It’s Presidents’ Day. In honor of the holiday, I thought it would be interesting to pull together some quotes by our chief executives on church-state separation and religious freedom.
Most people know that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were great champions of church-state separation. But did you know that James K. Polk had some interesting things to say, […] Read More
Jan. 16 is Religious Freedom Day. As American holidays go, this one tends to be overlooked. It’s not even listed on my desk calendar.
That’s a shame, because Religious Freedom Day commemorates an important event: passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. This landmark legislation, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and maneuvered through the Virginia legislature by James Madison, became […] Read More
In his poem “Mending Wall,” poet Robert Frost wrote, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.”
Today, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that’s a point worth pondering. There are good walls and bad ones.
I was in Berlin once in the 1970s when […] Read More
A new survey about religion in America has the Religious Right all worked up.
Researchers at Trinity College in Hartford noted a sharp rise in the number of Americans who, when asked to state their religious preference, replied “none.” According to some polls, this bloc of Americans now accounts for about 15 percent, and Trinity researchers say it may rise […] Read More
The partisan pugilists over at Fox News Channel have been howling about President Barack Obama’s insistence that America is a pluralistic nation that respects all faiths.
Obama, you may recall, said during his recent visit to Turkey that the United States is “a secular country that is respectful of religious freedom, respectful of rule of law, respectful of freedom….” […] Read More
Today is Religious Freedom Day. Why is this day important? Consider the following story: In 380 A.D., three Roman emperors of the east and west issued a joint edict on religion.
It stated in part, “We desire all people, whom the benign influence of our clemency rules, to turn to the religion which tradition from Peter to the present day […] Read More
I love Thomas Jefferson’s New Year’s Day greeting to the Danbury Baptists in part because it drives the Religious Right into such paroxysms of paranoia, ignorance and intemperance.
As I’m sure most of you know, President Jefferson sent a friendly missive to his Baptist admirers in Connecticut on Jan. 1, 1802. He thanked them for their support of him and […] Read More
Andre Carson is a Muslim. Jared Polis is Jewish. Dina Titus is Greek Orthodox.
Does it matter? Maybe. Maybe not.
Carson, Polis and Titus are three members of the 111th Congress. On Jan. 6, they and their 532 colleagues will be sworn into office. They will hold hearings, draft legislation and enact laws that affect all of us. Their religious […] Read More
Right-wing Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity got all cranky on the air the other night about Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn’s complaints regarding the recent presidential forum at Saddleback Church.
“Who cares what Barry Lynn says?” he blustered, after cohost Alan Colmes, in an exchange with Pastor Rick Warren, cited Lynn’s take.
Since Hannity is unable to […] Read More