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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Category Archives: Religious Liberty
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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Faith Based Terrorism
We can change our foreign policy, we can feed the people who live in these desperately impoverished places, we can give more or less aid to Israel—but none of that is relevant to this particular jihad, or holy war. Those responsible for this wave of terrorist activity are fighting modernity. And there is no more important element of modernity than the secular state.
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