JCPW, Author at LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Posted on June 21, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

The House has rejected a Democratic proposal to allow nonreligious organizations to appoint people to the military’s chaplain corps
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has mounted a campaign to renegotiate the Falkland Islands’ sovereignty, and has asked Pope Francis to intervene. The British have dismissed any thought of inviting the Pope to help mediate.
Quebec’s ban on turbans on soccer fields ended this past weekend after FIFA, the game’s world governing body, ruled that Sikh headgear permissible
An atheist, whose application for U.S. citizenship was put in question because of her non-religious opposition to war, will become a naturalized citizen next week.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the NYPD over police surveillance of Muslim communities
Islamists press blasphemy cases in a new, post-Mubarak Egypt. Most blasphemy cases have been directed against Egypt’s Christian minority and filed by Salafis.
Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to prohibit adoption by foreign gay couples whose homeland recognizes their union as marriage, as well as by single people or unmarried couples from those countries
Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a “Merry Christmas” bill into law on Thursday. The law removes the legal risks of saying “Merry Christmas” in Texas public schools, and protects traditional holiday symbols such as menorahs and nativity scenes, as long as more than one religion and a secular symbol are also reflected
A Methodist pastor is suing the state of Oklahoma claiming that its license plate image of a Native American shooting an arrow into the sky violates his religious liberty. The appeals court has ruled that the suit may proceed.
Kenya’s Christians and Muslims unite to combat drug addiction
Courts in China’s far western region of Xinjiang have sentenced 11 ethnic Uighurs to up to six years in jail for promoting racial hatred and religious extremism online
A Vatican official has confirmed that a committee of theologians has approved a second miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II, which is required for canonization in the Roman Catholic Church
There is no full translation of the Bible into sign language, but the Japan Deaf Evangel Mission aims to change that by creating the world’s only full-text sign language bible using video-recorded Scriptures

Posted on June 21, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Hammarberg, “The Mormon Quest for Glory”

This July, Oxford University Press will publish The Mormon Quest for Glory: The Religious World of the Latter-Day Saints by Melvyn Hammarberg (University of Pennsylvania). The publisher’s description follows.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 6 million members in the United States today (and 13 million worldwide). Yet, while there has been extensive study of Mormon history, comparatively little scholarly attention has been paid to contemporary Mormons. The best sociological study of Mormon life, Thomas O’Dea’s The Mormons, is now over fifty years old. What is it like to be a Mormon in America today? Melvyn Hammarberg attempts to answer this question by offering an ethnography of contemporary Mormons. In The Mormon Quest for Glory, Hammarberg examines Mormon history, rituals, social organization, family connections, gender roles, artistic traditions, use of media, and missionary work. He writes as a sympathetic outsider who has studied Mormon life for decades, and strives to explain the religious world of the Latter-day Saints through the lens of their own spiritual understanding. Drawing on a survey, participant observation, interviews, focus groups, attendance at religious gatherings, diaries, church periodicals, lesson manuals, and other church literature, Hammarberg aims to present a comprehensive picture of the religious world of the Latter-day Saints.

Posted on June 14, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

The International Criminal Court has rejected a request by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity
The EEOC has sued an Illinois trucking company for allegedly violating the religious rights of two former Muslim employees who refused to deliver alcohol in 2009
Protesters argue that policies of the North Carolina state legislature violate “Jesus Christ’s teaching to care for those with the least.” Conservatives respond that the best way to help the poor is “through private charity, providing jobs, and promoting self-reliance.”
An envoy from Al-Azhar University in Cairo called on Pope Francis to declare that Islam is a peaceful religion as a prelude to restoring ties
A Carnegie Mellon University student who dressed as a half-nude pope at a university-sponsored event will have indecent exposure charges dropped in exchange for 80 hours of community service
With court order, 300 women pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall
WP: Today’s Iranian Presidential election shows waning political influence of Shiite clerics
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill urges monks to shun internet temptations
Oregon’s Senate approved a bill making it more difficult for parents to opt out of state-required immunizations for their children when they enter schools or group child care. Parents will no longer be allowed to refuse immunization on religious grounds by simply signing a form
NYT profiles Vox Veniae, a “postpolitical, postracial congregation” in Austin, Texas that some hope is the future of evangelicalism

Posted on June 14, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

D’Antonio, Tuch & Baker, “Religion, Politics, and Polarization”

This month, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers will publish Religion, Politics, and Polarization: How Religiopolitical Conflict is Changing Congress and American Democracy by William V. D’Antonio (The Catholic University of America), Steven A. Tuch (George Washington U), and Josiah R. Baker (Methodist U, George Mason U). The publisher’s description follows.

Do the religious affiliations of elected officials shape the way they vote on such key issues as abortion, homosexuality, defense spending, taxes, and welfare spending? In Religion, Politics, and Polarization: How Religiopolitical Conflict is Changing Congress and American Democracy, William D’Antonio, Steven A. Tuch and Josiah R. Baker trace the influence of religion and party in the U.S. Congress over time. For almost four decades these key issues have competed for public attention with health care, war, terrorism, and the growing inequity between the incomes of the middle classes and those of corporate America. The authors examine several contemporary issues and trace the increasing polarization in Congress. They examine whether abortion, defense and welfare spending, and taxes are uniquely polarizing or, rather, models of a more general pattern of increasing ideological division in the U.S. Congress. By examining the impact of religion on these key issues the authors effectively address the question of how the various religious denominations have shaped the House and Senate. Throughout the book they draw on key roll call votes, survey data, and extensive background research to argue that the political ideologies of both parties have become grounded in distinctive religious visions of the good society, in turn influencing the voting patterns of elected officials.

Posted on June 14, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Frick & Müller (eds.), “Islam and International Law”

This July, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers will publish Islam and International Law: Engaging Self-Centrism from a Plurality of Perspectives edited by Marie-Luisa Frick (University of Innsbruck) and Andreas Th. Müller (University of Innsbruck). The publisher’s description follows.

Islam and International Law explores the complex and multi-faceted relationship of international law and Islam both as a religion and a legal order. Current debates on Sharia, Islam and the “West” often suffer from prejudice, platitudes, and stereotypes on both sides. The present book seeks to engage such self-centrism by providing a plurality of perspectives, both in terms of interdisciplinary research and geographic backgrounds. The volume thus brings together 20 contributions from scholars who cover pressing issues in fields such as the use of force in Islamic international law, Islam’s contribution to the development of diplomacy and the rule of law, controversies as to the role of the individual, human rights and international criminal law, as well as Islamic visions of world order in a globalizing world.

Posted on June 7, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

In Turkey, a struggle over urban spaces is erupting as a broader fight over Turkish identity where difficult issues of religion, social class, and politics intersect
The Czech Republic’s highest court has upheld a government plan to pay 59 billion koruna ($3 billion) over the next 30 years to religious groups as compensation for property seized by the country’s former Communist regime
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati fired a lesbian teacher who became pregnant by artificial insemination, arguing that her employment contract required her to live within Catholic teachings (she did not disclose her sexual orientation to the school). On Monday, a federal jury found that the firing was discriminatory and awarded her $171,000
An Egyptian court has convicted a Coptic Christian lawyer of blasphemy and sentenced him to one year in prison with hard labor
Missouri governor Jay Nixon vetoed a bill that would have prohibited judges from considering Shariah and other foreign law in their decisions, claiming that the bill would make it harder for Missouri families to adopt children from overseas
According to a new study by the Pew Forum, Muslims who use the internet are more likely than other Muslims to have a favorable opinion of Western culture, and are more likely to see commonalities between Islam and Christianity
USA Today reports on Zaytuna College, a liberal arts college founded as a place for American Muslims to study and grow in their faith
In secular Norway, the Bible is making a comeback via a new Norwegian language version and a popular six-hour (!) play called “Bibelen” (that’s “Bible” in Norwegian)
In addition to tracking hate crimes against Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and atheists/agnostics, the FBI will begin formally tracking hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindus, and Arabs

Posted on June 7, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Sezgin, “Human Rights Under State-Enforced Religious Family Laws”

This September, Cambridge University Press will publish Human Rights Under State-Enforced Religious Family Laws in Israel, Egypt, and India by Yüksel Sezgin (Syracuse University). The publisher’s description follows.

About one-third of the world’s population currently lives under pluri-legal systems where governments hold individuals subject to the purview of ethno-religious rather than national norms in respect to family law. How does the state-enforcement of these religious family laws impact fundamental rights and liberties? What resistance strategies do people employ in order to overcome the disabilities and limitations these religious laws impose upon their rights? Based on archival research, court observations and interviews with individuals from three countries, Yüksel Sezgin shows that governments have often intervened in order to impress a particular image of subjectivity upon a society, while people have constantly challenged the interpretive monopoly of courts and state-sanctioned religious institutions, re-negotiated their rights and duties under the law, and changed the system from within. He also identifies key lessons and best practices for the integration of universal human rights principles into religious legal systems.

Posted on June 7, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Dworkin, “Religion Without God”

This August, Harvard University Press will publish Religion Without God by the late Ronald Dworkin. The publisher’s description follows.

In his last book, Ronald Dworkin addresses questions that men and women have asked through the ages: What is religion and what is God’s place in it? What is death and what is immortality? Based on the 2011 Einstein Lectures, Religion without God is inspired by remarks Einstein made that if religion consists of awe toward mysteries which “manifest themselves in the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, and which our dull faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive forms,” then, he, Einstein, was a religious person.

Dworkin joins Einstein’s sense of cosmic mystery and beauty to the claim that value is objective, independent of mind, and immanent in the world. He rejects the metaphysics of naturalism—that nothing is real except what can be studied by the natural sciences. Belief in God is one manifestation of this deeper worldview, but not the only one. The conviction that God underwrites value presupposes a prior commitment to the independent reality of that value—a commitment that is available to nonbelievers as well. So theists share a commitment with some atheists that is more fundamental than what divides them. Freedom of religion should flow not from a respect for belief in God but from the right to ethical independence.

Dworkin hoped that this short book would contribute to rational conversation and the softening of religious fear and hatred. Religion without God is the work of a humanist who recognized both the possibilities and limitations of humanity.

Posted on May 31, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law & religion stories from around the web this week:

An Israeli government committee approved a proposal to phase out wholesale exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men
A Southeast Texas school district is appealing a ruling that allowed high school cheerleaders to display banners with Bible verses at football games
French firms in urban areas are facing problems arising from religious demands from their employees
Luhrmann on why belief is the least part of faith
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled against parts of an election law approved by the Islamist-led legislature that had lifted a long-standing ban on the use of religious slogans during campaigning. The court stated that not banning religious slogans runs counter to national unity.
Amma, an Indian guru known as “the hugging saint,” has built a vast international spiritual organization
Security forces in Myanmar struggled to bring peace to the city of Lashio after Buddhist mobs set fire to a mosque, a Muslim school, and shops. This is the latest violent outbreak in a series of anti-Muslim attacks.
A 318-page report detailing a series of violent riots against Pakistani Christians over the past decade blames politicians and law enforcement in the country for failing to take preventative action
Map: where the world’s atheists live
On Shia and Sunni Islam in Syria
Earlier this week during his blessing in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis rebuked the mafia for “enslaving people”
A statement of the Holy See highlights intolerance against Christians and emphasizes individuals’ fundamental right to believe and practice religious faith
An Italian scholar claims to have found the oldest known Torah scroll in the University of Bologna library

Posted on May 31, 2013July 28, 2016 by JCPW

Omer, “When Peace is Not Enough”

This May, University of Chicago Press published When Peace is Not Enough: How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks About Religion, Nationalism, and Justice by Atalia Omer (Notre Dame). The publisher’s description follows.

The state of Israel is often spoken of as a haven for the Jewish people, a place rooted in the story of a nation dispersed, wandering the earth in search of their homeland. Born in adversity but purportedly nurtured by liberal ideals, Israel has never known peace, experiencing instead a state of constant war that has divided its population along the stark and seemingly unbreachable lines of dissent around the relationship between unrestricted citizenship and Jewish identity.

By focusing on the perceptions and histories of Israel’s most marginalized stakeholders—Palestinian Israelis, Arab Jews, and non-Israeli Jews—Atalia Omer cuts to the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict, demonstrating how these voices provide urgently needed resources for conflict analysis and peacebuilding. Navigating a complex set of arguments about ethnicity, boundaries, and peace, and offering a different approach to the renegotiation and reimagination of national identity and citizenship, Omer pushes the conversation beyond the bounds of the single narrative and toward a new and dynamic concept of justice—one that offers the prospect of building a lasting peace.

LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Author: JCPW

Around the Web This Week

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Hammarberg, “The Mormon Quest for Glory”

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D’Antonio, Tuch & Baker, “Religion, Politics, and Polarization”

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Frick & Müller (eds.), “Islam and International Law”

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Sezgin, “Human Rights Under State-Enforced Religious Family Laws”

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Dworkin, “Religion Without God”

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Omer, “When Peace is Not Enough”

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