Religious Liberty

Whose America? Whose Values?

What with the charges and counter-charges about the war in
Iraq, the use—actually, abuse—of Executive Privilege, and locally, the uproar over property taxes, this little tidbit hasn’t gotten much ink. But it is a telling indicator of the wildly different definition of the term “American values” held by today’s citizens.

 

Sessions of Congress begin with a [...]

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Not So Goode

When James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the Founders devised our system of representative democracy, they envisioned a system where persons—okay, men—of temperance, substance and education would hold public office.  

 

They clearly did not envision Representative Virgil Goode.

 

There has been quite a reaction to Representative Goode’s letter decrying the election of [...]

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Suing City Hall

John Hostettler, the always entertaining Congressman from
Indiana’s Eighth District, is again promoting legislation to repeal what he calls a “loophole” in the law. That “loophole” allows recovery of reasonable legal fees by people who successfully sue government for violating their religious liberties. Hostettler calls his bill “anti-ACLU” legislation—as though the First Amendment and the [...]

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Rue-minations

In the mid-1990s, the National Constitution Center surveyed national attitudes and beliefs about the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They concluded that Americans “revere” the Constitution—and have virtually no idea what’s in it. 

 

I frequently find myself thinking about that study, because it goes a long way toward explaining why many of our public [...]

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Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Sometimes, in their zeal to ensure that gays remain second-class citizens, legislators produce proposals so breathtakingly wacko that you have to wonder whether you have wandered into an alternate universe.

 

Such a proposal has been offered—presumably, with a straight face—by Indiana State Senator Pat Miller, the author and sponsor of a measure entitled (and I [...]

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