“Hadarat nashim”, the exclusion of women, is the catchphrase that encompasses all of the recent manifestations in Israel of the attempts to distance females from sitting at the front of the bus, singing in military ceremonies, publicly accepting prizes, appearing on public billboards and what not. It’s what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was talking [...]
Charles Murray observed in his book “Human Accomplishment” that the greatness of Western European civilization itself is derived from its belief in church and God. Catholicism itself was the defender of civilization during the Crusades against the Muslims, who attempted to conquer Europe. The French Roman Catholic King Charlemagne was the great hero who saved [...]
Click to enlarge This past Thursday, I watched with great interest the hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which was titled, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” The purpose of the hearing was to hear testimony [...]
In response to the recent coverage of gay marriage and transgender rights and the hearings in Annapolis, I am quite upset to think our elected officials are confusing the roles of the church and state. The Constitution requires civil liberties for all. Allowing the church to define the rules based on religion is not upholding [...]
Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – — – The First Amendment is quite [...]
Churches help people worship God, not institutions. States help people serve communities, not bureaucracies. However, things can get messy. Take January 20’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement that contraceptives must be included in the basic health insurance by employers who happen to be churches. A reasonable compromise is likely, but the [...]
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMOX) - The clash between abortion rights and religious advocates continued at the Missouri Capitol on Monday. Supporters of Planned Parenthood spoke out against proposed Senate legislation that would make exceptions to President Barack Obama’s mandate requiring employers to cover contraception in health care plans. Sen. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said the Catholic Church as [...]
Their continued anger over a requirement that nearly all employers offer free insurance coverage for contraception — even with changes Obama announced Friday for faith-based institutions that object on religious grounds — guarantees that the issue will percolate throughout the presidential election season. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, summed [...]
Their continued anger over a requirement that nearly all employers offer free insurance coverage for contraception — even with changes Obama announced Friday for faith-based institutions that object on religious grounds — guarantees that the issue will percolate throughout the presidential election season. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, summed [...]
The last five months have been eventful for Steav Bates-Congdon. First he got married. Then he got fired. The popular music director at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in south Charlotte lost his job last month for marrying his longtime partner in New York, one of seven states to recognize same-sex marriages. Under a recent Supreme [...]
David Hockney may disagree, given the place’s importance as a pioneering New World tobacco trade port, but the quiet and pleasing north Devon town of Bideford seems to have played only a modest role thus far in the long march of English freedom. Yet following high court judgment in the dispute between Clive Bone, a [...]
The Obama administration’s recently posted rule requiring the health insurance plans of Catholic universities and charities to offer free birth control information and services to women has raised the hackles of the Catholic Church. It feels that birth control is a sin and that the Church’s First Amendment rights to religious freedom are therefore being [...]
THE ISSUE: The Catholic church, and others, object to a health care mandate requiring employer coverage of birth control. THE STAKES: The right answer will preserve the line between church and state. One of the pillars of our great experiment in democracy is the understanding that the law applies equally to everyone, with very few [...]
When James Madison, the “father of the Constitution” originally proposed that the Bill of Rights contain a clause to protect religious freedom, he saw it as more than simply a wall between church and state. His draft language included a strict ban on government infringement “in any manner, or on any pretence” on “the full [...]
Representative Phil Gingrey (R-Georgia), walked out of President Barack Obama‘s address at the annual National Prayer Breakfast after becoming offended that the president insinuated politics into what is supposed to be a non-partisan event, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. SEE ALSO: Young Futurists Of 2012 “He was glad that the president attended, but he felt [...]
The United States Supreme Court refused in December to intervene in a 16-year legal battle against New York City’s prohibition on the use of schools for religious worship services. Some 160 religious congregations, almost all Christian denominations, now have until Feb. 12 to stop using schools as houses of worship. They won’t go quietly and [...]
Print Updated 01/30/2012 05:12 PM By: Bill Carey It’s a new showdown between church and state and it all revolves around a new health insurance mandate. YNN’s Bill Carey says Catholic Bishops are preparing for battle against a provision of the new law that they say forces them to violate the church’s teachings. ‘); if(infobox==’True’ ShowInfoBox_l572001_1==false){ jQuery(“#player_infobarl572001_1″).trigger(‘click’); [...]
Catholic parishioners around the country were read letters this morning written by church leadership railing against an Obama administration ruling that requires employers to provide health insurance plans that include contraceptive coverage. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the guidelines but Catholic hospitals, colleges, and social services fall under the umbrella of [...]
Catholic parishioners around the country were read letters this morning written by church leadership railing against an Obama administration ruling that requires employers to provide health insurance plans that include contraceptive coverage. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the guidelines but Catholic hospitals, colleges, and social services fall under the umbrella of [...]
‘Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul’ by John M. Barry Penguin, 464 pp., $35 Roger Williams may not be a household name, but he surely contributed as much or more to the American view of individual liberty and the separation of church and state as any of the much more celebrated Founders [...]
When Washington state Senator, Mary Margaret Haugen, announced her support for legislation that would clear the way for gay marriage, I was impressed by her courage — not just by her political support on a contentious social issue but by opening the interview with an unqualified statement that she did so as a Christian. Politics [...]
A federal judge ruled this month that the prayer’s presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. In the weeks since, residents have crowded school board meetings to demand an appeal, Jessica has received online threats and the police have escorted her at school, [...]
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMOX) - A Senate proposal would allow state funding to go to religious institutions. The possibility is sparking debate over its impact on the separation of church and state. Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, introduced the proposal to the Senate Thursday. If passed, the resolution would repeal a current constitutional amendment prohibiting state funding for religious organizations. [...]
For me the highlight of the South Carolina primary campaign was hearing Stephen Colbert speak to an overflow crowd on my College of Charleston campus. I think he is the most honest “politician” of the primary season, and he spoke both eloquently and humorously about what should be a critical campaign issue–the “Citizens United” Supreme [...]
Have you ever noticed that the comments beneath articles on CNN dealing with politics and religion are always filled with so much anger and polemic? One can only hope that the people who write in these blogs do not constitute the moderate majority of Americans, because if they do, then our country as a whole [...]
It can almost be humorous at times when the modern jargon of “the separation of church and state” finds its way into our flip, postmodern American discourse. Somehow morality formed from the Judeo-Christian tradition has no place in our government; since it is morality, not religion, which seems to be the true object from which [...]
The presidential hopeful and the Founding Father seem to disagree about whether the principle is embedded in the U.S. Constitution. On Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, where news-making interviews are legion, Rick Santorum on Friday related a campaign story in which he was curiously dismissive of a voter he encountered. “I was in a town hall [...]
Successful republican governments rest on a separation between what is public and what is private. Matters of religious worship — celebrating one’s conceptualization of God — are private. Separating religion from government preserves the integrity of both. That idea is centuries old. In the 1500s, both Niccolo Machiavelli and Martin Luther argued for separation of [...]
Fearless, particularly in the face of authority, Williams came of age during a period of raucous religious upheaval and remarkable distrust and distemper between crown and Parliament. Marked by the defiant reasoning of Edward Coke and the brilliant turn of mind of Francis Bacon, Williams was shaped from the start as a natural combatant and [...]
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THE concept of the separation of church and state is axiomatic in the North American political consciousness. In the United States, it is enshrined in the constitution, although one might not know that after listening to some of the Republican presidential candidates and their supporters in this year’s election. In Canada, it is just kind [...]
WASHINGTONThe Supreme Court gave churches and religious schools a new shield against civil rights claims from their employees, ruling Wednesday that the principle of church-state separation bars bias suits from teachers who serve as “ministers” of the faith. In a unanimous ruling, the high court for the first time held the Constitution includes a “ministerial [...]
The Irish Times – Wednesday, January 11, 2012 EOIN BURKE-KENNEDY SENIOR FIGURES from the world of politics and journalism as well as abuse survivors and clerics have paid tribute to the late journalist and broadcaster Mary Raftery. Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore said the country owed Ms Raftery “a debt of gratitude” [...]
Almost 50 years ago to the day, renowned Christian evangelist and preacher Billy Graham convened a secret meeting of Protestant leaders in Montreux, Switzerland, to discuss what was, for them, the most burning issue of the day: how to prevent the election of a Catholic, John F. Kennedy, as president of the United States. Half [...]
Home Church 09/01/2012 11.41.28 Pope Benedict: the financial crisis and religious freedom at the heart of the Pope’s discourse to diplomats Pope Benedict XVI on Monday received in audience the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See and pronounced his annual “State of the World” address.Here is the full text: Your Excellencies,Ladies and [...]
I wrote last week about the local controversy over whether Islam can be considered a “religion.” (DNJ, Jan. 1) The other main reason for the charge that Islam is NOT a religion is the development and spread of Islamism, or “radical Islam” in the last 40 years. Since we in the West began really paying [...]
The Supreme Court building has a statue depicting Moses. Surely we could find a worthy secular judge replacement. While well-intentioned, the substitution of “Happy holidays” for “Merry Christmas” is offensive. Holiday came from the old English phrase “holy day.” What could be more offensive than that? We need a different greeting. Then there are religion-based [...]
By RAYMOND ZHONG The Calvinist pilgrims who founded the New England colonies had rebelled against England by leaving it, but they were certainly not rebels against a firm social order or against the idea of authority itself. In England, laws against adultery were not enforced; in New England, adulterers might be executed, or whipped and [...]
<!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 0–> Prime farmland in west central Indiana, an area including Carroll County, was valued at about $7,500 an acre on average last year, according to the 2011 Purdue Farmland Value Survey. However, that value doesn’t include access to utilities and roads. The church would like to be located on a main road [...]
<!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 0–> Prime farmland in west central Indiana, an area including Carroll County, was valued at about $7,500 an acre on average last year, according to the 2011 Purdue Farmland Value Survey. However, that value doesn’t include access to utilities and roads. The church would like to be located on a main road [...]
The military, like any other government agency, cannot allow people to install large religious symbols wherever they want on public property. Once in place for any length of time, those symbols (and usually that means a cross) tend to be seen as established markers, and proposals to remove them are wrongly viewed as anti-religion and, [...]
The Irish Times – Tuesday, January 3, 2012 PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent THE DEMORALISED state of Irish society and the inadequacy with which this is being met has been addressed in two significant new year homilies and one message by three senior church figures. Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady devoted a significant amount of [...]