Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Religious Liberty

January 16, 2019

Homeschooling a parent’s choice, not the state’s

Decades ago, when I was first ordained a priest, I shared a prejudice that many people hold: I thought homeschooling families were odd. I believed schooling children at home deprived such children of opportunities to be with other children causing them to be less able to communicate with others, socially awkward and reclusive and narrow in their experience and understanding of the world that they would one day have to grow up in and navigate. Continue Reading...
December 27, 2018

UK govt to investigate global Christian persecution

As the West continues to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas which extend into the New Year, some 215 million Christians worldwide face violence or repression. On the day after Christmas, the British government launched a review of Christian persecution in “key countries” – especially in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa – and to seek ways the UK can help those who are suffering. Continue Reading...
December 12, 2018

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the dragon slayer

At City Journal, Solzhenitsyn scholar Daniel J. Mahoney offers “A Centennial Tribute” marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian author’s birth. Mahoney, who holds the Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, describes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as “the century’s greatest critic of the totalitarian immolation of liberty and human dignity.” Continue Reading...
November 30, 2018

Explainer: Congress passes bill to help Christians and other genocide victims in Iraq and Syria

What just happened? Earlier this week the U.S. Congress voted unanimously to support HR 309, the “Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018.” The purpose of the bill is to provide relief for victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes who are members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iraq and Syria, for accountability for perpetrators of these crimes, and for other purposes. Continue Reading...
November 01, 2018

Luther’s challenge to the conscience of the West

Yesterday was Reformation Day, the 501st anniversary of Martin Luther’s issuing the 95 Theses. Luther’s 95 Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation and changed Christianity forever. But the theses has also had an effect on just about every religion in the world. Continue Reading...
October 17, 2018

The political manipulation of religion

The fact that something is political does not mean that it is not religious, says Paul Marshall. Instead of describing something as political, not religious, we might should describe it as the political manipulation of religion, or the insincere use of religion: This stress that events are not religion but politics can lead to misunderstanding the nature of both religion and politics. Continue Reading...
August 27, 2018

The church that lives by the State shall die by the State

In all the articles about last week’s 50th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Prague, few took note of one of its enduring scars: widespread and ubiquitous atheism. Some may be surprised to learn that the Czech people are the most irreligious people in Europe, not just because of decades of government-sponsored atheism, but because of centuries of government-enforced religion. Continue Reading...