24 results
Contributors
-
- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
- Edited by Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
-
- Book:
- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 August 2015
- Print publication:
- 27 April 2015, pp ix-xxx
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Foreword to the 2005 Edition
-
- By Edward R. Becker, United States Court of Appeals
- Marci A. Hamilton
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 05 November 2014
- Print publication:
- 29 August 2014, pp 361-362
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Judge Edward R. Becker, for whom I clerked, was one of the “greats” to use one of his own favorite phrases. He was a brilliant jurist with a practical bent. But he also had a big heart, and knew your cousins, whoever you were. Sadly, he passed away May 19, 2006. Judge Becker graciously agreed to write the following Foreword for the first edition, and I continue to be very grateful. He is sorely missed.
Marci A. Hamilton, March 4, 2014The role of religion in a free society, once a subject of benign and lofty discourse, has become a raging controversy in both the private and public arenas. While few in America challenge the multifarious benefits of religion to the individual believer and to society as a whole, there are sharply divergent views as to the extent to which notions of religious liberty immunize religious conduct from sanction when it interferes with public health, safety, and welfare.
In recent years, religious entities, often with the assistance of legislatures and courts, have advocated a presumptive constitutional right to avoid the law pursuant to the federal and state free exercise of religion guarantees, arguing that the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and separation of powers render them immune from some legal requirements and precepts. Opponents of these initiatives have responded that this approach is at odds with American culture and legal tradition.
Contributors
-
- By Dag Aarsland, Adrià Arboix, Carlos Bazán, James T. Becker, Sylvie Belleville, Kevin M. Biglan, Sandra E. Black, Mariana Blanco, Rémi W. Bouchard, Bruce J. Brew, David J. Burn, Leonardo Caixeta, Richard Camicioli, Paulo Caramelli, Neil Cashman, Nicholas W. S. Davies, Yan Deschaintre, Rachel S. Doody, Bruno Dubois, Uwe Ehrt, Stephane Epelbaum, Ryan V. V. Evans, Joseph M. Ferrara, Bruno Franchi, Morris Freedman, Anders Gade, Serge Gauthier, Marta Grau-Olivares, Matthew E. Growdon, Will Guest, Marie Christie Guiot, Shahul Hameed, Mirna Lie Hosogi-Senaha, Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, Masamichi Ikawa, Rajive Jassal, Vesna Jelic, Peter Johannsen, Edward S. Johnson, Mary M. Kenan, Bert-Jan Kerklaan, Benjamin Lam, Gabriel C. Léger, Gabriel Leonard, Emilie Lepage, Irene Litvan, Oscar L. Lopez, Ian R. A. Mackenzie, Mario Masellis, Fodi Massoud, Paige Moorhouse, John C. Morris, Taim Muayqil, Yannick Nadeau, Inger Nennesmo, Jørgen E. Nielsen, Ricardo Nitrini, Sven-Eric Pålhagen, Robert Perry, Gerald Pfeffer, Machiel Pleizier, Steffen Plickert, Gil D. Rabinovici, Philippe H. Robert, Lothar Resch, Gustavo C. Román, Maxime Ros, Pedro Rosa-Neto, Aiman Sanosi, Philip Scheltens, Christian Schmidt, Eric Schmidt, Jean-Paul Soucy, Jette Stokholm, David Summers, Rawan Tarawneh, Louis Verret, Huali Wang, Bengt Winblad, Makoto Yoneda, Xin Yu, Inga Zerr
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
-
- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
- Print publication:
- 21 April 2011, pp viii-xiv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
1 - The Problem
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 3-11
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The United States has a romantic attitude toward religious individuals and institutions, as though they are always doing what is right. As one scholar has quipped: “There is a long history in this country of religion being reduced to Sunday school morality in service of the common good.” Were religious institutions and individuals always beneficial to the public, this book would not need to be written, and they would not need to be deterred from criminal or tortious behavior. Religious liberty could be absolute. The unrealistic belief that religion is always for the good, however, is a hazardous myth. The purpose of this book is to persuade Americans to take off the rose-colored glasses and to come to terms with the necessity of making religious individuals and institutions accountable to the law so that they do not harm others.
Without a doubt many religious entities provide important benefits to society. Catholic Charities, the United Jewish Communities, and numerous other mission organizations do wonderfully good works. They feed and house the poor, counsel the addicted, minister to the downtrodden, and educate on a large scale. In 2003, religious organizations received nearly 40 percent of all charitable contributions in the United States, which translates into over $86 billion to spend on good deeds. In 2005, religious relief organizations have been indispensable in helping the millions of Indonesian tsunami victims. It is nearly impossible to imagine how the United States or the world could function without the services of these groups.
Foreword, by the Hon. Edward R. Becker
-
- By Edward R. Becker, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp xi-xii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The role of religion in a free society, once a subject of benign and lofty discourse, has become a raging controversy in both the private and public arenas. While few in America challenge the multifarious benefits of religion to the individual believer and to society as a whole, there are sharply divergent views as to the extent to which notions of religious liberty immunize religious conduct from sanction when it interferes with public health, safety, and welfare.
In recent years, religious entities, often with the assistance of legislatures and courts, have advocated a presumptive constitutional right to avoid the law pursuant to the federal and state free exercise of religion guarantees, arguing that the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and separation of powers render them immune from some legal requirements and precepts. Opponents of these initiatives have responded that this approach is at odds with American culture and legal tradition.
In this volume, Professor Marci Hamilton, one of the nation's leading legal scholars and one of the premier authorities on the Constitution's Religion Clauses, tackles these issues in depth and with gusto. Her dominant theme is that the temptation to treat religion as an unalloyed good is a belief one can embrace only at one's peril. Building upon her already prolific body of work, she proceeds from the baseline of the “no-harm principle” – that no person or entity can act in ways that harm others without consequence – which she demonstrates was widely shared by the Framers' generation.
7 - Discrimination
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 173-200
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
There is little question that “discrimination” is a dirty word in the United States, and discrimination by religious entities is counterintuitive to the prevailing notion that religion is always a force for good. Religious groups do, though, clash with the antidiscrimination laws in two primary arenas: housing and employment. This is a context where legislative accommodation has played and should play an active role in measuring the conflicting rights claims. Legislative accommodation is needed, as opposed to judicial, because making a determination whether to accommodate the religious practice, for example, of excluding unmarried couples, or to favor a right to shelter requires broad-ranging and forward-thinking analysis. No court, deciding the issue in the context of a single case, is competent to take into account all of the interests that need to be considered. The final accommodation is a complicated equation that calls for legislative reasoning regarding what the law should be and not just an interpretation of a law.
This is not to say that the courts have not imposed their view of accommodation on these issues. In the employment context, the courts crafted the “ministerial exception,” which has immunized religious employment decisions from judicial review in some circumstances. As I will discuss, there is reason to think that this accommodation is not consistent with current First Amendment doctrine. Equally, though, it is highly likely that legislatures would grant a rather similar legislative exemption for the cases involving a religious employer and religious employee.
2 - Children
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 12-49
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Warning: If this chapter were a movie, it would have an NC-17 rating, because it describes horrible things that have been done to children beneath the cloak of religion in the United States. Children have been raped, beaten, and permitted to die excruciating deaths.
Young people are at risk from religious adults and institutions in two ways: (1) through the misuse of religious power to abuse the child; or (2) through their parents' religiously motivated medical neglect or physical abuse. The suffering is often unimaginable, because the children lack the ability to protect themselves from death, permanent disability, or severe abuse – at the hands of those they have been taught are here on earth to care for them.
In the first instance, some clergy, day-care providers, and religious schoolteachers use their position to take advantage of children. No person can be trusted to hold power without some check on it, and that is why we have the law – to protect the vulnerable from harm and to preserve the common good. The religious authority figure can be the most outwardly religious and pious individual, but without the law's ability to make the person accountable, he or she is capable of physical and spiritual murder. It is not just a wolf – but a lion – in sheep's clothing. Oftentimes this power-based abuse takes the form of sexual abuse, and sometimes it is physical abuse or ritualistic abuse.
8 - Boerne v. Flores: The Case That Fully Restored the Rule of Law for Religious Entities
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 203-237
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
From the 1960s into the 1990s, law schools taught two constitutional principles that were largely unquestioned; one might even say they were articles of faith. First, no government could enforce a law against a religious believer unless the government could prove that its law was passed for a compelling interest. Second, Congress held the power to increase constitutional rights at will. A generation of law students was taught that these principles were self-evident from the Constitution and Supreme Court cases.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the first principle, and in 1997, it rejected the second. This chapter will explain the developments that led to what seemed to many like a revolution at the Court, but was less of a cataclysmic doctrinal shift than a conscious choice between internally inconsistent doctrines. In fact, in both categories, the four decades between 1960 and 2000 were a time when the Court straddled sometimes conflicting doctrinal approaches. Facing an either/or choice in each category, the Court in the 1990s did not so much invent new doctrines as it chose to excise doctrines that were causing friction. A 1997 Supreme Court case confirmed that the Court had made a definitive choice in each area. That case is City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio.
The two issues – free exercise protection and the power of Congress – typically belong in separate constitutional domains.
3 - Marriage
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 50-77
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Recent wars of religious power have been intense on the subject of marriage – whether the issue is gay marriage or polygamy. Both topics have earned headlines in the early part of the 21st century, with religious entities intent on imposing their religious viewpoint on public policy. The religious have every right to contribute their religious viewpoints to the public debate and to try to persuade leaders and fellow citizens that their ideas about social problems have merit; wisdom can be found in many corners. But they do not have a right in the United States to mold public policy to their beliefs, and their beliefs alone. The hard choices depend on a more broad-ranging inquiry than any one religious worldview encompasses (even when that perspective is shared by a significant number of individuals and institutions).
The complication in the debates over marriage in 21st century America is that few in government seem to understand or be willing to shoulder their role, which demands significantly more than deference to religious entities. Citizens may speak to them from the heart and soul, but it is up to our elected officials to contextualize the debate by adding the scope of the public good to all public consideration. That is not secularization, as those who would employ religious rhetoric to drown out all discourse might insist, but rather the hallmark of a successful representative democracy.
God vs. the Gavel
- Religion and the Rule of Law
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005
-
God vs. the Gavel challenges the pervasive assumption that all religious conduct deserves constitutional protection. While religious conduct provides many benefits to society, it is not always benign. The thesis of the book is that anyone who harms another person should be governed by the laws that govern everyone else - and truth be told, religion is capable of great harm. This may not sound like a radical proposition, but it has been under assault since the 1960s. The majority of academics and many religious organizations would construct a fortress around religious conduct that would make it extremely difficult to prosecute child abuse by clergy, medical neglect of children by faith-healers, and other socially unacceptable behaviors. This book intends to change the course of the public debate over religion by bringing to the public's attention the tactics of religious entities to avoid the law and therefore harm others.
4 - Religious Land Use and Residential Neighborhoods
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 78-110
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Religious landowners face daunting needs for buildings and property, which means their residential neighbors are often affected by their plans. The worship space needs to be large enough to accommodate weekly gatherings of a significant percentage of their members and even bigger assemblies for holidays. Thus, a small building with minimal parking is ordinarily not adequate to the task. In the era when these buildings were only used for worship and maybe a choir practice, despite their size, houses of worship were attractive residential neighbors. Church properties were like miniature parks of peaceful tranquility in residential neighborhoods – the grounds were pretty, the building was tasteful, and they were excellent neighbors. Parking, traffic, lights, and noise were not typical problems. That is no longer true.
The paradigm shift in houses of worship
There has been a paradigm shift in houses of worship in the United States. Unfortunately for their neighbors, although favorable for the recipients of their services, contemporary houses of worship are not the sleepy institutions they once were. They are now a locus for social services, as well as a center for worship and entertainment. The thriving religious entities have sizeable buildings, with seating for hundreds – maybe thousands, along with heavy traffic, intense parking needs, and even bus transportation into the neighborhood from off site. If they are starting from scratch, they usually (though not always) search for a large parcel of land that is along a major thoroughfare.
10 - The Path to the Public Good
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 273-305
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Were all religious institutions and individuals always beneficial to the public, this book would not be needed. The rule would be plain: Religious liberty is absolute. Religious entities would not need to be deterred from criminal or tortious behavior. The purpose of this book has been to explain why even religious individuals and institutions must be governed by duly enacted laws.
The logistics of the landmark Boerne v. Flores case, discussed in chapter 8, brought me into contact with the many groups in this society that lobby against damaging religious conduct, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD), district attorneys, and state regulatory agencies. Getting to know them educated me in two ways. First, I learned that my original theory of free exercise that would have excused religious entities from the vast majority of laws was patently absurd. It was a product of the ivory tower – a theory based on ignorance of religious conduct. As I soon came to recognize, I (like many Americans) was a Pollyanna when it came to religion.
Second, I came to see what I could not see before. Religious conduct in the United States (and around the world) had an underbelly few knew about, fewer discussed, and even fewer discussed publicly. It was Aristotle who said: “We have to learn before we can do … we learn by doing.”
Notes
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 313-398
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
6 - The Prisons and the Military
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 141-172
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Terrorist networks within United States borders before September 11, 2001, were an undetected cancer spreading through the system. Our own prisons – and the military – were potential breeding grounds for extremist Muslims who believed that the United States was evil and should be eradicated. It took the annihilation of almost 3,000 victims from abroad and the U.S., including the World Trade Center – two of the tallest buildings in the world – for Americans to realize that there was a religious movement that was intent on their destruction.
In the aftermath of September 11, it quickly became apparent that Muslim chaplains in the prisons and the military were in a strategic position to recruit, train, and indoctrinate those individuals who were open or vulnerable to an approach. Like the pedophiles discussed in Chapter 2, terrorists seek out individuals who are vulnerable to their overtures – those who are isolated from family and friends – and then they play on their insecurities. The same is true for extremist gangs. John Pistole, the head of the FBI's counterterrorism division in 2003, and now its deputy director, summarized the phenomenon in the prisons like this:
Inmates are often ostracized, abandoned by, or isolated from their family and friends, leaving them susceptible to recruitment. Membership in the various radical groups offers inmates protection, positions of influence and a network they can correspond with both inside and outside of prison.
Index
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 399-414
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
PART ONE - WHY THE LAW MUST GOVERN RELIGIOUS ENTITIES
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 1-2
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
GOD VS. THE GAVEL: RELIGION AND THE RULE OF LAW
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp xiii-xiv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Frontmatter
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp i-vi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Contents
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp vii-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
5 - Schools
- Marci A. Hamilton
- Foreword by Edward R. Becker
-
- Book:
- God vs. the Gavel
- Published online:
- 24 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 30 May 2005, pp 111-140
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The public school system was initiated with religious dispute, and religious accommodation conflicts continue to today. Public schools were originally instituted by a Protestant majority and reflected Protestant religious viewpoints, including mandatory daily readings from the King James Bible. In the early 1820s, New York started funding schools, and by 1840, some Catholics were objecting to the Protestant religious curriculum. As Professor Philip Hamburger recounted in his excellent book, Separation of Church and State, the early public schools started with indoctrination in a Protestant perspective. Moreover, they protected their turf, by denying funding to “sectarian” schools (as though the Protestant public schools were not sectarian), “including Baptist, Methodist and Catholic.” Over the succeeding years, the political will to prevent funding for any schools other than the Protestants' was distilled into an antifunding drive aimed mainly at Catholics.
A significant number of Christians in the United States might be tempted to latch onto the early Protestant practices in the schools as proof that the schools should now reintroduce prayer and religion in the schools. They would argue that public education has been corrupted, because prayer and Bible reading have been excised. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, following 9/11, remarked: “We have seen the course of secularism in our schools, and it is obviously time for a change. It is high time our nation once again favors its people of faith by allowing our public-school students to be exposed to prayer and the pursuit of faith.”