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Full-Text Articles in Law
Religion, Meaning, Truth, Life, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Religion, Meaning, Truth, Life, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Truth And Consequences: Mitt Romney, Proposition 8, And Public Reason, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Truth And Consequences: Mitt Romney, Proposition 8, And Public Reason, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Faculty Scholarship
Although formal religious tests for federal office are constitutionally prohibited, they have long been fact of political life in presidential elections. John Kennedy remains the only nonProtestant ever elected President. The "Judeo-Christian tradition" notwithstanding, no major party has ever nominated a Jew for president - let alone a Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, or unbeliever.
Against this electoral history, it was perhaps predictable that mainstream Christian commentators would feel free to legitimate religious attacks on Mitt Romney during the Republican presidential primaries on the ground that Mormonism is a "false" religion. Ironically, however, the Mormon church periodically intervenes in initiative and …
American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, Frederick Mark Gedicks
American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Faculty Scholarship
From the founding of the United States, Americans have understood loyalty to their country as a religious and not just a civic commitment. The idea of a 'civil religion' that defines the collective identity of a nation originates with Rousseau, and was adapted to the United States Robert Bellah, who suggested that a peculiarly American civil religion has underwritten government and civil society in the United States.
Leaving aside the question whether civil religion has ever truly unified all or virtually all Americans, I argue that it excludes too many Americans to function as such a unifying force in the …
Religious Experience In The Age Of Digital Reproduction, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix
Religious Experience In The Age Of Digital Reproduction, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix
Faculty Scholarship
A religious experience is an extraordinary event that occurs against the backdrop of ordinary life, infusing that life with a meaning it would not otherwise have. Mass culture is now replete with portrayals of such experiences. Spiritually-themed television shows, movies, books, music, and fashion are now common and even popular. This is not necessarily good news for religion and religious experience. What mass culture portrays as sacred may be merely an imitation, resembling more the ubiquitous feel-good self-affirmance of popular psychology than authentic communion with the divine.
On the other hand, the appropriation and portrayal of religious experience by mass …
Public Life And Hostility To Religion, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Public Life And Hostility To Religion, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Faculty Scholarship
Many who value the contributions of religion to American life have contended that American public life is hostile to religion. They perceive many of the Supreme Court's Religion Clause opinions as hostile to religion, and circulate anecdotes about the antireligious hostility of public life. Studies also suggest that some of the principle actors in American public life systematically marginalize religious viewpoints relative to secular ones. Nevertheless, others are baffled by the suggestion that public life discriminates against religion. These people note that religion is deeply (if controversially) involved in much of contemporary American politics, and dismiss anecdotes about such hostility …
The Religious, The Secular, And The Antithetical, Frederick Mark Gedicks
The Religious, The Secular, And The Antithetical, Frederick Mark Gedicks
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Democracy, Autonomy, And Values: Some Thoughts On Religion And Law In Modern America, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix
Democracy, Autonomy, And Values: Some Thoughts On Religion And Law In Modern America, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.