Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “Subjective Beliefs, Social Judgments, and Witch Killers” Matthew P. Cavedon In a 1992 abortion decision, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, a plurality of the U.S. Supreme Court held: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “Opening the Doors to Perception” Matthew P. Cavedon This past Election Day saw a shift in the treatment of psychedelics, with voters in Oregon and the District of Columbia legalizing their use. This comes a year after Denver decriminalized them. Psychedelics’ ability to alter perceptions of reality –…
Photo by Stephan Müller on Pexels This article is part of our “Law, Religion, and the Constitutionalism” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. The Australian Constitution, an Act of the Imperial United Kingdom Parliament which came into force in 1901, contains a seemingly comprehensive protection for religious freedom,…
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…
Photo by Nicole Baster on Unsplash In an interview with Krista Tippet’s theology podcast On Being, prominent civil rights activist and public theologian Ruby Sales considers the role of Black Christianity and Black folk religion in her community organizing. Despite being reared in the Black Baptist tradition, Sales explains that she “lost her religion” during…
“Sacred Stone Camp” by Tony Webster / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 The Standing Rock demonstrations, which began in early 2016 and lasted almost a year, have been aptly characterized as the largest Native American activist movement in modern history. More than 300 tribes and scores of water protectors gathered to protest against the construction…
Cover Image: Mouth of the Klamath River on the Pacific Ocean, Del Norte County, California / Wikimedia. This article is part of our “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. The Trump Administration’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights, recently convened by Secretary of…