Conversations
Blog series on current law and religion topics
- Marco Ventura: Introduction to the Conversation
- Paolo Costa: Prisoners of an Image Secularization as an Epidemic
- Regina Elsner: Digitalizing the Church? Different Contexts, Similar Theological Challenges in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches
- Stanislav Panin: Pagan Communities in the Time of Pandemic
- Jennifer Lane: Global Church and Home Church in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Brett Scharffs and Brock Mason: Constitutional Cultures Creating Constitutional Space
- Alex Deagon: Towards a Constitutional Definition of Religion: Challenges and Prospects
- Jeremy Patrick: Individual Spirituality and the Future of Freedom of Religion
- Brett Scharffs and Brock Mason: Three Ways of Thinking about Reasonable Accommodation
- Neil Foster: Religious Freedom and Same Sex Marriage Laws: Constitutional and Other Issues
The Series Hosts join to reflect upon issues raised in the 14-part webinar series, COVID-19, Religion and Belief, sponsored by BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints European Office, Bruno Kessler Foundation / CIRIS and University of Sienna, FGV Escola de Direito do Rio de Janeiro, and the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies.
- Brett Scharffs: Reflections upon the completion of the Covid-19 Webinar series
- Judd Birdsall: Reflections upon the completion of the Covid-19 Webinar series
- Pasquale Annicchino: Reflections upon the completion of the Covid-19 Webinar series
- Marco Ventura: Reflections upon the completion of the Covid-19 Webinar series
Five guest authors join us to discuss this landmark 2015 decision of the US Supreme Court in Obergefell. See posts by Tanner Bean & Robin Fretwell Wilson, Mark Hill QC, Eugenia Relaño Pastor, and Christine Venter.
- Obergefell, Our Common Humanity, and Putting Children First
- Judicial Overreach and Reasonable Accommodation: Some British Reflection on the US Supreme Court Decision in Obergefell v. Hodges
- Postmodern Marriages for Postmodern Times: The Obergefell Case and the Strasbourg Court’s Jurisprudence
- Human Dignity, SOGI Claims, and the Obergefell Decision
- Alaa Murabit: Why Religious Freedom Matters to Me
- David A. Bednar:And When He Came to Himself
- Religious Freedom Annual Review 2020: Discussion with Sentors Sinema and Lee
- Michael O. Leavitt: COVID-19: Present and Future Implications for Religious Groups, Individuals, and Society
- Elizabeth A. Clark: The Transformative Power of Loss: Finding Community and Hope for All
- Brett G. Scharffs: Religious Freedom in the Age of Coronavirus: Legal and Non-Legal Strategies for Finding Community and Hope
- Jane Wise: Religious Freedom Annual Review 2020: Reports on the Sessions
We have opened a conversation on the important and timely topic of Religion and the Rule of Law. Existing posts are listed below.
Participants representing academic and human rights institutions in the US, Spain, Turkey, and Germany weigh in.
- Eugenia Relaño Pastor: Can We Reconcile the Freedom of Religion with the Right to Be Free from Gender Discrimination?
- Mine Yıldırım: Synergy and Conflict—Competing and Overlapping Interests of Freedom of Religion or Belief and Equality
- Fairness for All: An Answer to the Special Rapporteur’s Call for a Practical Resolution between Freedom of Religion or Belief and LGBT+ Non-discrimination
- Montserrat Gas-Aixendri: Is Religious Autonomy a Threat to Gender Equality?
Developed from contributions to an international Webinar held 16 April 2010, Episode 2 of the Webinar Series COVID-19 and Freedom of Religion or Belief. Hear panelist addressing: How is this global emergency affecting our concept of human dignity? How can we ensure that restrictions to civil liberties that we accept for our collective safety respect human dignity and human rights?
Scholars from Israel, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine discuss a landmark case, ‘believed to be the first time the criminal justice system in the UK has been used on behalf of an agunah – a “chained” woman left unable to remarry according to Jewish law because her husband denies her a religious divorce.’
Evoked in this case are issues not only of Jewish and British law, but of family law, religious autonomy, and women’s rights, with ”wide implications within the Orthodox Jewish community and potentially in other communities, when religious laws are abused .’
The creation of a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine in January 2019 provoked turmoil in the Global Orthodoxy and even impacted U.S.-Russian relations. In a new Talk About Conversation marking the first anniversary of this event, Elizabeth Clark introduces posts by Dmytro Vovk, Andriy Fert, Catherine Wanner and Tetiana Kalynychenko, Andrii Krawchuk, Robert Blitt, and Stanislav Panin.
- Dmytro Vovk: Religious Policies under President Zelensky
- Andriy Fert: A Year after the Tomos: The Moscow Patriarchate’s Narratives About the New Church and Itself
- From Chaplains of Maidan to Military Chaplains: One Year after the Tomos
- Andrii Krawchuk: The Orthodox Church of Ukraine: Can Relations with the Russian Orthodox Church Be Normalized?
- Robert C. Blitt: U.S. Interference in Ukraine’s Autocephaly: An Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Unlikely Affair
- Stanislav Panin: A Language of “Sects” in Russian Reflections of Ukrainian Autocephaly
- Elizabeth A. Clark: Symbols, Speech, and Security
- Jane Wise: Modern Book-Burning: Protected Speech?
- Elizaveta Gaufman: More than a Feeling
- Maria Kravchenko: Disproportionality of Anti-Extremist Measures: The Case of Faizrakhamanists in Russia
- Jeroen Temperman: Freedom of Religion or Belief and Security – Some Reflections
- Mine Yıldırım: Security Measures and the Gender Dimension of Freedom of Religion or Belief
- Asma T. Uddin: More Security Does Not Require Less Freedom: The Case of the NYPD Surveillance Program
- Dmytro Vovk: The Names of Religious Groups and Security-Related Concerns
- Peter Weiderud: Let Freedom of Religion or Belief Pave the Way to Peaceful and Inclusive Societies