JFK Speech on Separation of Church & State

Senator John F. Kennedy addressed a special meeting of the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas. He spoke about the separation of church and state, the issue of having a Catholic as president, and the role that his religion had played up to that point in the 1960 presidential election.

A bill currently in the California Senate would strictly limit the freedom of religious schools

R. McKinley June 25, 2016 at 11:31am

A bill currently in the California Senate would strictly limit the freedom of religious schools to admit and teach students, hire professors, and engage in religious practices in line with their beliefs.

Senate Bill 1146 was sponsored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, who represents the 33rd district of California. His purpose in drafting the legislation was to prevent religiously affiliated schools from obtaining exemptions from Title IX, a federal law that was originally intended to prevent discrimination against women in educational programs that receive federal funding. The U.S. Department of Education has recently attempted to extend the protections to transgender students.

Schools can currently get exemptions from certain requirements that, if followed, would undermine their religious beliefs. The bill would force schools that have obtained exemptions to inform the California Student Aid Commission, as well as students and staff.

Under current law, schools do not have to disclose this information. The bill would also allow students who claim to have been discriminated against under the exemption to file a lawsuit.

“All students deserve to feel safe in institutions of higher education, regardless of whether they are public or private,” Lara said in a statement. “California has established strong protections for the LGBTQ community and private universities should not be able to use faith as an excuse to discriminate and avoid complying with state laws. No university should have a license to discriminate.”

Organizations supporting the bill include the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Equality California and the Transgender Law Center.

“Students and staff have a right to know when their school requests a license to discriminate against the LGBT community,” said Dave Garcia, director of policy and community building for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “This bill will protect LGBT people who work and study at private universities and will allow all Californians to be more informed.”

Equality California also supports the measure. “Prospective students have a right to know if a university they are considering attending discriminates against LGBT people,” said Rick Zbur, the organization’s executive director. “This bill would let any school seeking to skirt federal anti-discrimination protections know that its policies would be public.”

Not every state senator is in agreement. Sen. John Moorlach of the 37th district wrote in a letter to constituents, “Senate Bill 1146 goes far beyond the appropriate role of government designed to provide protections against discrimination. In fact, Senate Bill 1146 discriminates against private and independent universities that hold themselves and their student body to a certain moral code that is thousands of years old. Punishing private institutions for adhering to long-held codes of conduct consistent with their beliefs is inappropriate and destructive to our education system. This legislation unfairly targets the beliefs of the schools, their students and community.”

Moorlach based his stance on constitutional rights, such as the freedom of religion. “Senate Bill 1146 does not safeguard against discrimination, but rather is a form of discrimination against religious liberty itself,” he wrote. “Restricting private institutions from adhering to its religious beliefs is a violation of their First Amendment rights and an act itself of intolerance.”

It should be noted that the California Constitution expressly protects both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, as well as guaranteeing the right to “assemble freely.”

The consensus among religious schools that would be affected by the bill is that it would severely limit their religious freedom and educational mission.

Jon R. Wallace, president of Azusa Pacific University, said he listened to the testimony on the bill and believes those involved all want the same things for students — “care, love, safety, and security.”

“The California higher education system has always been robust,” Wallace said. “I really think this is a solution looking for a problem.”

Wallace discussed the diversity of the Los Angeles area, which has dozens of cultures and languages, as well as many religious institutions. He described religious schools as filling a need in the area. “The church wants a place to send students,” he said. “The danger [with the bill] is that the important voice of religious schools could be silenced. This bill guts student choice. [These schools] are safe places for students [to explore their beliefs] in Christian environments.”

Concordia University Irvine concurs. “As written, the bill would severely limit our schools’ ability to faithfully live out our religious mission,” Kurt J. Krueger, president of Concordia, said in a letter written to the Assembly’s judiciary committee chairman. “The ability of a Lutheran Christian university like ours to act in a manner consistent with our religious tenets and mission is not a problem to be solved, but a freedom that is constitutionally protected.”

Richard Kriegbaum, president of Fresno Pacific University, pointed out that the issue the bill purports to address seems to not be an issue on religious campuses.

“The bill would be bad public policy in part because the bill seeks to force schools to address an issue that does not exist on our campus or at other similar schools,” he stated in an email. “No data-based or even anecdotal evidence supports the existence of mistreatment or lack of educational success among the LGBT students who choose our school(s).”

Holly Scheer, writing in The Federalist, makes the point that no one is forcing students to attend universities whose beliefs and teachings they disagree with. “It seems sensible that if you don’t want an education imbued with the values of a religion—any religion—attending classes at a religious school would be a poor choice for you,” Scheer writes. “This is not a day or age of limited academic choices.”

The bill will go before the state Assembly Judiciary committee on Tuesday.        Western Journalism

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has a new chairman, and for the first time, the position will be held by a Jesuit

Catholic News Agency June 24, 2016

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has a new chairman, and for the first time, the position will be held by a Catholic priest.

Jesuit priest Father Thomas Reese was first appointed to a two-year term as a member of the commission by President Barack Obama in 2014, and re-appointed in 2016.

Now he will take over as the chair of the organization, an independent, bipartisan commission that monitors and reviews religious freedom violations around the world, and makes policy recommendations to the Secretary of State, Congress and the president.

“I am honored to serve as USCIRF’s Chair and work with my fellow Commissioners in support of freedom of religion or belief,” Reese said in a statement.

“World events underscore the importance of this fundamental right: A key factor in many of the United States’ foreign policy challenges, religious freedom is under serious and sustained attack across much of the globe,” he added.

Created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, the commission issues annual reports on the state of religious freedom around the world, and names countries that are guilty of severe religious freedom violations during the previous year. It also holds public hearings and conducts fact-finding missions to aid in its efforts.

In taking over as chair of the body, Reese replaces Princeton law professor Dr. Robert George.

Reese serves as the senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter. Previously, he served as editor-in-chief at AmericaMagazine - a publication of the Jesuit order - from 1998-2005 after being its associate editor from 1978-1985. Reese also was a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center from 1985-1998, and again from 2008-2013.

In his time at America, the Vatican raised issues with several articles published at the magazine, including some on abortion and homosexuality. Fr. Reese resigned from the publication in May 2015.

This week, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also appointed two vice-chairs: Dr. Daniel Mark, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University and visiting fellow in the Department of Politics at Princeton University; and Dr. James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, and Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, which conducts specialized public opinion polling within the Arab world.

Mark had been reappointed as a member of the commission Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in May 2016, and President Barack Obama reappointed Zogby in May 2015        Cruxnow