Religion
The photograph of the two-year-old Haitian being handed into his mother’s arms has got to be among the most amazing captures of human expression that I’ve ever seen. The ordeal from which the boy has just been rescued is still discernible in his face, but his focus on his mother mixes with, well, almost surprise,…
By now, you’re likely to have heard Martha Coakley’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s application to the matter of abortion. In conversation with radio talk host Ken Pittman, the Democrats’ candidate for U.S. Senate spoke as follows: Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of…
As economic units is perhaps the last way in which clergy should consider human beings, but it’s worth their while, on prudential matters, to take into account the ways in which economic principles affect charitable intentions. Unfortunately, in the quotation that Ed Fitzpatrick recently utilized, I fear Roman Catholic priest John Kiley has the mechanism…
To some degree, the theological principle that Bruce Marshall describes here can be seen as a core division point of human ideology: If God had remitted our sins by sheer forgiveness—sent them away or simply declared them nonexistent—then our sins indeed would be gone, and we no longer would be sinners. We would, however, be…
One hears, from time to time, statements that suggest that advancements in neurological science will negate belief that the self is anything other than an illusion created by electrical and chemical processes. I’ve always thought such a view to be astonishingly wrong-headed and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. Stephen Barr takes up the topic in…
Whenever the issue of immigration comes up with some reference to religious groups, especially where Roman Catholic clergy are involved, somebody inevitably calls in to talk radio to declare that it’s really just a scheme to increase the number of church-going Hispanics. The claim is more cynical than is merited, but to the extent that…
Somehow, one is not surprised that this instance of governance has not sparked the shock and outrage that accompanied the decision of Swiss voters to ban minarets: … the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, has ruled that the government of Italy must remove crucifixes from public school classrooms throughout that country. According…
Ted Nesi has culled the local data from a national survey concerning American religion: Rhode Island residents are among the least religious in the country, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington. Just 44 percent of Rhode Island and Connecticut residents surveyed by Pew…
In the continuing series of stories that show Western (especially European) governments to believe it to be their right to define the boundaries of religious practice, David Goldman describes a case in which a British court found that an Orthodox Jewish school could not follow the practice of matrilineal descent in its admissions policies: JFS…
We’re all familiar with the concept of separating powers across government. Especially in the United States, the notion of checks and balances is woven throughout civic education. Too few in the modern era appreciate the importance of separating powers across society. Not for long will powerful people in business, religion, and government maintain mutual respect…