The Liberty Threat: The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today PDF Download

Author: James Tonkowich
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781618909855
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
What happened to liberty and justice for all? Americans are losing what are supposed to be constitutionally promised rights at an alarming pace. The Founding Fathers understood the overriding essentiality of religious practice unimpeded by governmental authority, but time and vast cultural change has eroded this from the consciences of modern politicians. The struggle for the right to worship freely has been present since the time of the Roman Empire. By looking at how the Ancient Christian world relates to the failures of our own Supreme Court, it is possible to see what has led to so much government interference in personal religious beliefs in the name of ""equality."" As we watch America teeter ever closer to the brink of moral collapse and prejudice against religion becomes even more institutionalized, one question always surfaces: How can we stop this? In The Liberty Threat James Tonkowich explores the history of Christian philosophy from the Church's infancy through the birth of America and how it influenced religious liberty. With powerful examples fresh from today's courts, Tonkowich illustrates just how the rigid separation of Church and state has created a world that is hostile to true faith. The Liberty Threat is both a chilling wake-up and a clear call to action for Christians everywhere.

Author: Sanford Hoadley Cobb
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 598

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Author: Luke Goodrich
Publisher: Multnomah
ISBN: 0525652906
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A leading religious freedom attorney, the veteran of several Supreme Court battles, helps people of faith understand religious liberty in our rapidly changing culture—why it matters, how it is threatened, and how to respond with confidence and grace. WINNER OF THE CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD® • THE GOSPEL COALITION'S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR, PUBLIC THEOLOGY & CURRENT EVENTS • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY WORLD MAGAZINE Many Americans feel like their religious freedom is under attack. They see the culture changing around them, and they fear that their beliefs will soon be punished as a form of bigotry. Others think these fears are overblown and say Christians should stop complaining about imaginary persecution. In Free to Believe leading religious freedom attorney Luke Goodrich challenges both sides of this debate, offering a fresh perspective on the most controversial religious freedom conflicts today. With penetrating insights on gay rights, abortion rights, Islam, and the public square, Goodrich argues that threats to religious freedom are real—but they might not be quite what you think. As a lawyer at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Goodrich has won several historic Supreme Court victories for clients such as the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby. Combining frontline experience with faithful attention to Scripture, Goodrich shows why religious freedom matters, how it is threatened, and how to protect it. The result is a groundbreaking book full of clear insight, practical wisdom, and refreshing hope for all people of faith.

Author: Phillip E. Hammond
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 0759115737
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The free exercise of conscience is under threat in the United States. Already the conservative bloc of the Supreme Court is reversing the progress of religious liberty that had been steadily advancing. And this danger will only increase if more conservative judges are nominated to the court. This is the impassioned argument of Religion on Trial. Against Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Chief Justice Rehnquist, the authors argue that what the First Amendment protects is the freedom of individual conviction, not the rights of sectarian majorities to inflict their values on others. Beginning with an analysis of the origins of the Constitution and then following the history of significant church-state issues, Religion on Trial shows that the trajectory of American history has been toward greater freedoms for more Americans: freedom of religion moving gradually toward freedom of conscience regardless of religion. But in the last quarter-century, conservatives have gained political power and they are now attempting to limit the ability of the Court to protect the rights of individual conscience. Writing not just as scholars, but as advocates of church-state separation, Hammond, Machacek, and Mazur make the strong case that every American needs to pay attention to what is happening on the Surpeme Court or risk losing the liberties of conscience and religion that have been gained so far.

Author: Steven Waldman
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062743163
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Sacred Liberty offers a dramatic, sweeping survey of how America built a unique model of religious freedom, perhaps the nation’s “greatest invention.” Steven Waldman, the bestselling author of Founding Faith, shows how early ideas about religious liberty were tested and refined amidst the brutal persecution of Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Quakers, African slaves, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses. American leaders drove religious freedom forward--figures like James Madison, George Washington, the World War II presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower) and even George W. Bush. But the biggest heroes were the regular Americans – people like Mary Dyer, Marie Barnett and W.D. Mohammed -- who risked their lives or reputations by demanding to practice their faiths freely. Just as the documentary Eyes on the Prize captured the rich drama of the civil rights movement, Sacred Liberty brings to life the remarkable story of how America became one of the few nations in world history that has religious freedom, diversity and high levels of piety at the same time. Finally, Sacred Liberty provides a roadmap for how, in the face of modern threats to religious freedom, this great achievement can be preserved.

Author: Trevor Burrus
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781944424879
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Throughout our history, Americans have been a highly religious people. Indeed, many of the original colonists came to the New World specifically to escape religious persecution. And though somewhat less devout than we once were, the United States still leads the developed world in religiosity. Today, however, many feel that religious freedom is under serious--perhaps unprecedented--threat. With everything from health-insurance mandates, to the censoring of high school graduation speeches, to punishing vendors who refuse to work gay weddings, religious liberty seems to be increasingly curbed by powerful and intrusive government. What should we do when a law or government action, often not intended to inhibit religious exercise, nevertheless does? How much of a connection between church and state is "too much," such that it infringes on the rights of nonbelievers? How can we maximize harmony between religious and nonreligious Americans? In June 2016, the Cato Institute's Protecting Religious Liberties conference sought to answer those questions. The conference speakers addressed the history and philosophy of religious freedom, religious freedom and education, and current controversies over religious freedom and public accommodations. This volume contains essays adapted from presentations and discussions at the conference, as well as new introductory and concluding essays.

Author: Ronald Messer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
A democratic republic depends upon two unassailable truths: Freedom can only exist (1) where the laws of God are considered absolute and (2) where the majority believe that God, not man and not government, created men and women equal. This book is founded on the principle that only truth can make us free and that the Holy Bible is the foundation of our freedom. This book explores law and presents what is necessary to maintain our liberty. I seek to show that without adherence to absolute truth and absolute law, freedom cannot exist. If we want agency, we must choose good over evil. If we want freedom, we must obey the laws of freedom. If we want liberty, we must align our social laws with the laws of God. In Washington D.C. stands a statue with the following words inscribed on the base: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.' There is no shortcut to freedom, to agency, or to liberty. No matter what storm clouds gather without, if we want liberty, we must obey the laws of liberty within. Our liberty was threatened when the British invaded the colonies; our liberty was threatened when the first slave ship was permitted to unload its human misery on American soil; our liberty was threatened when the South seceded from the union; our liberty was threatened when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, but those threats are but a prelude to the threats that threaten our liberty today. Before, the menace came from without; today, the threat to our liberty comes from within.Christianity is under attack. Religious freedom is under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights are under attack. Racism is used as a weapon by the left to deliberately divide America. Our borders are left vulnerable. Our economy is threatened. Our justice system is used with impunity for personal vendetta. Rather than truth, our congress ignores rule of law and uses slander and personal attack to impede justice. They put personal power over the voice of the people. The word God is being removed from our Pledge of Allegiance, from our schools, even from our nation. We are apologizing for our liberty, our language, our religion, our moral values, our standards, our laws, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our belief in God, our way of life, and even for our blessings. News sources, which once were standards of freedom of speech, are now mere propaganda machines governed by the left to generate fake news, slanted facts, and orchestrated slander against anyone who disagrees with their liberal policies. Some want to remove our flag from its standard, "In God we trust" from our coins, and "Under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. They want to remove crosses, bibles, prayers, and all other Christian symbols, icons, ceremonies, and sacraments from public eyes as if Christ, the author of our liberty, were something to be ashamed of. I suppose that all Christians, at some point, must answer the question, 'Why am I a Christian?' For me it is a love of truth and a love of freedom. All I want said of me is that I loved freedom, agency, and liberty more than I loved life; and that I loved truth and the fountain of truth more than I loved the philosophies of men, more than I loved the world, and more than I loved myself. Ronald Keith Messer

Author: T. Jeremy Gunn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199986010
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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The First Amendment guarantee that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" rejected the millennium-old Western policy of supporting one form of Christianity in each nation and subjugating all other faiths. The exact meaning and application of this American innovation, however, has always proved elusive. Individual states found it difficult to remove traditional laws that controlled religious doctrine, liturgy, and church life, and that discriminated against unpopular religions. They found it even harder to decide more subtle legal questions that continue to divide Americans today: Did the constitution prohibit governmental support for religion altogether, or just preferential support for some religions over others? Did it require that government remove Sabbath, blasphemy, and oath-taking laws, or could they now be justified on other grounds? Did it mean the removal of religious texts, symbols, and ceremonies from public documents and government lands, or could a democratic government represent these in ever more inclusive ways? These twelve essays stake out strong and sometimes competing positions on what "no establishment of religion" meant to the American founders and to subsequent generations of Americans, and what it might mean today.

Author: Thomas C. Berg
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467463965
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
How to heal America’s deep divisions by preserving religious liberty for all As our political and social landscapes polarize along party lines, religious liberty faces threats from both sides. From antidiscrimination commissions targeting conservative Christians to travel bans punishing Muslims, recent litigation has revealed the selective approach both left and right take when it comes to freedom of religion. But what if religious liberty can help cure our political division? Drawing on constitutional law, history, and sociology, Thomas C. Berg shows us how reaffirming religious freedom cultivates the good of individuals and society. After explaining the features of polarization and the societal benefits of diverse religious practices, Berg offers practical counsel on balancing religious freedom against other essential values. Protecting Americans’ ability to live according to their beliefs undergirds a healthy, pluralistic society—and this protection must extend to everyone, not just political allies. Lay readers and legal scholars who are weary of partisan quarreling will find Berg’s case timely and compelling.

Author: Phillip E. Hammond
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664257682
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
The United States is founded upon the principles of freedom of religion, although it has been difficult at times to understand and apply those principles. Phillip Hammond argues that the Constitution assumes a radical religious liberty, which protects the convictions of individual Americans, whether or not those convictions are explicitly religious. This book is an excellent guide to the church-state debate of today, and deepens that discussion by examining the root cause of disagreement about what freedom of religion means in America.