The Supreme Court was actually mainly quiet this week, except for another of a trend (Roberts didn't go along in a couple cases involving religious liberty claims) of the Supreme Court rejecting, often by reaching out to stop lower court actions, moves to adapt to the special needs of the Big V. This time, again without comment, it involved means to protect prisoners. Breyer and Kagan dissented. Sotomayor did so with opinion with RBG.
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How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of short stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa, who was born in a Laos refugee camp. It is not surprising that the stories are dominated by Laos-American characters in diverse situations though focused on working class individuals. One story is about an independent CPA. The title story is about a girl whose father misinforms her on the pronunciation of "knife" and has a sweet ending. The articles as a whole are bittersweet. Overall, they are well written and recommended.
Godless Citizens In a Godly Republic: Atheists in America Life is a type of follow-up to the author's earlier Godless Constitution. It starts by discussing the invention of religious liberty, if with various exceptions. Then, at first more as a symbol than actuality (Jefferson, e.g., was called an "atheist" but was a deist), how atheists were seen as anti-American. This was especially tied to anarchists and socialists. We also see the political and social effects of disbelief in God, especially of a few key people.
A middle chapter to me is very important -- it discusses how certain people, especially Felix Adler (Ethical Society), attempted to find a way to join non-belief (or not active belief) in God and what is regularly seen as religions with the successful aspects (community, purpose, institutions) of the latter. I personally -- as compared to some of the militant atheists -- find the Adler approach (including his resistance of attacking religious believers) valuable. The book does not discuss Unitarian-Universalism, which today includes those who don't grant the existence of God, but that is an example to me of a "religion" that can be in place without God.
(I think this overall useful approach is important and not just targeting some official use of "God" or in some disdainful way attacking religious belief. This includes pick out, somewhat ironically, bad verses to target religions that in many cases are applied in humane ways.)
The book wrongly says that the courts never struck down blasphemy bans, but does provide an extended discussion of "under God." I find the idea that it is just "patriotic" or something stupid, especially when the purpose was clearly to say we are different since we believe in God. It also notes that multiple states even today on the books do not only have state constitutional honoring of God (see also, the Articles of Confederation) but also specifically religious tests allowing one to bar atheists. Something now expressly unconstitutional.
U.S. v. Seeger and other cases -- touched upon -- shows a full respect of freedom of conscience includes those who do not believe in God. But, how far should we take that? This shows the problems of a strenuous application of RFRA since there are so many conscience based reasons to have exemptions. The book flags the rule that religious based claims allow for exemptions in the unemployment compensation context. That context has a range of exemptions so including religion makes some degree of sense. Less so in a range of other things.
The book is only about two hundred pages so is not really a comprehensive work. But, it is worthwhile. One thing it emphasizes is that direct legal restrictions is not the only problem. There is a general harm when people who add to society are wrongly treated as outsiders or a threat. Their value and basic sameness in a variety of ways to others are ignored.
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How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of short stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa, who was born in a Laos refugee camp. It is not surprising that the stories are dominated by Laos-American characters in diverse situations though focused on working class individuals. One story is about an independent CPA. The title story is about a girl whose father misinforms her on the pronunciation of "knife" and has a sweet ending. The articles as a whole are bittersweet. Overall, they are well written and recommended.
Godless Citizens In a Godly Republic: Atheists in America Life is a type of follow-up to the author's earlier Godless Constitution. It starts by discussing the invention of religious liberty, if with various exceptions. Then, at first more as a symbol than actuality (Jefferson, e.g., was called an "atheist" but was a deist), how atheists were seen as anti-American. This was especially tied to anarchists and socialists. We also see the political and social effects of disbelief in God, especially of a few key people.
A middle chapter to me is very important -- it discusses how certain people, especially Felix Adler (Ethical Society), attempted to find a way to join non-belief (or not active belief) in God and what is regularly seen as religions with the successful aspects (community, purpose, institutions) of the latter. I personally -- as compared to some of the militant atheists -- find the Adler approach (including his resistance of attacking religious believers) valuable. The book does not discuss Unitarian-Universalism, which today includes those who don't grant the existence of God, but that is an example to me of a "religion" that can be in place without God.
(I think this overall useful approach is important and not just targeting some official use of "God" or in some disdainful way attacking religious belief. This includes pick out, somewhat ironically, bad verses to target religions that in many cases are applied in humane ways.)
The book wrongly says that the courts never struck down blasphemy bans, but does provide an extended discussion of "under God." I find the idea that it is just "patriotic" or something stupid, especially when the purpose was clearly to say we are different since we believe in God. It also notes that multiple states even today on the books do not only have state constitutional honoring of God (see also, the Articles of Confederation) but also specifically religious tests allowing one to bar atheists. Something now expressly unconstitutional.
U.S. v. Seeger and other cases -- touched upon -- shows a full respect of freedom of conscience includes those who do not believe in God. But, how far should we take that? This shows the problems of a strenuous application of RFRA since there are so many conscience based reasons to have exemptions. The book flags the rule that religious based claims allow for exemptions in the unemployment compensation context. That context has a range of exemptions so including religion makes some degree of sense. Less so in a range of other things.
The book is only about two hundred pages so is not really a comprehensive work. But, it is worthwhile. One thing it emphasizes is that direct legal restrictions is not the only problem. There is a general harm when people who add to society are wrongly treated as outsiders or a threat. Their value and basic sameness in a variety of ways to others are ignored.
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