Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Burge on the American Religious Landscape

For many years, I have profited from the work of political scientist Ryan Burge (Eastern Illinois University). His monographs on the composition of religious groups in the US have been quite valuable, especially when it comes to chronicling the rise of the Nones. He’s always thorough, readable, and insightful. So I’m looking forward to his latest monograph from Oxford University Press, The American Religious Landscape: Facts, Trends, and the Future. Oxford will release the book next month. Here’s the description from the Oxford website:

At its founding, the United States was an overwhelmingly Protestant country. However, over the last 250 years, it has become increasingly diverse with tens of millions of Catholics, millions of Latter-day Saints, Muslims, Hindus, and Jews, alongside a rapidly increasing share of Americans who claim no religious affiliation at all. 

The American Religious Landscape uses an in-depth statistical analysis of large datasets to answer foundational questions about this diversity, such as: How many Hindus are there in the US? Which state has the highest concentration of Muslims? Are atheists more highly educated than the general population? How many Roman Catholics attend Mass weekly? It focuses on the overall size, geographic distribution, and demographic composition of twelve different religious groups in short and accessible chapters that, taken together, serve as a basic introduction to the state of religion in America. Through dozens of charts, graphs, and maps–designed for readability and clarity–readers will be left with a solid understanding of the contours of contemporary American religion and what it could look like in the future.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Christianity and American Democracy

Historically, the American approach to church-state relations has had two primary, and complimentary, influences: the Evangelical Christian tradition and the Enlightenment Liberal tradition, both of which support official state neutrality and freedom of conscience. A new book from Jonathan Rauch (Brookings) argues that Christian influence in the US is fading and that the historical bargain between Christianity and liberalism is falling apart. Although he’s an atheist, Rauch regrets this development, which he sees as a threat to America’s future. The book is Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy and the publisher is Yale University Press. Here’s the description from Yale’s website:

What happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In this provocative book, the award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch—a lifelong atheist—reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity.
 
Thin Christianity, as Rauch calls the mainline church, has been unable to inspire and retain believers. Worse, a Church of Fear has distorted white evangelicalism in ways that violate the tenets of both Jesus and James Madison. What to do? For answers, Rauch looks to a new generation of religious thinkers, as well as to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has placed the Constitution at the heart of its spiritual teachings.
 
In this timely critique Rauch addresses secular Americans who think Christianity can be abandoned, and Christian Americans who blame secular culture for their grievances. The two must work together, he argues, to confront our present crisis. He calls on Christians to recommit to the teachings of their faith that align with Madison, not MAGA, and to understand that liberal democracy, far from being oppressive, is uniquely protective of religious freedom. At the same time, he calls on secular liberals to understand that healthy religious institutions are crucial to the survival of the liberal state.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

On Wokism and Cultural Contradictions

For about 10 years now, US institutions have aggressively advocated for social justice. As many have observed, the “wokism” behind these efforts is itself a new civil religion, one that promises to succeed in promoting equality where the old civil religion of Americanism failed. A new book from Princeton University Press argues, though, that wokism has actually worked against the socially disadvantaged and marginalized and, ironically, has aided in the rise of a new elite of symbolic capitalists. The book is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, by sociologist Musa al-Gharbi (Stony Brook). Looks interesting. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Society has never been more egalitarian—in theory. Prejudice is taboo, and diversity is strongly valued. At the same time, social and economic inequality have exploded. In We Have Never Been Woke, Musa al-Gharbi argues that these trends are closely related, each tied to the rise of a new elite—the symbolic capitalists. In education, media, nonprofits, and beyond, members of this elite work primarily with words, ideas, images, and data, and are very likely to identify as allies of antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, and other progressive causes. Their dominant ideology is “wokeness” and, while their commitment to equality is sincere, they actively benefit from and perpetuate the inequalities they decry. Indeed, their egalitarian credentials help them gain more power and status, often at the expense of the marginalized and disadvantaged.

We Have Never Been Woke details how the language of social justice is increasingly used to justify this elite—and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the “wrong” things about race, gender, and sexuality. Al-Gharbi’s point is not to accuse symbolic capitalists of hypocrisy or cynicism. Rather, he examines how their genuine beliefs prevent them from recognizing how they contribute to social problems—or how their actions regularly provoke backlash against the social justice causes they champion.

A powerful critique, We Have Never Been Woke reveals that only by challenging this elite’s self-serving narratives can we hope to address social and economic inequality effectively.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In Loffman v. California, the Ninth Circuit held that California’s exclusion of Jewish schools from special-education programs violates the Constitution’s neutrality requirement. The court found that California’s policy discriminates against religious parents and schools.
  • In Tanvir v. Tanzin, on remand from the Supreme Court, the Second Circuit held that FBI agents were entitled to qualified immunity against RFRA damages claims because the Muslim plaintiffs who were put on a no-fly list had not disclosed their religious objections to serving as informants. The court found that, since the agents had no reason to know their actions violated the plaintiffs’ religious beliefs, they could not be personally liable for damages.
  • Luther Rice College and Seminary filed a complaint saying that Georgia officials are violating the Constitution by excluding its students from state financial aid programs solely because of the college’s religious mission. The lawsuit argues that this exclusion from public benefits violates the Free Exercise Clause by discriminating against religious institutions based on their religious character.
  • President Biden formally apologized for the U.S. Federal Indian Boarding School Policies (1819–1969), which aimed to assimilate Native American children. He acknowledged that over half of these schools were associated with religious organizations, and many of them subjected Native children to severe mistreatment, leaving lasting trauma across generations.
  • The Vatican and China have agreed to extend their Provisional Agreement on the Appointment of Bishops for another four years, marking the third renewal since its initial signing in 2018. This agreement has allowed bishops in China to be appointed with papal consent, fostering full communion with the Pope and resulting in about ten new bishop appointments and formal recognition of previously unrecognized bishops.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Reading Group to Discuss John Winthrop

Photo: Partnership of Historic Bostons

Later this month, the Mattone Center Reading Group will meet at St. John’s to discuss one of the most famous essays in American history, John Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop wrote the essay on the ship Arbella in 1630, while he and other Puritan colonists were on their way to Massachusetts. The essay is the source of the much quoted metaphor–itself a Biblical reference–of America as a “city upon a hill.” But what did Winthrop mean, exactly? And how do his words apply today, in a very different America than he could have imagined. Please join us (registration required)! Details below.

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Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In Gaddy v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the 10th Circuit heard oral arguments in a class action lawsuit accusing the LDS Church of fraudulently misrepresenting its founding and the use of tithing funds. A Utah federal court had previously dismissed the case, which was brought by former members claiming the Church’s leaders did not sincerely believe in the foundational narrative.
  • In Catholic Benefits Association v. Burrows, a federal district court in North Dakota blocked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from enforcing rules that would compel a Catholic organization to accommodate employee’s abortions and infertility treatments in violation of the organization’s religious teachings. The court ruled that such mandates would infringe on religious freedom.
  • In In re Calvary Chapel Iowa, an Iowa Administrative Law Judge ruled that the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act shields churches from taxpayer lawsuits challenging their property tax exemptions. The court held that such lawsuits impose a substantial burden on religious exercise, and that tax enforcement is better handled by the state, not individuals, to avoid retaliatory actions against religious organizations.
  • Jewish students filed a lawsuit against Haverford College alleging the college violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to enforce its nondiscrimination policy and protect Jewish students from harassment over their pro-Israel views. The complaint also includes a breach of contract claim, accusing the college of fostering a hostile environment where Jewish students feel unsafe expressing support for Israel.
  • Ukraine signed a new law, No. 3894-IX, effective August 24, banning the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for justifying and supporting Russia’s invasion, and introducing legal procedures to dissolve Ukrainian religious organizations connected to the ROC. The law specifically targets the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) by prohibiting affiliations with any Russian religious groups involved in supporting the war.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Black Churches, Israel, and Palestine

Black churches have had enormous influence on American law and politics. Mostly, that influence is domestic. But like other Christians, African American Christians also take an interest in foreign policy and have tried to influence US international relations. Earlier this year, Columbia University Press published a study of African Americans’ engagement with the Israel-Palestine conflict. The book is Black Visions of the Holy Land: African American Christian Engagement with Israel and Palestine, by sociologist Roger Baumann (Hope College). Here is the description from Columbia’s website:

Since at least the high point of the civil rights movement, African American Christianity has been widely recognized as a potent force for social change. Most attention to the political significance of Black churches, however, focuses on domestic protest and electoral politics. Yet some Black churches take a deep interest in the global issue of Israel and Palestine. Why would African American Christians get involved—and even take sides—in Palestine and Israel, and what does that reveal about the political significance of “the Black Church” today?

This book examines African American Christian involvement in Israel and Palestine to show how competing visions of “the Black Church” are changing through transnational political engagement. Considering cases ranging from African American Christian Zionists to Palestinian solidarity activists, Roger Baumann traces how Black religious politics transcend domestic arenas and enter global spaces. These cases, he argues, illuminate how the meaning of the ostensibly singular and unifying category of “the Black Church”—spanning its history, identity, culture, and mission—is deeply contested at every turn. Black Visions of the Holy Land offers new insights into how Black churches understand their political role and social significance; the ways race, religion, and politics both converge and diverge; and why the meaning of overlapping racial and religious identities shifts when moving from national to global contexts.

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Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In The Satanic Temple, Inc. v. City of Boston, the 1st Circuit ruled that the Boston City Council did not violate the 1st Amendment by choosing not to invite representatives of the Satanic Temple to deliver invocations at Council meetings. The court found no evidence of religious bias in the selection process as Council members choose speakers based on personal or community ties.
  • In StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Massachusetts district court dismissed a suit against MIT, which alleged that the university showed deliberate indifference to a hostile environment affecting Jewish and Israeli students in violation of Title VI. The court found that MIT took various steps to address the escalating protests and threats, indicating that its response was not clearly unreasonable.
  • A Massachusetts district judge denied Harvard’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by six Jewish students alleging the university failed to address pervasive antisemitism on campus, citing the university’s “deliberate indifference”. The decision is particularly notable as it comes shortly after the same judge dismissed a similar lawsuit against MIT (see above).
  • In Spillane v. Lamont, the Connecticut Supreme Court decided that parents cannot pursue constitutional challenges to the removal of religious exemptions from vaccination requirements because of sovereign immunity. However, the court allowed a statutory claim under the Connecticut Religious Freedom Restoration Act, stating that sovereign immunity does not block this type of claim.
  • Americans United for Separation of Church and State faces internal conflict and allegations of a troubled work culture. A staff union and former board members complain that the group’s leadership prioritizes publicity over the organization’s core mission of protecting the separation of church and state, which has resulted in resignations and accusations of a toxic environment.

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Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion stories from around the web:

  • The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review of a Second Circuit decision upholding the constitutionality of Connecticut’s decision to repeal religious exemptions from its mandatory vaccination laws while retaining medical exemptions. The denial effectively allows the Second Circuit’s ruling to remain in effect, upholding Connecticut lawmakers’ decision to repeal religious objections out of concerns that upticks in exemption requests were coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.
  • A group of parents (acting on behalf of their children) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Louisiana, challenging Louisiana’s recently enacted statute that requires the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. In the complaint, plaintiffs allege that the Louisiana statute imposes religious beliefs on public school children and unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance and adoption of a state-favored religious scripture, all in violation of the Free Exercise and Free Establishment clauses of the First Amendment. Plaintiffs seek declarative and injunctive relief.
  • A federal district court in Florida held that a 2014 prayer vigil organized by the Ocala Police Department meant to encourage witnesses to come out and cooperate with police in the aftermath of a shooting spree that injured several children violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Implementing the Supreme Court’s new Establishment Clause test set out in Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, the court determined that the city’s involvement in “conceiving, organizing, and implementing the Prayer Vigil” constituted government sponsorship of a religious event, which violated the First Amendment.
  • In Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, the Oklahoma Supreme Court violated the Oklahoma and US Constitutions by authorizing a Catholic-sponsored, publicly-funded charter school. The court ruled that state funding for the school violated anti-establishment provisions in both the state and federal constitutions.
    • Please read Center Director Mark Movsesian’s post about the case here.
  • Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that draft-age Haredi Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are not exempt from the country’s mandatory military service, even if they are studying in a yeshiva. The Supreme Court also ordered that the Israeli government cease funding yeshivas unless their students enlist in the military.
  • In India, a family that recently converted to Christianity was attacked in the state of Chhattisgarh, resulting in the death of one woman. Christian leaders in India have spoken out against the attack as merely one in a growing number of attacks committed against Christians, largely attributable to mobs who seek to make India a purely Hindu nation. Christian leaders have also condemned police inaction as another reason for increased attacks.
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Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion stories from around the web:

  • In French v. Albany Medical Center, the Northern District of New York found that a hospital did not violate the religious rights of a nurse who refused to receive a flu shot on religious grounds. The Court held that the requested accommodation was not reasonable due to her proximity to flu patients and vulnerable individuals.
  • In Bacon v. Woodward, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a suit by firefighters who claimed their free exercise rights were infringed by the City of Spokane’s refusal to accommodate their religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine. The Court held that the city’s termination of the plaintiffs while inviting potentially unvaccinated firefighters from neighboring departments for assistance constituted more favorable treatment for a secular group.
  • In Blackmon v. State of Missouri, a Missouri trial court held that the references to God and the belief that life starts at conception do not translate into various pro-life statutes running afoul of the Establishment Clause. The Court likened the mention of God to that found in the State’s Constitution, and refused to consider the latter belief as religious.
  • In Russia, a self-proclaimed witch was detained in court after disseminating literature calling for violence against clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church. She was also charged with insulting the feelings of religious believers as well as distributing extremist literature.
  • In Pakistan, a Christian man was killed by a mob of hundreds of individuals after being accused of desecrating a Quran. The United States Center for International Religious Freedom claims that the attack was inspired by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which explicitly provide for the death penalty upon anyone found to insult the Islamic faith.