Religion Law Commons^™

Panelist, “Rabbinical Arbitration In The 21st Century: Contemporary Issues And Challenges”, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

Nonbelievers, Nelson Tebbe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Joining Or Changing The Conversation - Catholic Social Thought And Intellectual Property, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jewish Law From Out Of The Depths: Tragic Choices In The Holocaust, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Nation And Its Heretics: ‘Muslim Citizenship’, State Power And Minority Rights In Pakistan, Sadia Saeed

Studio for Law and Culture

In 1984, Pakistan’s military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq passed an executive Ordinance that made it a criminal offence for members of the heterodox Ahmadiyya community, a self-defined minority sect of Islam, to refer to themselves as Muslims and practice Islam in public. Ahmadis challenged the 1984 Ordinance in both the Supreme Court and the Federal Shariat Court in Pakistan – in the former on that grounds that the Ordinance violated their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion and in the latter on the grounds that it violated shari’a. In a clear departure from the Pakistani courts’ earlier rulings on the …

Religion, Politics And American Foreign Policy In The Middle East, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

In the United States, religion and politics are intertwined. This entwinement helps to explain America's strong and unwavering support for Israel. Jewish-Americans, virtually across the board, are strong supporters of Israel, despite strong disagreement over a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The influence of Jewish-Americans on American foreign policy in the Middle East is primarily by way of Jewish strength in the Democratic party. Not only do Jewish-Americans strongly support Democratic candidates in all elections, but all but one of the disproportionately high number of Jewish Senators and Representatives in Congress are Democrats.

The Republicans are also strong supporters of …

When The Child Abuser Has A Bible: Investigating Child Maltreatment Sanctioned Or Condoned By A Religious Leader, Basyle Tchividjian, Victor Vieth

Faculty Publications and Presentations

In many cases of child sexual and physical abuse, perpetrators use religious or spiritual themes to justify their abuse of a child. Although no known religion in modern culture suggests that sexual abuse is condoned or taught as part of its tenets, some church leaders engage in conduct suggesting the child is equally, if not more to blame than the perpetrator, while also urging immediate reconciliation between the perpetrator and victim. In more than one case, pastors have asked children to confess their own “sins” in being sexually abused and have even required children to “confess” in front of an …

Between Liberalism And Theocracy, John D. Inazu

Campbell Law Review

Our symposium conveners have focused us on "the relationship between liberalism and Christianity and their influence on American constitutionalism."' My objective is to complicate the relationship and reorient the influence. The focus of my inquiry is the liberty of conscience and its implications for navigating the relationship between church and state.' By approaching these issues through the lens of political theology (as distinct from either political or constitutional theory), I hope to show that some of the most significant embodiments of conscience in the American colonies can neither be squared with an individualistic liberalism (as some on the left are …

Liberalism: A Religious-Dependent Faith, Barry Alan Shain

Campbell Law Review

Contemporary liberalism, both its American variant as well as its classical and European cousins,' is often thought of as a secular political philosophy with little in common with various religious faiths, least of all Christianity. Indeed, many of liberalism's most famous adherents, past and present, have taken a certain pride in distancing themselves from Christianity, most especially and perversely, Roman Catholicism.' Yet, such views may be mistaken in having ignored the fundamentally faithbased grounding of contemporary liberalism: first, its optimistic metaphysics makes it possible for its adherents to ignore human sin and to assume that individual self-love and corporate other-love …

"Causing The Blood To Flow Where I Touched Him" - Liberalism, Constitutionalism, Christianity, And The "War" At Covey Farm, Anthony V. Baker

Campbell Law Review

I will begin my critique by going directly to the source here, the famous Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787, and ask us to look somewhat carefully at the work of the "founders" there, in considering the ultimate integrity of the product they fashioned and the world they "created." That they gave us a classical liberal wonder, with tenets of that philosophy writ large in government for the very first time, is undeniable, though it will be submitted that they gave us "something else" as well. It is right for us then to explore that "something else," not abstractly, through ideas, …

Looking For Bedrock: Accounting For Human Rights In Classical Liberalism, Modern Secularism, And The Christian Tradition, C. Scott Pryor

Campbell Law Review

Part I of this Article looks to the history of foundations of human rights from late pre-modern times to the late-eighteenth century Founding era in America. The focus of the discussion of this era will be on two dominant strands of rights talk in America, Protestant Christian and Enlightenment. From two views operating side-by-side in the last decades of the eighteenth century, Part II will examine the contemporary ambivalence of many Christians, particularly those identified as Evangelicals, about the contemporary human rights movement. Part III addresses a specifically Christian foundation for human rights that can dispel some of the concerns …

Is Modern Legal Liberalism Still Compatible With Free Exercise Of Religion?, Donald R. Mcconnell

Campbell Law Review

Classic liberal legal thought has clearly been shaped by the influence of Christianity. But in recent years, the movement, like ancient Gnosticism, has some Christian elements, but has become a decidedly anti-Christian force in the courts. This comparison tracks well with the analysis of other parallel modern intellectual movements by the political scientist Eric Voegelin. It is also supported by current events such as the recent Federal District Court opinion by Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in Perry v. Schwartzenegger. Liberalism has transformed from an attempt at neutrality, to an established religion that not only promotes its own perverse version of …

Noah's Curse: How Religion Often Conflates Status, Belief, And Conduct To Resist Antidiscrimination Norms, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Georgia Law Review

Today, many devout Christian fundamentalists support
some state discrimination against gay people, on the
ground that full equality for gays would mean fewer
liberties for themselves. In its recent controversy with a
public law school, the Christian Legal Society argued that
it was entitled to state subsidies even though it violated
the school's antidiscrimination policy. The Society said it
excluded only "unrepentant homosexuals"-those gay
persons whose "immoral" conduct and degraded status
were directly linked to what the Society considered an
anti-Christian message.
Professor Eskridge demonstrates that the same clash
between equality for minorities and liberty for Christian
fundamentalists played out …

A Higher Law: Abraham Lincoln's Use Of Biblical Imagery, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Lincoln’s use of biblical imagery in seven of his works: the Peoria Address, the House Divided Speech, his Address at Chicago, his Speech at Lewistown, the Word Fitly Spoken fragment, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. Lincoln uses biblical imagery to express the depth of his own conviction, the stature of the founders of this country, the timeless and universal nature of the principles of the Declaration, and the magnitude of our moral obligation to defend those principles. Lincoln persuaded the American people to embrace the standard “all men are created equal” and to make it part of our …

The Unavoidable Ecclesiastical Collision In Virginia, Isaac A. Mcbeth, Jennifer R. Sykes

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Section 5 7-9(A) of the Code of Virginia is a statute that purports to resolve church property disputes. There is, however, a significant amount of controversy as to whether the statute encroaches on the free exercise rights of hierarchical churches located in Virginia and enmeshes Virginia courts in the ecclesiastical thicket. Given the debate surrounding Section 57-9(A) and the controversial shift of several mainstream denominations in matters of substantive church doctrine, Virginia is a fertile breeding ground for church property disputes. Accordingly, the Commonwealth is in the midst of an ecclesiastical crisis. The impact of the crisis is evidenced by …

Tango Or More - From California's Lesson 9 To The Constitutionality Of A Gay-Friendly Curriculum In Public Elementary Schools, Amy Lai

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In August 2009, a group of parents in California filed a lawsuit, Balde v. Alameda Unified School District, in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda. They alleged that the Alameda Unified School District refused them the right to excuse their children from a new curriculum, Lesson 9, that would teach public elementary school children about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) families. The proposed curriculum included short sessions about GLBT people, incorporated into more general lessons about family and health, once a year from kindergarten through fifth grade. Kindergarteners would learn the harms of teasing, while fifth graders …

The Schuman Plan And The Philosophical-Inspiration For European Integration, May 9, 1950, Catherine M.A. Mc Cauliff

Catherine M.A. Mc Cauliff

No abstract provided.

Cv Dr. Charles I. Lugosi, Charles I. Lugosi

Charles I. Lugosi

CV Dr. Charles I. Lugosi

Funding Stem Cell Research: The Convergence Of Science, Religion & Politics In The Formation Of Public Health Policy, Edward A. Fallone

Edward A Fallone

The controversy over the funding of stem cell research by the federal government is used as a case study for examining how policy choices are made in the field of public bioethics. This article examines the manner in which the decision to fund stem cell research has been influenced by the convergence of evolving scientific knowledge, conflicting religious values, and the role of elected officials in a representative democracy. The article begins by reviewing the current state of scientific knowledge concerning adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and the process of direct cell re-programming. Because each …

Probability Thresholds As Deontological Constraints In Global Constitutionalism, Gila Stopler, Moshe Cohen-Eliya

Gila Stopler

This Article calls for the re-introduction of probability tests—such as the abandoned American “clear and present danger” or the Israeli “near certainty” test—and for their integration into contemporary models of rights adjudication in global constitutionalism. This stance is supported, inter alia, by psychological research on the cognitive bias of “probability neglect.” Both the American strict scrutiny test, which focuses on a rigorous means-ends analysis, and the highly influential German proportionality test, which centers on the balancing of rights and interests, fail to properly ensure the priority of rights. The Article contends that it is important to integrate a probability requirement …