Tag: religious freedom
With the approval of plans to build the first new Catholic church in over 50 years and Pope Francis’s recent visit to the country, there are signs of increasing openness to religious life in Cuba after 50 years of repressive Communist rule. More
“Freedom of conscience underlies all other rights. It’s why our Bill of Rights begins with the free exercise of religion, and without the freedom of conscience to live in accordance with your core values, all other rights are in peril,” says Rabbi David Saperstein. More
“There are extraordinary circumstances under which people may be able to break the law and claim higher authority, but being an elected official is not one of them,” says Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. But Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society disagrees. “The law actually requires religious accommodation where it’s reasonable. It’s part of our traditions, it’s part of our history, and it’s part of our law,” he says. More
According to lawyer Douglas Laycock, this religious freedom case is not just about Gregory Holt, the American Muslim convict who now goes by the name of Abdul Maalik Muhammad and who is the plaintiff in Holt v Hobbs. “It’s about all those other prisoners that were not getting their scriptures, not getting their dietary needs, not getting the other things essential to religious practice.” More
Religious freedom activists are raising new concerns about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. “It is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, and we cannot continue to be silent,” says Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. More
Baptist pastor and Mississippi state senator Phillip Gandy sponsored a law he says will restore and protect people’s freedom to practice religion. Others interpret it as a means to legalize discrimination. “It’s aiming at keeping government in its place,” Gandy explains. But National Council of Churches president and general secretary Jim Winkler describes it as “a rearguard action by those concerned by changes taking place in society.” More
Three religious leaders continue their conversation about the mood of the country as President Obama’s second inaugural approaches and consider the crisis of gun violence and the inability of American society to deal with conflict. Violence, says theology professor Harold Dean Trulear, is “who we are as Americans.” More
Some pastors say their job is not to endorse political candidates. It is to make sure that their church members vote and “that they understand what’s at stake,” says Pastor Jeffery Daniel. More
The co-chair of Catholics for Obama explains how he believes Catholics can reconcile supporting President Obama despite his abortion position and his administration’s policy directing employers to provide free contraceptive services. More
Watch more of managing editor Kim Lawton’s interviews with former US Ambassador to the Vatican and co-chair of Catholics for Romney Jim Nicholson, and Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor with the Catholic Association. More
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