Even ardent defenders of the First Amendment?s Religion Clauses will concede that we encounter all kinds of gray areas when we are trying to keep government and religion in their proper, respective places. For example, if church-state separation means anything, it means tax dollars cannot pay the salaries of clergy?but what about in time of war? When government deploys American troops, shouldn?t we make religious personnel available to our soldiers, even if it is at taxpayer expense?
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The Mystery of Bigotry
There are some behaviors I have never been able to really understand—things I just can’t get my head around, as my students might put it.
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Charitable Choice and the Faith Based Initiative
Before President Bush’s "faith-based initiative" there was Charitable Choice.
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Sam Jones
When Sam Jones, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Urban League, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from IU a couple of years back, Chancellor Gerald Bepko introduced him by saying, "In Indianapolis, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who does not know of Sam’s work or has not benefited in some way from his engagement with community issues or organizations."
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Back to the Future
I’m getting up in years as they say, but no election in my lifetime has been remotely this important, because at its base, the key difference between John Kerry and George Bush has nothing to do with personality, likeability or even intellect. This election, we are choosing between science and fundamentalist religious fervor. We are deciding whether this nation will base its decisions on evidence or faith.
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