Religious Freedom

  • Our Religious "Nones" Wait For Us

    The finding that grabbed many of the headlines and has produced a fair amount of handwringing is the statistic showing that Protestants are no longer a majority in the U.S. In fact, there are now more "nones" than there are people who identify themselves with any Protestant religion—whether Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of Christ, or non-denominational Christian.

    Like any person of faith, I read with great interest the recent Pew Forum study showing that a rising number of Americans say they have no religious affiliation. In fa...

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  • Why Criticism of Religion is So Necessary

    Should criticism of religion be allowed, particularly when it can lead to such violent reactions?

    After two weeks of riots across the Muslim world, ostensibly due to an offensive amateur YouTube video which insults the Prophet Muhammad, many people across the non-Muslim world might agree that the reaction to the offense far exceeds the offense itself. T...

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  • Religious rights are not human rights?

    The key to the video is not the demonstrators protesting legislation that will use the State's monopoly on deadly force to tell Catholic schools how to name their anti-bullying clubs. It is not even just the presence of a lone counter-demonstrator who heckles the main group of protestors as she holds a juvenile sign announcing "Jesus had two dads and he turned out fine".

    As Bill 13 was being passed in the Ontario legislature today, a parent's rights group was circulating the following video: "You Deserve to be Bullied".

    The key to the video is not the demonstrators protesting legislation that will use ...

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  • Beware of the Cross Police . . . or, Let's Make Crosses Mandatory for Christians

    In particular, it is the symbol of choice for the "Goth" movement, adherents of which wear jet black hair and clothing, chains, tattoos, and sport crosses, skulls, insects, and dragons. They also carry purses and backpacks in the shapes of coffins with crosses on the lids.

    In 1984, British rock star Madonna took to the stage to perform "Like a Virgin" sporting a very large cross on a chain around her neck. The song was a major hit. So was the cross. Suddenly everyone was wearing large crosses on chains, and the cross has rema...

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  • Sick Schools, Sick Students, Sick State

    Let's start with the superintendent, Ms. Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, and the school board. Young William Swinimer wore a bright yellow t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Life is Wasted without Jesus" to school. Those words offended another student, who complained to the vice-principal, who asked William to remove the shirt. The National Post reports that the vice-principal considers the words on the shirt "hate-talk." There is more to the story, of course: the boy says that he had been "bullied" about his faith prior to this incident; the school maintains that he was suspended not only because of the shirt, but because of his defiance of the principal's order; and the school says it is "expected that students will not wear clothing with messages that may offend others' beliefs, race, religion, culture or lifestyle."

    There is an illness plaguing our public school systems. And like a runny nose in a kindergarten class, it spreads quickly. When public schools become sick, it's usually not too long before the whole nation becomes sick. The whole sad debacle ...

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  • Conscience rights are Charter rights

    According to a Calgary Herald-Edmonton Journal poll reported in today's National Post, Smith and Wildrose have lost the impressive lead they held in the first week of campaigning. They are said to be tied in popular support with the governing Progressive Conservative party. Premier Alison Redford last week attacked the Wildrose platform for promising to protect conscience rights by letting health care professionals and marriage commissioners go to court for legal exemptions from, say, performing abortions, dispensing contraceptives, or officiating at same-sex weddings.

    Have Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith's in-born libertarian instincts cost her a majority government in the Alberta election?

    According to a Calgary Herald-Edmonton Journal poll ...

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  • How we think of religious freedom

    The irascible Gerald Caplan's article begins well. There is "much work for Canada to do" with regard to championing religious freedom. Caplan highlights a short list of religious persecutions, violence, and ignorance around the world, taking particular delight in a fight between monks wielding brooms in the church of the Nativity.

    Well, it didn't take long for articles about religion in the public square to make their way back into the news cycle. In the span of a week—in what must be the most bang for the buck ever seen by a government office with no staff, no structure, no plan, an...

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  • Veiled Interference in Freedom of Religion

    The issue is controversial, of course, due to the practice of certain Muslim women of wearing a niqab or burka in public. While Minister Kenney's edict sounds reasonable, as Peter Stockland noted in this space yesterday, the response of outrage to the announcement also sounds reasonable. Recognizing that freedom of religion is a greatly attacked freedom these days, I am usually inclined to bend over backwards to protect it, but here—in matters as basic to our citizenship as swearing public oaths, establishing identity, or witnessing at a trial—I think the state has a more reasonable argument, to ensure it functions properly. These essential processes in the state's functioning are part and parcel of the very package of freedoms that allow for the freedom of religion, which in my mind does allow for the wearing of religious head coverings on other occasions.

    For the record, I think Minister Jason Kenney is right in insisting that when taking the oath of citizenship, new Canadians are required to show their faces. He is quoted as saying, "The citizenship oath is a quintessentially public act. It is a public decl...

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