https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to religious test en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/03/15/project-2025-how-trump-loyalists-and-right-wing-leaders-are-paving-fast-road-fascism Religion Dispatches ’s sibling publication, The Public Eye— a quarterly magazine for analysis and commentary on the U.S. and Global Right — is back! To celebrate The Public Eye’s return, Religion Dispatches will present a series of articles from the… Fri, 15 Mar 2024 07:00:16 EDT Peter Montgomery 9dcb6eb8-09f3-4fc3-89d4-60f5c7caed5a https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/29/gary-north-1942-2022-sought-deny-religious-liberty-enemies-god-he-was-willing-wait If you’ve never heard of Gary North that may be because he wanted it that way. Nevertheless, when North died in Georgia recently at age 80, he’d quietly become one of the notable religious and political architects of our time… Tue, 29 Mar 2022 05:27:33 EDT Frederick Clarkson b9dbb688-b255-45df-88e8-264dfa63f325 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/24/turn-news-why-ketanji-brown-jacksons-faith-doesnt-matter-amy-coney-barretts-did By the time you read this, Ketanji Brown Jackson will almost certainly have been confirmed to her seat on the US Supreme Court, barring any last-minute stalling tactics by Republicans or unanticipated defections by Democrats. Even so—and even though Jackson’s… Thu, 24 Mar 2022 05:46:44 EDT Daniel Schultz 9f7710d3-1cb4-4ce3-adae-e91bc61431a8 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/27/claiming-we-birthed-nation-nothing-cnns-rick-santorum-gives-master-class-christian Dear CNN, Many questioned your decision to hire Rick Santorum as a senior political commentator back in January 2017. Not because he’s a conservative—diversity of opinion can be valuable—but because he’s a bigot. His bigotry toward LGBTQ people was already… Tue, 27 Apr 2021 11:19:26 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 1c442f39-19ee-4368-ac48-ea237b5a8c78 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/01/29/blinken-and-blinkered-two-oath-office-stories-embody-divided-america America continues to divide and migrate toward opposing poles, one in which democratic government is a value and the other in which it’s a barrier to power. Christian nationalism, contributes to this division. The dichotomy floated across my digital timeline… Fri, 29 Jan 2021 03:06:14 EST Andrew L. Seidel 289eced6-9a7c-411d-bc49-b36f16524b9e https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/09/rev-raphael-warnock-tweets-i-am-pro-choice-pastor-and-suddenly-public-figures-religion As you know, the Rev. Raphael Warnock is running to represent the state of Georgia in the US Senate against incumbent Republican Kelly Leoffler. Their runoff next month, as well as the one between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David… Wed, 09 Dec 2020 01:11:32 EST John Stoehr caa959d4-d279-4f9d-9387-9d6fa4d41fce https://religiondispatches.org/2020/09/29/can-democrats-question-amy-coney-barretts-faith-yes-should-they-well Let’s cut right to the paper chase, as it were. Amy Coney Barrett’s faith is potentially problematic, and ought to be subject to the same kind of critique as any other belief, sacred or secular. Whether or not critics of… Tue, 29 Sep 2020 11:32:35 EDT Daniel Schultz c0dd77a4-0c26-4223-8230-de1956f06aba https://religiondispatches.org/2020/09/25/why-media-and-democrats-should-reject-christian-rights-pearl-clutching-and-address America is trapped in an abusive relationship—not just with the pussy-grabbing President Donald Trump, our abuser-in-chief, but also with the Republican Party, its white Christian base, the police, and the increasingly uninhibited “ good guys with guns ,” whose vigilante… Fri, 25 Sep 2020 12:34:39 EDT Chrissy Stroop 4408b225-cdbb-4cc1-ad04-bf5ccf43a79d https://religiondispatches.org/2020/08/19/convention-event-democrats-embrace-nones What does it mean to put pluralism into practice? This is a serious question of civic life that the Left has unfortunately neglected , allowing the “ respectable ” Christian Right to weaponize the concept as part of the drive… Wed, 19 Aug 2020 04:43:33 EDT Chrissy Stroop 77083d33-78c1-4c35-bb4b-9cb67140a2dd https://religiondispatches.org/2019/04/15/justice-thomas-fails-religious-test-answer Thomas’s opinion on religious tests wasn’t about right or wrong, or even of the Constitution, it’s a political argument designed to muzzle such questions in hopes of easing and paving a path for conservative justices who would place faith above the Constitution. Mon, 15 Apr 2019 02:25:17 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 399180ea-2cb6-4089-ae68-c458c4bb12de https://religiondispatches.org/2019/02/07/senators-can-and-must-ask-about-nominees-religious-beliefs Questioning federal nominees on religion has been decried as a violation of the Constitution’s ban on religious tests. But not only does it do nothing of the kind, there’s good reason to think Article VI actually requires these questions. Thu, 07 Feb 2019 03:02:24 EST Andrew L. Seidel afa1c635-b2d1-492f-adbd-4b3d4ab22b5b https://religiondispatches.org/2018/10/30/anti-immigrant-fervor-part-americas-story Throughout our history there have been moral panics about the dangers posed by people from disparate religious, ethnic, and political backgrounds. Tue, 30 Oct 2018 05:16:54 EDT Robert Bartholomew, Anja Reumschüssel 69a9d47b-b71d-41c6-a239-33c013ccbeb9 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/08/historian-john-ragosta-discusses-context-and-inspiration-religious-freedom-us Historian John Ragosta details some of the strikingly similar issues over the proper place of religion and religious expression in a secular nation compromised of mostly religious individuals. Mon, 08 Jan 2018 03:13:41 EST Frederick Clarkson 58683e65-016d-4270-afef-3b1ad9ce4b03 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/08/religious-freedom-historian-john-ragosta-religious-freedom To listen to the Christian Right, which has been busy seeking religious exemptions from laws governing reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights, one might think that armies of secularists are swarming like locusts over the land, seeking to snuff out the… Mon, 08 Jan 2018 02:48:52 EST Frederick Clarkson c26e0365-5546-4ffd-a909-ff7f1ab47ef7 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/10/03/its-preposterous-we-cant-question-nominees-religion For the second time since her contentious hearing for an appellate court slot, the religious practice of Amy Coney Barrett has come into question, unleashing a firestorm about what what many call an unconscionable questioning of her faith and religious… Tue, 03 Oct 2017 01:55:33 EDT Patricia Miller a8c76d54-ccf8-473d-9113-0133ca4ba82b https://religiondispatches.org/2017/06/23/union-busting-god-catholic-colleges-invoke-religious-freedom-violate-catholic-teaching The 2013 death of 83-year-old Duquesne University adjunct Margaret Mary Vojtko helped open up a national debate about the precarious lives of the estimated seven hundred thousand college faculty in America who teach without benefits or security of employment, often… Fri, 23 Jun 2017 12:26:26 EDT Kaya Oakes c7078fdb-82b1-46da-976b-d18bf43dec1d https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/09/irony-watch-trumps-travel-ban-violates-religious-freedom-act-according-aclu-lawsuit Tearing a page from the “religious liberty” playbook, the ACLU contends that Trump’s travel ban violates core constitutional principles—and, crucially, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Thu, 09 Feb 2017 05:54:44 EST Sunnivie Brydum d0d6e4bf-7e62-4e23-aa08-6ca7d25baf3b https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/01/muslim-ban-may-be-unconstitutional-its-not-un-american The Muslim ban masqueraded as a travel ban dramatizes the perpetual conflict between the essential America and the existential America. Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:32:51 EST Willie Dwayne Francois 23383563-c0c0-4a57-9c28-d5766f4aaba2 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/26/clintons-faith-talk-not-new-was-there-better-answer The New York Times reports that Jessica Manning, a voter at a campaign stop in Knoxville, Iowa, asked Hillary Clinton how she could defend her choice to vote for the Democratic frontrunner to her Republican friends. “I would say I… Tue, 26 Jan 2016 11:34:17 EST Sarah Posner f6a960c6-ef41-48d9-8d2d-a8ab29035393 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/13/why-we-must-reclaim-religious-freedom-christian-conservatives An interview with journalist and activist Frederick Clarkson Wed, 13 Jan 2016 07:40:35 EST Bill Berkowitz 4bd0f436-5eff-494e-b27c-47ae8256bc43 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/11/25/when-welcoming-stranger-was-not-just-religious-value Thirty-six years ago, as Americans prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving, a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew went to Washington, D.C. There, alongside President Jimmy Carter, they appealed to the American public to contribute to the cause of aiding war refugees… Wed, 25 Nov 2015 06:41:44 EST Melissa Borja a8cfc609-0f2a-4957-a306-0c7838f8dde2 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/10/28/new-film-chronicles-unlikely-friendship-battle-over-god-and-guns In the new documentary film The Armor of Light, gun control activist Lucia McBath goes to meet the Rev. Rob Schenck at the Capitol Hill townhouse that serves as the offices of Schenck’s conservative outreach organization, Faith and Action. McBath… Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:54:57 EDT Sarah Posner 8543529f-7dfc-4da3-aaf3-662c2676dc48 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/10/23/carsons-lead-shows-evangelicals-care-more-about-politics-religion Two polls out this week show retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson surging ahead of Donald Trump among likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers. A Quinnipiac University poll out yesterday has Carson leading Trump, 28-20 percent; that lead is 36-17 percent among white evangelicals… Fri, 23 Oct 2015 02:59:22 EDT Sarah Posner 7ee78dd9-961e-4a32-bf41-cfa241276133 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/09/24/what-not-expect-popes-us-visit America has reached peak papal madness. Twitter has created emojis to go along with hashtags like PopeinUs, PopeinDC, PopeinNY, and PopeinPhilly. While the Pope’s picture and likeness has been plastered everywhere from billboards to bobble heads to t-shirts, my question… Thu, 24 Sep 2015 01:26:28 EDT Anthea Butler f645a6a7-06a2-4310-9dbc-9260790b84df https://religiondispatches.org/2015/04/20/invention-corporate-christian-america According to author Kevin Kruse, the idea that America is a “Christian nation” was invented only recently, forged by an alliance between industrialists and conservative clergy who preached the connection between Christianity and capitalism. In One Nation Under God, the… Mon, 20 Apr 2015 02:59:33 EDT Andrew Aghapour 858fdabd-ec1f-4fcb-b898-7a2dbdbb0c6f