Religion & Law

When is Prayer Student-Initiated
A few more thoughts on the majority-rule commencement prayer concept being used by a Louisiana school district. The excuse, to sidestep (they hope) the constitutional prohibition against school-sponsored prayer, is that the school really has nothing to do with it...

The Importance of Prayer in Congress
Mike speaks on the House floor for the need for prayer in Congress and reads a letter from Benjamin Franklin asking George Washington to open the Continental Congress with a prayer and the importance of recognizing the creator.

How Does It Feel
The "lipstick on a pig" remark was not offensive. At all. It's a common metaphor that has nothing to do with gender. It's so common that it's cliche, and thus should not have any power at all...

Pope Strains Interfaith Relations In Revised Tridentine Rite Prayer For Jews
Increasingly good Catholic-Jewish relations were strained a bit last week as the Vatican released a reformulated version of a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews for the 1962 Roman Missal (the Tridentine rite)...

State Petitions To Get Medical Treatment For Amish Child
In Watertown, New York, the Department of Social Services has filed a petition in St. Lawrence County Family Court seeking to have a one-year old boy removed from his Amish parents and placed in foster care so he can receive medical treatment for his potentially fatal heart condition...

Is this offensive
Over at Larvatus Prodeo tigtog explains why she doesn't find this beaver offensive: Y?know, I don?t find this offensive. It?s clever, not least in its rather pointed metacommentary on the way that advertisements for menstrual products have relied on euphemisms since forever...