The press release from the Orthodox Union arrived in my inbox yesterday, just moments after the U.S. Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as secretary of education in the closest, most divisive vote for a Cabinet official in U.S. history. Vice President Mike Pence had to cast the deciding ballot for DeVos, handing the administration a wafer-thin…
The Alabama judge famous for installing a monument of the Ten Commandments outside his courthouse may soon be headed to Washington D.C. Judge Roy Moore, whose disregard for separation of church and state has drawn harsh criticism throughout his years on the state bench, is one of eight candidates interviewed so far by Alabama governor…
“We need a president who understands the role of faith,” Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton told a crowd of religious leaders gathered September 8 for the annual National Baptist Convention meeting, “a president who will pray with you and for you.” The next day, in Washington, Donald Trump, her Republican rival, promised the Values Voter Summit…
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, known for his defiance of federal church-state separation laws, is under fire for arguing in a speech that the First Amendment only protects religions that worship “the God of the Holy Scriptures,” by which he appeared to mean Christianity. The amendment’s mention of “religion,” Moore said, was meant to denote…
(JTA) — The need for a firm barrier between church and state is as clear now for Susan Galloway as it was in grade school, when she was expected to sing carols at the Christmas show. Galloway grew up in McHenry, Ill., a town northwest of Chicago with few other Jews, and the carols sung…
While we’re all riveted to the hostage drama in the House of Representatives, there’s another lopsided showdown shaping up in more-or-less plain sight that puts some basic values and settled law up for grabs. Like the Capitol Hill farce, this one has a tiny band of fanatics determined to trash three generations of evolving American…
UJA-Federation of New York and other Jewish agencies are helping synagogues damaged during Hurricane Sandy to apply for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, even though the government agency currently bars grants to houses of worship because of concern that such aid may violate the First Amendment. Nathan Diament, executive director of public policy…
Few topics are as fraught and complicated, or as tempting to oversimplify, as the encounter between religion and state. Take Israel. The balance of religion and state seems to be particularly imperiled for a variety of cultural and political reasons. Some Israelis think the problem has to do with an increase in religious commitment itself….
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