Recently in Public life Category

There's been a ton of talk in the past few years about the coming American theocracy, one fueled by conservative Christian support of President Bush, not of a nation where the majority of people profess to be Christians but something like a Saudi Arabia for the West.

Whether this ever could happen, I don't know. But certainly it's not going to happen any time soon. The Republicans lost Congress in November, and Bush has became a really, really lame duck. Still pundits, authors and the blogosphere find this a concern worth fretting about.

Last weekend, a "blogswarm dedicated to the separation of church and state" held the first Blog Against Theocracy, for which members were asked to write at least one blog post. This was the message that preceded the event:

The post will be against theocracy, in favor of our Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state. But there are a LOT of issues tied to this, as is pointed out in the First Freedom First website:

No religious discrimination.
PRO End-of-Life Care (no more Terri Schiavo travesties)
Reproductive health decisions made by individuals, not religious "majorities"
Democracy not Theocracy
Academic Integrity (like, a rock is as old as it is, not as old as the Bible says)
Sound Science (good bye so-called "intelligent" design)
Respect for ALL families (based on love, not sexual orientation. Hellooooo.)
And finally,
The right to worship, OR NOT.

So take your pick and write your post(s). Really, the wider variety of topics makes it all the more interesting.

Thanks to the Dallas Morning News' religion blog for pointing this out.

The Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which would strengthen the federal requirement that employers accommodate their employees' religious beliefs and is again before Congress, has caused a rift between Jews. The measure is being supported by many Jewish organizations, from the Orthodox Union to the American Jewish Committee, but it's also being opposed by civil-liberty organizations with strong Jewish constituencies, such as the ACLU.

“This legislation, whose intent is to serve as a shield against religious discrimination, may be used by some to advance their majority religious agenda, which could result in discrimination, proselytizing or harassment,” Deborah Lauter, national civil rights director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote in an e-mail to the Forward, which has a story on the split.

The bill plays into a growing push by people wanting to better incorporate faith in the workplace. Advocates say that it is not about proselytizing others but about decompartamentalizing their own lives. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act was introduced in Congress more than a decade ago, but is now enjoying broader religious support. The Forward story has the background.

I wrote an article this month for Christianity Today about the increasing faith-in-the-workplace movement. Obviously, the story focused on growing expressions of Christianity by employees and employers, in the form of weekly prayer meetings, keeping religious items on their desk and religious-themed corporate retreats.

One Christian attorney told me there is a greater understanding of the difference between the protection for religious exercise and the empowerment to proselytize. But I'm curious about what you have noticed. Are more of your colleagues bringing God to work? Are you? And what does it look like?

Interesting piece in Time magazine titled "The Case for Teaching the Bible." The biggest contention many scientists and educators have had with the push to teach the Genesis version of creation in science classes is that it is based on religious literature. The role, however, of the Bible in western history makes essential academic reading.