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“Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment” Introduction by John Witte, Jr., Joel A. Nichols, and Richard W. Garnett

Jun 6, 2022Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsGarnett, Richard W., History, June 2022, Nichols, Joel A., Religious Freedom, US Supreme Court (SCOTUS), Witte Jr., John

Religion and the American Constitutional Experimentby John Witte, Jr., Joel A. Nichols, and Richard W. Garnett Thomas Jefferson once described America’s new religious freedom guarantees as a “fair” and “novel experiment.” These guarantees, set out in the new state and federal constitutions of 1776 to 1791, defied the millennium-old assumptions inherited from Western Europe that…

“The Role of Lawyers in Rabbinic Arbitration” by Chaim Saiman

May 27, 2022Canopy ForumSeriesJudaism, May 2022, Religious Freedom, Religious Law and Legal Systems, Saiman, Chaim

Photo of Manhattan by wiggijo on Pixabay (CC0) A virtual conference sponsored by Canopy Forum of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory (CSLR) featuring scholars, experts and practitioners on the topic of religious arbitration. View the full video and browse all essays here. “The Role of Lawyers in Rabbinic Arbitration” Chaim…

“An excerpt from ‘A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement” by Katey Zeh

May 27, 2022Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsChristianity, Healthcare, May 2022, Politics, Zeh, Katey

A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice MovementKatey Zeh Reprinted with permission from A Complicated Choice: Making Space for Grief and Healing in the Pro-Choice Movement by Katey Zeh copyright © 2022 Broadleaf Books. Uncovering the Culture of Shame, Stigma, and Silence around Abortion As I shared in the preface,…

“A Native of Conklin, NY Discusses QAnon” by Sarah Louise MacMillen

May 23, 2022Canopy ForumEssaysLouise Macmillen, Sarah, May 2022, Media and Culture, Politics

Picture by Rosemary Ketchum on Pexels. The author wishes to thank Timothy Rush and George Lundskow for their helpful input related to this essay. In a series of recent articles in the journal Critical Sociology my colleagues and I explored the hazards of conspiracy theories within contemporary media spaces and political culture. While conspiracy theories…

“What the Theological Roots of Reasonable Doubt Might Teach Us” by Peter Wosnik

May 6, 2022Canopy ForumConvictionChristianity, History, May 2022, Wosnik, Peter

Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “What Theological Roots of Reasonable Doubt Might Teach Us” Peter Wosnik Unlike some esoteric legal terms, the term “reasonable doubt” is familiar to most Americans. Anyone who has sat in jury service in a criminal trial or watched a legal drama has likely encountered the phrase. What many…

“Pope Francis, Just War Theory, the Ukraine, and Beyond: Can War Be Just?” by Charles Russo

May 4, 2022Canopy ForumEssaysChristianity, Europe (Geography), Human Rights / Civil Rights, May 2022, Russo, Charles J.

Photo by Annett Klingner on Pixabay. This article is part of our “Russia/Ukraine: Law and Religion Perspectives” series. If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. “There is no such thing as a just war: they do not exist!” In a speech at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on March 18,…

“The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy” by Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry

Apr 29, 2022Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsApril 2022, Christianity, Gorski, Philip, Perry, Samuel, Politics

The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracyby Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry Excerpt from The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy The chaos of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, was bewildering for many. The riot was also a riot…

“Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chances” by Catherine Keller

Apr 29, 2022Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsApril 2022, Christianity, History, Keller, Catherine, Politics

Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chancesby Catherine Keller As the fires, floods, and droughts of climate change spiral around a planetary pandemic and intensify political precarity, the ancient symbol of apocalypse keeps finding new life. It pulses — quite apart from continuous fundamentalist deployments — across secular news sources (the “Insect Apocalypse,” “the…

“Review of John Witte’s ‘The Blessings of Liberty'” by Nicholas Wolterstorff

Apr 22, 2022Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsApril 2022, Education, Philosophy, Religious Freedom, Wolterstorff, Nicholas

The Blessings of Liberty by John Witte Reviewed by Nicholas Wolterstorff In the course of his long and distinguished career as a legal historian, John Witte, Jr. – who holds a named professorship at Emory University and is director of the university’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion – has authored and co-authored…

“Religious Exemption Laws & the Conservative Legal Movement” by Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Apr 22, 2022Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2022, Christianity, Education, Healthcare, Platt, Elizabeth Reiner, Religious Freedom, US Supreme Court (SCOTUS)

Photo by Victor Moussa on adobe.stock.com. The contemporary debate around the right to free exercise of religion — and its limits — focuses overwhelmingly on conservative Christian beliefs about sex, gender, marriage, and reproduction. This is understandable given the vast resources and focus that the Christian right has placed on gaining religious exemptions from laws…