Religious Liberty
Items on free exercise of religion, freedom of conscience, and religious persecution
Secularism’s Special Pleading
Mon 05 Oct 2009 • Responses: 3 • by Hunter Baker
Wishing for the Naked Public Square
Hunter Baker looks at efforts to enforce a strict secularism in public discourse. Why would we need to prohibit people from using any public argument they wish to offer?
Citizens of the World Unite?
Wed 11 Feb 2009 • Responses: 1 • by Pete Peterson
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy by Natan Sharansky (New York: PublicAffairs, 2008), 304 pages.
Korean Anxieties
Wed 05 Nov 2008 by David Aikman
While the attention of almost all Americans and much of the world has been focused on the presidential election campaign that ended November 4, tensions are rising alarmingly in a part of the world thousands of miles away. North Korea is up to its old tricks, threatening fire and brimstone on the South, and keeping the world guessing as to the whereabouts, and indeed the health, of its “Dear Leader” President Kim Jong-il. The combination of leadership uncertainty in North Korea, a South Korean administration notably more hard-nosed towards North Korea than its predecessors, and an imminent political change in Washington, constitute the ingredients for a possible serious rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula.
New Approach to Muslim States?
Tue 30 Sep 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Last week a diverse group of political, business, military, academic, and religious leaders released a report, Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations With the Muslim World. Convened by the Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute, the group issued several recommendations, including the promotion of economic growth and good governance in Muslim states.
They summarized their work thus:
The X-Files and the Enlightenment Myth
Tue 26 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
If there is one notion that has catapulted into popularity in the post-9/11 era, it is that religious belief is the iniquitous inspiration for the world’s repression and violence. The unexamined assumption is that reason, human rights, and democracy are the ripened fruit of secularism and the Enlightenment. This is what animates authors such as Christopher Hitchens when he claims “religion poisons everything.” It has become a best-selling theme.
A shorthand version of this idea goes like this: the decline of revealed religion leads to human freedom that leads to human flourishing. End of story. How can a viewpoint so manifestly at odds with history be held so passionately, so reflexively, by so many?
Social Justice and Conservative Politics
Sun 10 Aug 2008 • Responses: 2 • by Joseph Loconte
Americans don't pay much attention to the domestic politics of other countries, but the tectonic shift of political fortunes in Great Britain deserves some reflection. In a recent cover story of The Weekly Standard, "First, Lose Three Straight Elections," executive editor Fred Barnes describes how the Conservative Party has emerged from a long and lonely trek in the wilderness. The youthful face and articulate voice of party leader David Cameron only partially explains their astonishingly strong support in public opinion polls. Once known as "the nasty party," Conservatives have redefined themselves—not only in style but in substance.
Broken Promises for Human Rights in China
Tue 29 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Though painfully overdue, a leading human-rights organization has finally focused serious and sustained attention on a leading human-rights abuser: China. In a scathing report released ten days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, Amnesty International has concluded that China “continues to persecute and punish” those who advocate for human rights and democratic reform.
An Important Anniversary
Thu 17 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Earlier this week President Bush marked the tenth anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), the legislation that authorizes U.S. sanctions against governments that violate international protections for religious liberty. The law established the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and mandates that the State Department monitor religious liberty in every nation and identify the worst offenders. Also this week, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Task Force for International Religious Freedom (TIRF) is holding a conference to celebrate the International Religious Freedom Act and discuss its ongoing importance in U.S. foreign policy.
No Place to Call Home
Sun 29 Jun 2008 by Joseph Loconte
One of the most serious matters in religion is the issue of apostasy, that is, the act of renouncing one’s faith. Christianity has a long and troubled history with apostasy. For centuries the Catholic Church treated apostates—or those suspected of apostasy—as criminals worthy of persecution, imprisonment, and death. Protestants often took a similar line, especially when they found themselves in positions of political power.
Islam’s record of confrontation with apostates is no less oppressive and violent. The obvious difference, of course, is that much of the Muslim world continues to react to apostasy with fear, contempt, and violence.
The Renaissance and Religious Toleration
Thu 26 Jun 2008 by Joe Loconte
Erasmus of Rotterdam’s recognition that “Compulsion is incompatible with sincerity, and nothing is pleasing to Christ unless it is voluntary” is one of the foundations of Christian humanism.
Historians debate the most significant achievements of the Renaissance, the cultural revival that began in Italy and swept through Europe from roughly the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. There were scientific advances, a return to the study of the classics, and political theorizing a la Machiavelli. A visit to Florence provides an almost overwhelming sense of the artistic accomplishments of the era. Yet a crucial aspect of Renaissance history is often overlooked: its contribution to religious liberty, an ideal whose origins have implications for our own age of religious violence.
