Photo of a climate march in Montréal by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concluded with an agreement that would constitute the Glasgow Climate Pact. Throughout the Conference, high-profile figures such as Sir David Attenborough were enlisted to persuade delegates to respond boldly to climatological crises confronting the world. Leaders…
Caring for Aging, Dying, and Dead Prisoners A Summary of Prison Chaplains on the Beat in US and UK Prisons George Walters-Sleyon, PhD. I believe that chaplaincy in prison is a calling. It is ministry, which is real, raw, diverse, illuminating, enlightening, humbling, stimulating, unpredictable, diverse, and challenging. Chaplains in prison need to have their…
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash. Many evangelical Christians are turning to pastors, priests, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seeking a religious exemption to Covid vaccine mandates. However, resistance to the Covid vaccine appears to be rooted not in historic Christian theology, but in current social, political, and economic philosophies.…
Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash. Holidays are not the same for everyone, not even in prison. No matter what the constitutional principle of equality says, holidays are not the same for everyone. For the wealthy, holidays present an opportunity to travel and relax with their loved ones. On the other hand, for those who…
Photo of the Village Church of Lincolnshire by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash. For several decades, parties asserting religious liberty claims under the Free Exercise Clause saw little success at the Supreme Court. Over the past few years, however, religious groups have fared better. Recently, they prevailed in cases challenging various restrictions imposed on houses of…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “Ramirez v. Collier: Will the Supreme Court Expand the Right to the Presence of a Spiritual Advisor for Prisoners During Execution?” Peter Wosnik In September 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a rare, eleventh-hour stay in an execution case for prisoner John Ramirez. Ramirez was convicted of stabbing…
Photo of Lady Justice (Pixabay). In 2021, Johan D. van der Vyver, I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Emory University School of Law, published a three-volume treatise on international criminal law. Volume One deals with The History and Structures of the International Criminal Court; Volume Two is devoted to Crimes within the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court;…
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash. Given the centrality and heatedness of the abortion debate in the U.S. political sphere, it might seem as though abortion has always been a rallying cry for religious conservatives. But as Sarah Posner describes in her book Unholy, despite abortion’s contemporary significance, other evangelical grudges emerged “long before” abortion…
Photo of Elizabeth Tower in London by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash. Legal historians have regularly regretted what they perceive to be the side-lining of their subject. Writing almost a decade ago, Daniel Siemens noted that “one gets the impression that legal history is slowly and inevitably dying — or that it has been in a coma for the last 30…
Photo by kylefromthenorth on Unsplash. We at Canopy Forum join the world in lamenting the recent death and celebrating the remarkable life of Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu. The following text is based on a keynote lecture that Archbishop Tutu offered to conclude the international conference on “Christianity and Democracy in Global Context,” November 11-14, 1991, convened by…