Canopy Forum

“Law from Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suárez, SJ, Can Renew Contemporary Legal Engagement” by Elisabeth Rain Kincaid

Jun 6, 2024Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsChristianity, Ethics, June 2024, Kincaid, Elisabeth Rain, Religious Freedom

Law from Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suárez, SJ, Can Renew Contemporary Legal EngagementElisabeth Rain Kincaid The following is an excerpt from Elisabeth Rain Kincaid’s new book, Law from Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suárez, SJ, Can Renew Contemporary Legal Engagement. Excerpted with permission from Georgetown University Press, 2024. Often in American civil…

“How Will Preachers Address Social Issues During the 2024 Election?” by Leah D. Schade, Wayne Thompson, & Amanda Wilson Harper

May 29, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysChristianity, May 2024, Politics, Religious Freedom, Schade, Leah D., Thompson, Wayne, Wilson Harper, Amanda

A Field Sermon by Anna Ancher (CC0 1.0). Since Donald Trump’s appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices beginning in 2017, the Court released a series of rulings that have had a profound impact on the rights of historically marginalized groups, as well as environmental protection. Regarding immigration rights, the Court ruled in Trump v. Hawaii…

“Seeing like a Church, Seeing like a State: The Church-State Relation in Religious Asylum Adjudications” by Jaeeun Kim

May 23, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysConstitutional Law, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Kim, Jaeeun, May 2024, Politics

Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Bury, England. Photo by Michael Beckwith (CC BY 3.0). Religion is one of the five categories of protection—along with race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group—designated by the international and domestic refugee regimes. Migrants who claim a “well-founded fear of persecution” on account…

“God & Country: A Look at White Christian Nationalism that Both Enlightens and Disappoints” by David Little

May 16, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysChristianity, Little, David, May 2024, Politics, Religious Freedom

Mount Rushmore, USA by Dean Franklin (CC BY 2.0). Rob Reiner’s recent movie, God & Country is, to be sure, a compelling presentation of the character and influence of white Christian nationalism and a powerful reminder of the dire threat the movement represents for American political and social life in this portentous presidential election year. …

“The Elusive Quest for a Legal Right to Housing in the U.S.” by Terri Y. Montague

May 9, 2024Canopy ForumSeriesHuman Rights / Civil Rights, May 2024, Montague, Terri Y., Property Law

Rally to Defend NYC’s Right to Shelter by Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY 4.0). This essay is part of a virtual conference series “The Roles of Law, Religion and Housing Through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)” sponsored by Canopy Forum and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.…

“The Violent Incidents Database: A Social Innovation for Religious Freedom” by Dennis P. Petri and Kyle Wisdom

May 7, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysLatin America (Geography), May 2024, Petri, Dennis P., Religious Freedom, Wisdom, Kyle

Casa de la Libertad (Freedom House) in Sucre, Bolivia by Dan Lundberg (CC BY-SA 2.0). The Growing Sophistication of Religious Freedom Monitoring When considering research and political attention for religious freedom, we have really come a long way. For a long time, secularization theory was dominant in social sciences. Back in the nineteenth century, German…

“Love for the Stranger: The New Testament Imperative” by Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Arnold

May 2, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysArnold, Elizabeth, Christianity, Ethics, Human Rights / Civil Rights, May 2024

Photo by Pexels on Pixabay (CCO). In a recent campaign speech, Donald Trump referred to immigrants as a “poisoning of our blood,” arguing that immigration weakens and overall contaminates American society. He presents a perspective on immigration that is not uncommon—one of suspicion and preemptive mistrust of foreigners. Even those who are tolerant of foreigners…

“The Stranger in the Hebrew Bible” by Ryan Bonfiglio

Apr 30, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysBonfiglio, Ryan, Christianity, Ethics, Human Rights / Civil Rights

Code of Hammurabii via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). In a March 5, 2024 headline, the NY Times named immigration as “the biggest issue on Americans’ minds” today. Be that as it may, America is not the first (and surely not the last) society to wrestle with legal and ethical questions related to how one…

“We Have Come into His House: The Black Church, Florida’s Stop Woke, and the Fight to Teach Black History – Part II” by Timothy Welbeck

Apr 25, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2024, Christianity, Education, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Welbeck, Timothy

Old Florida State Capitol, Tallahassee by DXR (CC BY-SA 4.0) We Have Come Into His House is an essay published in two corresponding parts. The first part specifically examined recent Florida legislation that has restricted and restructured the way classrooms in primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions within the state may explore topics relating to race and racism.…

“We Have Come into His House: The Black Church, Florida’s Stop WOKE, and the Fight to Teach Black History – Part I” by Timothy Welbeck

Apr 23, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2024, Christianity, Education, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Politics, Welbeck, Timothy

Old Florida State Capitol, Tallahassee by DXR (CC BY-SA 4.0). We have come into His house to gather in His name to worship Him” – Bruce Ballinger “We request Black teachers of Black studies. It is not that we believe only Black people can understand the Black experience. It is, rather, that we acknowledge the difference…

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