Religion & Law

Sunday was Religious Freedom Day and, as Charles Haynes argues in his syndicated column, religious freedom is mainly in trouble around the world. See here. Despite the Court's infamous decision in Employment Division v. Smith, religion is relatively free in the United States. Nonetheless, there are some grounds for despair even in circumstances where the case for constitutional protection is problematic. As David Gibson reports in Politics Daily, Alabama's new governor Robert Bentley stated on Martin Luther King Day that he intended to be the governor of all the people, but if anybody had not accepted Jesus Christ as personal saviour, then you are "not my brother and not my sister." It would be difficult to fault those Jews and Muslims in Alabama who believe that they have been marked out as second class citizens.