Wednesday, July 8th, 2015
Stephan: I have been waiting for someone in corporate media to adequate present what flows from the Theocratic Right's argument about religious exemption, what it really leads to. No such luck.
The Founders, after considerable thought were very clear there were to be no such exemptions. They wanted a complete separation of church and state. It is always important to remember everyone who signed the Constitution had a direct or at least a familial experience of what happens to society when religion is exempted or is allowed to set social policy.
It is also important to remember that in the U.S. the Theocratic Right is essentially the wolf in the sheep skin of the Republican Party. Getting religious exemptions is a way of getting power.
This essay presents a good discussion of the issues involved.
Protesters gather in Washington, D.C., for the Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally.
Credit: Flickr and the American Life League
When historians recount the history of separation of church and state in our time, one of the signature events may be a federal court case that didn’t even make it to the Supreme Court. It didn’t need to.
The 2014 case of General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper was a landmark event because, although the case was ostensibly about opposition to marriage equality, the decision upheld foundational notions of religious equality and equal protection under the law that bind this diverse and often fractious nation. It at once affirmed the equal standing under the law of all religious and non-religious points of view and showed that the Christian Right does not represent all of Christianity.
At issue was a 2012 amendment to the North Carolina state constitution that provided that […]