Religion was a common theme in some of the cases to come before the nine justices in the recently concluded Supreme Court term. Three experts help explain what is at stake.
Gov. Andy Beshear is in favor of making Kentucky the 21st state to ban conversion therapy.
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Kentucky lawmakers are trying to make the state the 21st to enact a ban on conversion therapy. In states that are ‘silent’ on the issue, nonprofessionals are allowed to continue the harmful practice.
Around 100,000 LGBTQ students study at religious institutions in the US.
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Around 100,000 LGBTQ US students study at religious institutions that can legally discriminate against them. A lawsuit seeks to end that religious exemption but faces an uphill struggle.
The Supreme Court has tended to side in favor of religious rights.
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Conservative justices are redefining religious freedom to mean the protection of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit, argues a constitutional law expert.
Customary laws revere patrilineal systems and this often comes at the cost of the well-being of a child.
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New guidelines take a broad definition of who can apply for a religious exemption to vaccinations. A lot will hinge on what constitutes ‘undue hardship’ to the employer.
The push to tighten Poland’s restrictive abortion laws has proved a lightning bolt moment for protesters.
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Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Tens of thousands of people have defied bans on gatherings to protest abortion restrictions. A scholar of democracy says the policy push during a pandemic has echoes elsewhere.
An early case will test Justice Barrett’s credentials as a favorite of religious conservatives.
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The US Catholic Church is more diverse and more divided than it was in JFK’s time. Biden could offer an opportunity for the church to move beyond so-called “culture war” issues.
Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate.
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If successful, Barrett would become the seventh current Supreme Court justice to be raised a Catholic, but more importantly the sixth conservative Christian.
A detail from William Blake’s God answers Job (c. 1804). The Gods of Moses in the Old Testament, Jesus in the New Testament and Muhammad in the Quran have a similarly complex and ambivalent character.
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The founder of Islam, Muhammad, saw himself as the last in a line of prophets that reached back through Jesus to Moses, Abraham and Noah. But while the three religions worship the same God, he divides as much as he unites.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Trinity Lutheran case is blurring the lines between church and state.
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The Trinity Lutheran case signals the Supreme Court’s willingness to interpret separation of church and state as religious discrimination. What will this mean for the future of vouchers and school choice?
Demonstrators demanding that Jakarta’s Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, should be jailed for blasphemy.
EPA/Mast Irham
Although South Africa has taken steps to rid itself of the apartheid-era view of marriage as only heterosexual and monogamous, discrimination against religious marriages persist.
Some, but not all, of Kenya’s churches are opposed to the formal recognition of atheists.
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The furore over atheism in Kenya comes at a time of slow but steady growth in the number of people unaffiliated to any religion, thanks to religious discontent and access to scientific knowledge.
Indiana’s religious law has raised concerns about the safety of gay students on campus.
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Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act may have been “clarified” but there are concerns it could have a chilling effect on campus attitudes toward LGBTQ students and faculty across the state.
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam