Thirty years ago, when the Supreme Court decided Employment Division v. Smith, I never imagined that I’d ever respond with anything but enthusiasm to the news that the Court would be deciding a case squarely raising the question whether Smith should be overruled. In early November, however, the Court will be hearing oral argument in just…
For the writer on law and religion, the “religious test” question is a gift that keeps on giving. Over two centuries after we enshrined the rule against religious tests as a “Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” — and, arguably, decades if not more after the Religious Test Clause had…
It has been ten presidential election cycles since Ronald Reagan defeated the nation’s most religiously devout president, Jimmy Carter, a feat he accomplished with the overwhelming support of conservative Christian voters. The preceding year (1979) had witnessed the rise of the “Moral Majority” and the Religious Right, and Reagan’s election apparently cemented the relationship between…
Political Beauty On June 27, 2015, ten days after a white supremacist shot and killed nine African Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, Bree Newsome Bass began pulling herself up a thirty-foot tall flag pole at the South Carolina State Capitol. With the police barking at her, she detached…
Yoga class, Lightning in a Bottle, 2016 / Photo courtesy of author. When I was conducting research for my new book I spent nine years in multiple field sites with people who largely identified as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). These people were seeking expansive spiritual experiences, and I followed them through networks of transformational…
The Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA in 1907 / Wikimedia Most observers (and participants!) do not see much if any connection between Baptists and Pentecostals. Baptists are generally known as cessationists — contending that the miracles in the New Testament and the extraordinary spiritual gifts practiced like glossolalia (speaking in tongues),…
Recent killings of black Americans have incited anger, leading to large and sometimes violent protests across the country. The most notable deaths are those of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed by two white men in February while out for a run; Breonna Taylor, who was sleeping in her apartment when she was shot by police;…
In his dissent in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, wherein the Supreme Court invalidated student-led prayer prior to the start of high school football games, a dismayed Chief Justice William Rehnquist expressed the sentiment of many Americans, that “[t]he Court … bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life.”In light of…
The May 25, 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, despite his multiple cries of, “I can’t breathe,” has compelled me to turn to Black theologian James H. Cone for a personal lesson in rebellion. Having spent over a decade working in the civil rights field, and three times as many teaching theology, I…
Om Hreem Shree Gurubhyo Namah Introduction Swami Vivekananda’s famous speech at the Parliament of World Religions in 1893 introduced Hinduism to the West. As an ambassador of one of the most ancient traditions of the world, he conveyed the essence of the Vedas, the universal acceptance of all traditions: “as the different streams having their sources…