FIFA Does Religion

Not much meat in this article, but I laughed at the last line quoted.

Washington D.C., Jul 6, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- As a passionate soccer fan, Jennifer Bryson has been faithfully watching every game she can during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. But as a religious freedom expert, she’s found herself wondering how, and why, soccer authorities regulate the many religious expressions on display in the international soccer tournament.

“Sport is so relevant to religious freedom because it offers a shared civic space where people from diverse traditions come together and compete towards a common goal," said Bryson, who is the director of the Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team.

Bryson watches for the moments when an athlete visibly prays in gratitude after a goal or makes the sign of the cross while coming onto the field, noting how the referees react to these religious expressions.

What does she expect to see?

Notre Dame Imitates the Eye of the Tiber

A Catholic university is under fire this week after school administrators accidentally hired 37-year-old Todd Alguire, a practicing Catholic, to head their Department of Theology.

Diocesan bishop Kevin Sterling  has now demanded an investigation into the ‘offensive’ hiring after rumors spread that students would need to “brush up on the fundamentals of the Catholic  faith” before beginning this upcoming semester.

Ryan Gurley, a sophomore who described himself as ‘devoutly spiritual,’ told EOTT that his refusal to participate in any further religion classes might lead to his suspension.

“I understand that I’ll eventually either be suspended, or I won’t ever be able to graduate, but I have to stand my ground. I’ll never cave when it comes to my faith. I’m a spiritual zealot, which means I faithfully believe in every religion – so long as it isn’t Christianity, of course.  And that’s why I now stand on my rights as an American citizen and Catholic to not be forced to have to learn the tenets of Catholicism in a Catholic school. What next, having to learn the fundamentals of analytic geometry in Calculus class?”

MEANWHILE....

At the University of Notre Dame, students walked out on a commencement address by Vice-President Mike Pence.

Speaking on Sunday ahead of his graduation, Bryan Ricketts told CNN he would be walking out after learning solidarity during his time at Notre Dame.

"Personally, I know Mike Pence's policies from his time as governor, when he tried to implement RFPA (The Religious Freedom Restoration Act) without civil rights protections for LGBTQ people. As a gay man, this directly impacted me. However, many graduates here have been directly targeted by other policies -- for example, those students and their families who are undocumented and who risk deportation to celebrate this milestone in their lives," Ricketts said.

Fellow protester Jenn Cha said it there needed to be space for dialogue between people of different beliefs. "However, it is an egregious insult to invite Pence to speak at the celebration of the accomplishments of university graduates, many of whom are LGBTQ, first-generation, low-income, and people of color he has actively supported legislation against," she said.

Thanks, Mr. President. I Guess. Maybe Not.

From David French at National Review:

Trump’s Executive Order on Religious Liberty Is Worse Than Useless

 Freedom must be written into law, not wish-cast through commands that a later president can reverse. Fresh on the heels of a budget deal that fully funds Planned Parenthood, Donald Trump has signed a religious-liberty executive order that — if reports are correct — is constitutionally dubious, dangerously misleading, and ultimately harmful to the very cause that it purports to protect. In fact, he should tear it up, not start over, and do the actual real statutory and regulatory work that truly protects religious liberty. According to the New York Times and others privy to the administration’s preview, the order has three main components: 1) a promise to “protect and vigorously promote religious liberty,” 2) a directive to “ease restrictions on political activity by churches and charities,” and 3) an order to “federal agencies to exempt some religious organizations from Affordable Care Act requirements that provide employees with health coverage for contraception.” Those directives are respectively 1) meaningless, 2) dangerous, and 3) meaningless.

How Did They Get "Mass" in Their Name?

On October 1, 2016, the nation's strictest LGBT non-discrimination laws will come into effect in Massachusetts. According to the "Gender Identity Guidance" released by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) last week, even churches must refer to transgender individuals by their chosen "gender identity," ignoring their biological sex. This effectively means churches must acknowledge transgender ideology or practice their doctrine on human sexuality in secret — putting Christianity in the closet.

The guidance specifically mentions churches as falling under the "public accommodation" restrictions against "discrimination" on the basis of gender identity: "Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public," the MCAD explained.
The restrictions are massive. Any "public accommodation" must allow patrons to use men's or women's restrooms — and locker rooms and changing rooms — "consistent with their gender identity." Such places must also "use names, pronouns, and gender-related terms appropriate to employee's stated gender identity in communications with employee and with others."
These are not small asks for churches, Christian schools, and other organizations which operate on Christian principles.

Race To The Bottom

 I still like the United States' chances, but Canada is Gaining on us!


Upholding a lower court ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that the Law Society of Upper Canada was justified in denying accreditation to Trinity Western University, an evangelical school whose students are required to pledge to avoid sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

Comparing the pledge to rules against interracial dating, the court ruled found the pledge “deeply discriminatory to the LGBTQ community” and ruled that “public interest in ensuring equal access to the profession justified a degree of interference with the appellants’ religious freedoms.”
“To find that religious freedom was infringed, as the court did, but then to rule that the infringement is justified despite evidence that the infringement was not necessary, is very troubling,” said Andre Schutten, counsel for the Association for Reformed Political Action.

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 50

In a state ruled by a former Jesuit, perhaps we should not be shocked to find ourselves in the grip of an incipient state religion. Of course, this religion is not actually Christianity, or even anything close to the dogma of Catholicism, but something that increasingly resembles the former Soviet Union, or present-day Iran and Saudi Arabia, than the supposed world center of free, untrammeled expression.

Former Jesuit Jerry Brown

Two pieces of legislation introduced in the Legislature last session, but not yet enacted, show the power of the new religion. One is Senate Bill 1146, which seeks to limit the historically broad exemptions the state and federal governments have provided religious schools to, well, be religious.
Under the rubric of official “tolerance,” the bill would only allow religiously focused schools to deviate from the secular orthodoxy required at nonreligious schools, including support for transgender bathrooms or limitations on expressions of faith by students and even Christian university presidents, in a much narrower range of educational activity than ever before. Many schools believe the bill would needlessly risk their mission and funding to “solve” gender and social equity problems on their campuses that currently don’t exist.