Over the last months, there have been MOJ posts about the efforts of an assortment of religious-liberty scholars --including MOJers Berg, Garnett, and Perry -- proposing strong religious-liberty protections for conscientious objectors in states where same-sex marriage has been or may be legally recognized.
Based on comments from readers and others, I thought it would be worthwhile to collect in one post links to the various memo/letters that the scholars have written on the religious-liberty effects of same-sex marriage in the respective states. For each state, there is a Letter 1 -- a longer one with a full set of arguments by one group of scholars, including Garnett and Berg -- and a Letter 2 -- a shorter one by another group, led by Doug Laycock and including Michael Perry [UPDATE 1/2013: and including Tom Berg], all of whom support same-sex marriage but also support strong religious-objector provisions.
Hawaii (special session fall 2013): Group 1 Letter here (Oct. 17); Group 2 Letters here, here; Group 1 legislative testimony here (Oct. 28); Group 2 testimony in HI Senate (Oct. 27),
House (Oct. 30)
Minnesota: Group 1 Letter here (May 2, 2013); Group 2 Letters to Democrats, to Republicans (May 3, 2013)
Rhode Island: Letter 1 (Feb. 4, 2013)
Illinois: Letter 1 here (Jan. 4, 2013); Group-2 Letters here, here (Mar. 12, 2013)
Washington state: Letter 1 and Letter 1 follow-up ; Letter 2 (all added 2-7-2012)
Maryland: Letter 1 (added 2-7-2012)
New York (2011 round): here is Letter 1 (added 5-18-2011)
New Jersey: here is Letter 1 (added 1-7-2010)
Iowa: Letter 1 and Letter 2
New York (2009 round): Letter 1 and Letter 2
Maine: Letter 1 and Letter 2
Our letters and our proposed statutory language have been revised since we wrote memo letters earlier concerning New Hampshire and Connecticut. (UPDATE 5-18-2011, 1-7-2010: they've been revised a couple of times, most recently for New York.) Because the legal developments have often happened fairly quickly, the most recent letters, reflecting our revisions, should be taken as constituting our proposals and arguments. But if you want to look at earlier letters, you can find links to the New Hampshire letters here and the Connecticut letters here.
Tom B.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Here's a deftly written open letter to ESPN Magazine on the news that it is considering publishing an issue of "no clothes" pictures of athletes in an effort to one-up the Sports Illustrated swimsuits.
And here, by the same author, an open letter to possibly-returning quarterback Brett Favre: a letter of less relevance to Catholic social thought, although maybe of more interest to fans of the Vikings, Packers (Sisk!), or Bears (Berg).
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Rob quotes Josef Pieper (criticizing Anders Nygren) that "[t]he call for an utterly disinterested, unmotivated, sovereign agape love that wishes to receive nothing, that is purged of all selfish desire, simply rests upon a misunderstanding of man as he really is," and that agape is a form (the highest form I imagine) of self-love, "properly understood as 'desire for fullness of being.'" I think there's an important point there, that Christian love needs to have a connection to how human beings really are. But I also worry that if this is the sole description, it loses an essential element in Christianity, namely the element of tension: that is, that the consummation of human existence in Christ would not just fulfill more deeply what we are or desire now, but radically transform what we are or desire now. I worry that statements like the quotes of Pieper's can smooth over the strangeness of Jesus's demands, such as "love your enemies" and "resist not evil," in finding too much or too simple a commonality between our loves and distinctively Christian love.
Although I don't know Pieper's work, this quote also suggests that Pieper gets Nygren wrong in reading him to say that it's "our love" that gives people value, as opposed to God's love. Whatever one thinks of the idea that value comes solely from God, that's quite different from saying that it comes from us, no?
Thoughts, Rob or others?
Monday, June 1, 2009
I have an article up on same-sex marriage and religious liberty in the online version of The Christian Century, the moderate-to-liberal Christian magazine. Sample paragraph, for the argument that exemptions should extend to religious organizations broadly and to small businesspeople who would personally have to faciliate a same-sex marriage to which they conscientiously object:
Protecting objectors generously is consistent with America's long tradition of free exercise of religion. People from many perspectives—religious progressives as well as traditionalists—should affirm the principle that the exercise of religion does not stop at the church door, but carries over into organizational works of charity and justice motivated by faith. Religious exercise also extends into the workplace. The argument "Don't impose your personal moral beliefs when you enter the commercial world" should ring especially false in the wake of recent financial scandals. Legal rules should not discourage people from relating their conscientious beliefs to their business, even if others disagree with the beliefs.
