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.
Friday, July 31, 2009
To readers and contributors of the Mirror of Justice, a blessed feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola! May his company of Jesus be faithful to the vocation of the least Society of Jesus.
Saint Ignatius, pray for us! May Mary, the Mother of God, patroness of the least Society of Jesus and Mirror of Justice, pray for us!
RJA sj
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Inclusion of abortion in an official national healthcare plan is a
communal imprimatur, similar to the imprimatur received for gay sex when gay marriage is approved. It does more than increase liberty; it says that nothing is significantly wrong with the act in question.
True tolerance, by
contrast, takes no position in favor or against the act or relationship in
question. It leaves others with full behavioral liberty to engage in the
conduct, without endorsing what they do in any way. Gamblers may be left at
liberty without affirming that what they are doing is a good thing. But the
legal validation of gambling debts affirms that public policy supports them.
The great political
problem for pluralism is that toleration alone may not satisfy the human heart.
John Noonan (in A Private Choice) has reflected upon how slavery and abortion became polity-shattering to the degree that advocates for each cause escalated their demands from simple
toleration to universal legal approval. Yet he also recognizes their difficulty
in moderating those demands: “[I]n a moral question of this kind, turning on
basic concepts of humanity,…you cannot be content with the practical toleration
of your activities. You want, in a sense you need, actual acceptance, open
approval,…the moral surrender of [your] critics.”
I learned the other day about a new group blog, run by a group of in-formation (not-yet-ordained) Jesuits, called "Whosoeverdesires". Check it out. Lots of interesting stuff. I also discovered that one of these young Jesuits has a blog of his own, called "Under a Chindolea". (Walker Percy fans -- and aren't we all Walker Percy fans -- might catch the reference.) Again, well worth reading.
