by Steve Smith and I were thinking along the same lines about the conundrum of whether to wish folks a Merry Christmas. My dilemma was in sorting my holiday/Christmas cards into the right piles, since some new folks have come onto the list, by marriage or otherwise. The debate over whether Christans have an obligation always to tell [...]
Read the full postAuthor Archive for mariefailinger
My governor, Tim Pawlenty, is at it again. Years ago, after September 11, he used immigration as a “wedge issue,” linking it to terrorism to scare and upset the voters of Minnesota. Now, he has not only waded into the question of revising the 14th amendment on birthright citizenship, saying, “ I think we’re the [...]
Read the full postThanks to the hard work of editor Leslie Griffin, Law & Religion (Aspen Publishers) is now in print. The textbook gives the “backstory” on some of the classic First Amendment cases, from Malnak v. Yogi to Goldman v. Weinberger, Lynch, Edwards, and several others. There is nothing like the real story of a case (and a close examination of court decisions at all levels) to remind all who tend the constitutional garden how complicated and fraught are the controversies that give rise to our abstract discussions about the “right rule” for Establishment or Free Exercise cases. They raise theological questions, sociological questions, and sometimes even questions like “what were these people thinking?” Almost always I am struck by the question of whether the courts are a fruitful way of resolving church-state controversies, and whether our divided communities use them, as they should, as a last resort when all dialogue fails and other options are exhausted. In any case, if nothing else, these stories seem to confirm the Psalmist’s view that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Read the full postHaving just finished an unrelated article on adolescent girls, I thought about the continuing debate over the religious liberty rights of children. The authorities in this area tell us that young adolescent girls aren’t “rational maximizers.” For many girls, decisions often are governed, in the words of Mary Pipher and Martha Straus, by the “magical thinking of childhood” and a “reliant and defiant” relationship with their parents. Many are concrete, present-oriented and largely egocentric and peer-directed thinkers.
Read the full postTurkey’s newest crisis pitting secularist plotters against the conservative Islamic government is one of the world’s dramatic examples of the distrust between proponents of clear church-state divisions and those who believe that religion and politics may be useful or even necessary companions in creating a just and moral society. One of my fall seminar students suggested that the cycle of military coups in Turkey when army officers decide that religion is damaging the state may simply be Turkey’s distinctive way of navigating church-state issues.
Read the full post
