One reason religious liberty is so fragile is that too few people support it consistently. Many, including lawmakers, only champion it when they agree with the religious values being protected. The Republican majority in the Iowa Legislature faces such a test this term. A core element of religious liberty that conservatives have rightly championed in recent decades is the principle, established in Supreme Court cases such as Trinity Lutheran v. Comer , that when the government pursues secular purposes by providing support to private organizations — hospitals, clinics, schools, childcare centers, homeless shelters, addiction treatment programs — it cannot discriminate against religious organizations or pressure them to change their beliefs as the price of participation.
But religious liberty gives faith-based institutions space to practice their own distinctive beliefs, including hiring in accord with their mission, without being punished by government officials for it. The problem is that plenty of religious traditions, including those that sponsor private colleges and universities in the state, consider such things part of their religious identity.
Take Catholic teaching. It has long advocated antiracism, arguing that racism is not only a personal sin but one that, rooted in what St. But the point of religious liberty is that religious institutions get to decide their values and practices for themselves, without the government punishing them for doing so by selectively denying them public benefits available to other organizations until they change.
Which is why those in the Legislature who claim to value religious liberty should be consistent. Religious liberty for me but not for thee is not religious liberty at all. The views expressed here are his own. WTNH — Plainfield police say a local man was arrested over the weekend after a domestic violence incident left a victim with severe head and facial injuries. Bryan Garrity, 51, was charged with first-degree assault on an elderly person, first-degree unlawful restraint, first-degree reckless endangerment, and disorderly conduct.
The charges stem from about […]. One of the most prominent representatives of the Jewish community in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, has expressed her shock regarding the performance of the far-right Alternative for Germany AfD in Sunday's election.
