RFRA was a narrowly tailored law that defended the rights of religious minorities -- the right of Native religions to use peyote in their rituals, the right of Santeros to sacrifice chickens. But now, thanks to Justice Alito, it means the opposite. Now it means that states have the "religious liberty" to ban the religious use of peyote, and that cities have the "religious liberty" to chase away minority congregations. Read more
Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the kind of humans loved by God; Joan Chittister and Randall Maurice Jenks on the kind of humans not loved by the church; Jonathan Rauch on "The Great Secession;" and Charles Darwin on one of the ways he disagreed with Jonathan Edwards. Read more
Some late-night links (depending where you are), including: Gay weddings at the Creation Museum; latest Florida recount not yet halted by Supreme Court; it's getting crowded out here; "jaywalking" while black; and a not-so-crazy conspiracy-theory technique. Read more
Blood transfusions, you see, are religiously forbidden for Jehovah's Witnesses. That is to say, in Alito's apparent way of thinking, the religious scruples against blood transfusions do not involve a legitimate religion. Concern about abortion, however -- even when that concern has no factual basis -- is a legitimate religious scruple because, well, it's Catholic. Read more
The courts do not want to get entangled in questions of religious sincerity. That is neither their area of expertise nor an area -- usually -- in which they have any jurisdiction. So judges will go to great lengths to avoid any argument that requires them to evaluate the measure of religious devotion held by those making free exercise claims. Alas, such evaluations are sometimes unavoidable because they are part of the statute or the religious exemption the courts are being asked to consider. Read more
This dispute is not about the belief that life begins at the moment of conception. It's about the belief that conception occurs at the moment of ejaculation. That's not a matter of theological or philosophical debate. It's just wrong. That's not how sex works. Read more
Here's what I've been reading today about the Hobby Lobby ruling by the Supreme Court, from Kimberly Winston, Sahil Kapur, Kalli Joy Gray, Dave Lartigue, Martin Longman, Maya Dusenberg, Mark Silk, Michelle Krabill, Miranda Blue, Chauncey DeVega and many others. Read more
"Somebody got the collywobbles," Blake Kirk said. Savor the perfection of that. That's the precisely necessary word -- perfect in its denotation, connotation and implication, and perfect in its tone. That doesn't happen every day. Read more
"I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Read more
Sudan's "apostasy" laws are an extreme example of the problems created by any law "respecting an establishment of religion." As America's First Amendment argues, and as Ibrahim's case illustrates, the establishment of religion in any form makes the free exercise of religion in any form impossible. This is true not just for "apostates" -- religious minorities and dissenters from the privileged official religion -- but for adherents of the official religion itself. Read more
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