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The Development of Human Rights Half a century ago, the world welcomed some of the most remarkable human rights documents it had ever seen. The United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These were America’s strongest statutory rebukes to its long and tragic history of…
In a recently issued report, the RAND Corporation highlighted a dimension of the impact that the government response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had on trust. It noted that trust in the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declined significantly between May and October 2020, and it observed that…
Identifying proper boundaries for religious liberty in American public life continues to be a hot-button issue. Stories of friction between religious groups and other members of society have pervaded the headlines, and such conflicts aren’t going away anytime soon. Over the last few years, the Supreme Court has ruled on a number of cases in…
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan open their edited volume At Home and Abroad: The Politics of American Religion (Columbia University Press, 2020) with an epigraph: Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization—one for home consumption and one for the heathen market? – Mark Twain, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness”…
Estate taxes interfere with the transfer of private property at death, raising questions about stewardship, property and power, what we owe our children, and the meaning of bodily death. In this short essay, I consider the wisdom of estate taxes in theological terms. I conclude that an estate tax can be good tax policy, particularly…
Religious traditions that are not historically rooted in the Christo-European culture face particular legal and political challenges that are unprecedented in the post-World War II-era. Despite the establishment of supranational bodies responsible for the promotion of human rights standards and the advancement of civil liberties, liberal democracies have failed to introduce and maintain a robust…
De Vries, Paul Vredeman. “Interior of a Gothic Cathedral,” 1612. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, https://collections.lacma.org/node/229641. This article is in response to Edward David’s recent article in Canopy. From a theological perspective, Christians should welcome Edward David’s critical reflections on Lockean liberalism’s eschewal of a corporate understanding of the Church as corpus mysticum. For…
What is a religious corporation? After a number of high profile U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past decade, this question has assumed great significance as the religious corporation has come to occupy a powerful space of exemption in U.S. law. The “ministerial exception,” for example, as elaborated in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School…
Historical Context A timely, significant topic of discussion worth remembering, stretching back to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s battle against anti-Catholic prejudice, is the relationship between politicians and their faith leaders. This relationship, particularly involving politicians who are Roman Catholic, is the focus of this article. In his September 12, 1960, campaign speech in Texas…
In academic and legal debates, we frequently hear that the tradition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) supports religious exemptions for business corporations. As Justice Alito wrote in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, if corporations may pursue various socially responsible objectives — such as adhering to strict environmental standards or providing exemplary working conditions — then “there…