In the early 1990s, Benjamin Barber wrote a prescient book, entitled "Jihad vs. McWorld." In it, he predicted that the defining conflict of the twenty-first century would be between globalization and tribalism; between commercial, capitalistic interdependence and insular, isolationist communities that view global capitalism and its accompanying secularism as overwhelming threats to their cultural and religious beliefs. What Barber failed to note was that this same conflict is taking place within the United States. How else do we understand Judge Roy Moore’s efforts to post the Ten Commandments, the continual attempts to make public school students pray, or the yearly calls for government-sponsored creches at Christmas?
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Category Archives: Religious Liberty
Religious War & Peace
Let’s stipulate, as we lawyer types like to say, that the General has the right to his opinions, to his religious beliefs, and for that matter, to his evident adolescence. But as a soldier, he has a duty to respect the military chain of command. I didn?t hear Congressman Pence or others protective of Boykin rising to defend the soldiers in Iraq who were chastised for complaining that the Pentagon had lied to them about the length of their tours of duty.
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Witness
My religious tradition does not have a counterpart to the Christian concept of’ ‘witness,’ but as I understand it, witnessing implies an obligation to stand up for righteousness and truth. To bear witness is to speak out against injustice, to call attention to wrongs, be they civic or moral. It is an effort to bring us back to first principles.
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Charitable Choice
Charitable Choice was intended to encourage government contracts with “faith-based organizations” to provide social services to welfare recipients, and to remove legal obstacles discouraging participation by religious providers.
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Tolerating Muncie
The Religion and Values department at Gallup recently initiated a "Gallup Religious Tolerance Index," which will now be part of Gallup’s regular polling. Five questions will categorize respondents by three levels of religious tolerance: Isolated, Tolerant, and Integrated. "Isolated" individuals–the least tolerant–have religious attitudes Gallup describes as "my tribe or no tribe," characterized by certainty that theirs is the One Right Way.
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