of Colliding First Amendment Interests: From the Dead End of Neutrality to the Open Road of Participation-Enhancing Review, [Abstract], 83 Notre Dame Law Review 185-264 (2007).
Recent Books:
- Amy Sullivan, The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap, (Scribner, Feb. 2008), (Reviewed by New York Times).
- E. J. Dionne Jr., Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right, (Princeton University Press, Jan. 2008), (Reviewed by New York Times).
- Stephen Paine, A Crisis in America: An Urgent Message to My Fellow Americans, (Outskirts Press, Jan. 2008), (Review by Publisher).
Sunday, February 10, 2008
In Lithuania, Pre-Lent Carnival Has Anti-Jewish Overtones
District Court Nominee's Religious Views Generate Opposition
On Friday, the Billings (MT) Gazette reported that a number of groups also oppose Honaker's nomination because of his anti-abortion views. Honaker is past president of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association and of the Wyoming State Bar.Mr. Honaker rejects the well-settled principle of neutrality in Establishment Clause cases.... He chastises the "nation’s highest court ... [for] hav[ing] moved radically away from a Christian base, toward a secular base in which man, not God, is the creator of values, of rights, of law, and of justice." He further criticizes the Supreme Court because it "no longer talks about America as a Christian nation or about the Christian underpinnings of the law."... [S]uch statements imply that he will not look to the United States Constitution and federal statutes to resolve cases but instead will look to his understanding of God’s law.
... Honaker has shown a bias against non-Judeo-Christian faiths in his public speeches.... He argued that the Islamic faith should not have been recognized by the President in his inaugural address, as Islam has "played no role" in American freedoms.... Freedom, according to Honaker, is not only unattainable for non-Christian societies, but non-Christians in a democratic society may be a threat to that free society.