Religion and American Politics

A more or less random collection of news and opinion pieces that happened to come my way.

Religion and public schools

"Under God" in the the Pledge of Allegiance

Miscellaneous articles

The Joseph Lieberman candidacy

I. Religion and public schools

• Religious liberty in public schools (First Amendment Center)
  • Report says religion course promotes religious freedom
• Religion & Public Schools News
• Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in Religion & Education (full text available after Feb. 2014)
  
  
• Financial aid for theology programs:
  • "Supreme Court Approves Denial of Divinity Scholarships" (NY Times, 2/25/04)
  • Two Recent Church-State Cases (FindLaw Writ, 12/12/03)
  • "High Court Hears Religious-Studies Case" (Washington Post, 12/3/03)
  • "Courts Weighing Rights of States to Curb Aid for Religion Majors" (NY Times, 8/10/03)
    
    
• School prayer:
  • Student Prayers Must Be Private, Court Reaffirms (NY Times, 6/20/00)
  • Action at School Games Seeks to Skirt Court's Church-State Ruling (NY Times, 8/26/00)
    
    
• Teaching evolution:
  
  • Creationism and Intelligent Design (topic search in NY Times)
  • Mt. Vernon (Ohio) biology teacher
  • "Creationism" by Arthur McCalla (Religion Compass, 2007): A concise analytical history of the evolution of creationist arguments.
  • The Evolution Debate (collection of articles from the NY Times)
    
    
  • Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution (The Onion, 11/28/06)
  • "The God Project: What the science of religion can’t prove" by H. Allen Orr (The New Yorker, 4/3/06)
  • Why I'm Happy I Evolved (Jan. 1, 2006)
    
    
  • The Dover evolution case (Dec. 20, 2005)
  • The Debate Over Evolution in Kansas Public Schools (Pluralism Project, 2005)
  • Expert Witness Sees Evidence In Nature for Intelligent Design (Oct. 18, 2005)
  • Witness: 'Design' Replaced 'Creation' (Oct. 5, 2005)
  • Evolution as Zero-Sum Game (Kenneth L. Woodward, Oct. 1, 2005)
  • Teacher Says Board Effort on Evolution Was Resisted (Sep. 28, 2005)
  • Evolution Lawsuit Opens in Pennsylvania (Sep. 27, 2005)
  • "Agreeing Only to Disagree on God's Place in Science" (Sep. 27, 2005)
  • New evolution spat in schools goes to court (Sep. 25, 2005)
  • Intelligent Design and Evolution in Conflict: three short essays (Sep. 2005)
  • Kansas moves to stem role of evolution in teaching (Aug. 10, 2005)
  • Ballot Battle Over Evolution Ends in a 7-to-7 Tie (May 19, 2005)
  • School Boards Want to 'Teach the Controversy.' What Controversy? (May 17, 2005)
  • "Devolution: Why intelligent design isn’t" by H. Allen Orr (The New Yorker, 5/30/05)
    
    
  • Wisconsin City Allows Teaching Creationism (Nov. 7, 2004)
  • Dayton Daily News editorial (Feb. 13, 2004)
  • Georgia Takes on 'Evolution' (Jan. 30, 2004)
    
    
  • Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives (book review, April 14, 2002)
  • PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly (transcript, March 1, 2002)
  • NPR's Talk of the Nation (Real Audio, February 13, 2002)
    
    
  • Evolution Foes Dealt a Defeat in Kansas Vote (August 3, 2000)
  • Poll Finds That Support Is Strong for Teaching 2 Origin Theories (March 11, 2000)
  • Creationists plan to fight curriculum standards (March 10, 2000)
    
    
  • Science vs. the Bible: Debate Moves to the Cosmos (October 10, 1999)
  • New Mexico Bars Creationism From State Curriculum (October 9, 1999)
  • School Districts in Kansas Split on Evolution Ruling (August 25, 1999)
  • It's a Fact: Faith and Theory Collide Over Evolution (August 15, 1999)
    
  • Kansas Votes to Delete Evolution From State's Science Curriculum (August 12, 1999)
    
    
  • Evolutionary Biology Begins Tackling Public Doubts (July 8, 1998)
  
  
• Other:
  • "Student, 16, Finds Allies in His Fight Over Religion" (Feb. 20, 2007)
  • Wisconsin Senate Bill to eliminate "BCE" and "CE" from high school textbooks (Jan 27, 2006)
    • Bill history
  • "Other People's Religions" by Judith Shulevitz (March 24, 2002)
  • "Religion and the Public Schools": WKSU radio series -- Kent State University, Ohio (Jan.-Feb. 2002)
  • The Bible & Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide (National Bible Association and the First Amendment Center, 1999)

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II. "Under God" in the The Pledge of Allegiance

• Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life
• Amicus curiae brief filed by nineteen scholars of religion (one of 50 filed)
  
  
• One Father, Back in Court, Indefatigable(editorial, NY Times, 9/19/04)
• Judge Rules Reciting Pledge In Schools Is Unconstitutional (NY Times, 9/15/04)
• Court Rejects Challenge to Pledge of Allegiance (NY Times, 8/11/04)
• "8 Justices Block Effort to Pull Phrase in Pledge" (NY Times, 6/15/04)
• "Jefferson, Madison, Newdow?"(NY Times, 3/26/04)
• "Atheist Presents Case for Taking God From Pledge" (NY Times, 3/25/04)
  • Excerpts from arguments
• "Is the God of the Pledge of Allegiance a deity or a greeting card?" (Slate, 3/24/04)
• "Skeptical Supreme Court Weighs Pledge Case" (CNN, 3/24/04)
• "Of God and the Flag" by William Safire (NY Times, 3/24/04)
• "Affirm Religious Liberty: Restore 1892-1954 Pledge of Allegiance" (Sacremento Bee, 3/21/04)
• "Big Poll Majority Backs 'Under God' in Pledge" (Washington Post, 6/30/02)
• "Pledging Allegiance: Wrong for the Right Reasons" by E.J. Dionne, Jr. (Washington Post, 6/28/02)
  
  

III. Miscellaneous

• Religious Freedom (People for the American Way website)
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State
• Interfaith Alliance
• State of Belief (Air America Radio weekly show on religion in U.S.)
  
  
• Thomas Jefferson: Letter to Danbury Baptist Association
• James Madison: Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments
  
  
• "Are We Separating Church and State?" (To the Point, KCRW, 12/14/12) -- starts at 8 minute mark (to 42)
• "Religion and Representation" by Charles Blow (NY Times 1/7/11 )
• "Nine Justices and Ten Commandments" by Linda Greenhouse (NY Times 8/26/10)
• "The End of Christian America" by Jon Meacham (Newsweek 4/4/09)
• "Some non-Christians feel left out of election" (Reuters, 2/3/08)
• "Monkey Business: Religion and the Law" by Stanley Fish (NY Times, 12/2/07)
• "For God's Sake" by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 4/13/07)
• Review of Brooke Allen, Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers, by George Will (NY Times, 10/22/06)
• "Christ Among the Partisans" by Garry Wills (NY Times, 4/9/06)
• "Defenders of the Faith" by Slavoj Zizek (NY Times, 3/12/06)
• Americans Struggle with Religion's Role at Home and Abroad (Pew Research Center, 3/20/02)
• Bush administration opposition to separation of church and state (RNS, 1/18/06)
• "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers" (NY Times, 6/17/05)
• "Church Meets State" by Mark Lilla (NY Times, 5/15/05)
• "The God Racket, From DeMille to DeLay" by Frank Rich (NY Times, 3/27/05)
• "Putting God Back Into American History" by David D. Kirkpatrick (NY Times, 2/27/05)
• "Notes on the Democratic Defeat: Conservative Christian Atavism Ethos or 'Christians from Hell'" by Martin Kilson (The Black Commentator, 12/16/04)
• George Bush's Supreme Court (flash animation by Tim Wallace, winner of a contest sponsored by People For the American Way and Salon.com)
• "Without a Doubt" by Ron Suskind (NY Times Magazine, 10/17/04): George Bush's fundamentalism
• "Now on DVD: The Passion of the Bush" by Frank Rich (NY Times, 10/3/04): a really scary right-wing film about George W. Bush
• "Chipping Away at the Wall" by Dahlia Lithwick (NY Times, 8/22/04)
• "'One Electorate Under God?'" by Peter Steinfels (NY Times, 8/21/04)
• "How the Evangelicals and Catholics Joined Forces" (NY Times, 5/30/04)
• "Overdosing on Islam" by Nicholas Kristof (NY Times, 5/12/04) -- especially the last paragraph
• "Israel's Christian Soldiers" (New York Magazine, 9/29/03)
• "Judge Suspended for Defying Court on Ten Commandments" (NY Times, 8/23/03)
  • "Stacked Decalogue" (by Katha Pollitt, The Nation, 9/4/03)
• "With God on His Side" (Religion and American Presidents), by Garry Wills (NY Times, 3/30/03)
• "War Resisters: 'We Won't Go' to 'We Won't Pay'" by Felicia R. Lee (NY Times, 8/03/02)
• "Does W. Respect the Nonreligious?" by Peter Beinart (The New Republic, 3/25/02)
• "Court Won't Hear Commandments Case" (Associated Press, 2/25/02)
• "What Only the Embryo Knows" by Stephen Jay Gould (NY Times, 8/27/01)
  On embryonic stem cell research.
• "Is Nothing Secular?" by Jeffrey Rosen (NY Times Magazine, 1/30/00)
  On religion in the 2000 Presidential campaign.

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IV. The Joseph Lieberman candidacy

• August 12, 2000: "Beliefs" by Peter Steinfels
• August 15, 2000: "Bound by Belief" by Martin E. Marty
• August 21, 2000: "Demystifying Judaism" by Charles Krauthammer
• August 29, 2000: Lieberman Is Asked to Stop Invoking Faith in Campaign
• August 30, 2000: Lieberman Defends His Call for Bigger Role for Religion
• August 31, 2000: "The Singular Piety of Politics" by Eugene McCarthy and Keith Burris
• September 3 2000: "What Hath God Wrought? Lieberman and the Right"
• September 3, 2000: "The Right to Pray Whenever God Calls"by Stephen L. Carter
• September 6, 2000: "Whose God Is It, Anyway?" by Clyde Haberman

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Edit date: 12/17/12