Religion
March 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Colorado Civil Rights Commission has decided to dismiss its pending discrimination charge against Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop. Phillips, you will recall, refused on grounds of his deeply held religious beliefs to bake a cake to celebrate a gay marriage. The Commission found him in violation of the law and imposed severe punishment. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Phillips prevailed. Thereafter, Phillips refused
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February 7, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I deduced the Booker Doctrine from Senator Cory Booker’s disgusting interrogation of D.C. Circuit nominee Neomi Rao on Tuesday in her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee (video below, transcript here). Under the Booker Doctrine, orthodox Christians and Jews are disqualified from public life because of their adherence to traditional views of sexual morality. If Booker were consistent, the Booker Doctrine doctrine would apply to Muslims as well as
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February 6, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Among notable doctrines in American history we must count the Monroe Doctrine, the Freeport Doctrine, the Truman Doctrine, the Carter Doctrine, and the Reagan Doctrine. Most of these are presidential foreign-policy doctrines, but not all of them. The Freeport Doctrine is attributable to Senator Stephen Douglas. To these I would add the Booker Doctrine. The Booker Doctrine is implicit in his disgusting interrogation of Trump judicial nominee Neomi Rao when
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February 5, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Nancy Pelosi claims to be a Catholic. Charitably interpreted, that means her grandparents were Catholics; possibly even one or both of her parents. But Pelosi has not even a nodding acquaintance with Christian doctrine. The latest example, via PJ Media, is revealing. Remarkably, Pelosi was addressing an audience of Christian college and university presidents and administrators. Is “chutzpah” a Catholic term of art? After a brief, self-deprecating introduction, Speaker Pelosi
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January 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Ilhan Omar’s outrageous lies about the Covington Catholic boys, since deleted, illustrate an important lesson. Omar is a notorious anti-Semite; she goes so far as to advocate for the BDS movement. So, is it surprising that her venom has now been directed against Catholics? Not at all. The people who hate Jews are, for the most part, the same people who hate Christians. In the last few months, we have
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January 18, 2019 — John Hinderaker
We have been writing about the growing anti-Semitism of the Democratic Party, but don’t kid yourself: the Left hates Christianity more than it does Judaism. The Left’s bigotry has manifested itself over the last few days in connection with Karen Pence, the vice-president’s wife. David French explains (links omitted): Karen Pence is a believing Christian woman. She took a part-time job at a private Christian school. And this, believe it
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December 31, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post, I reported on the shameful attack by Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris on a judicial nominee — Brian Buescher — for belonging to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic social and charitable organization. The two Senators insist that Buescher drop his membership in that organization and recuse himself from cases in which it has taken a position. Why? Because according to Hirono, the Knights have taken
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December 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Recently, Sen. Mazie Hirono claimed that Democrats have a hard time connecting with voters because they (Democrats) are so “smart” and “know so much.” If Democrats are smart and knowledgeable, you can’t prove it by Hirono. She embarrasses herself routinely on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she almost invariably finds herself in over her head. The latest embarrassment is her attack, along with Sen. Kamala Harris, on a judicial nominee
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December 23, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Illinois Rep. Luis Gutiérrez is retiring from Congress (why? here is the story), but we will not be spared his like in the new Congress. Indeed, they will rule the roost in the House. We can accordingly look forward to many more rants such as the one to which he subjected DHS Secretary Nielsen at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday. David Rutz has posted the video (below) along with
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November 19, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The House of Representatives has lifted a 181-year-old ban against wearing hats on the floor of the House. The ban was instituted in 1837 as to push back against the British custom of wearing hats in parliament. The change has been made to accommodate newly-elected Ilhan Omar, a Muslim who wears hijab. It will also enable another newly-elected Muslim, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, to do the same. In addition, Democrats
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October 15, 2018 — Steven Hayward
It is disputed whether delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 2012 booed a proposed resolution acknowledging God, but regular church attendance is nowadays one of the best predictors of partisan voting patterns (regular churchgoers vote heavily GOP), and needless to say environmentalism–especially the Calvinist-tinged kind dear to Al Gore–is the only religion that generates any enthusiasm among Democrats. Then there’s this: ‘I Stand For The Flag, I Kneel At
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September 2, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Last year, my wife and I visited Italy for the first time. In Rome, we arranged for a guide to take us through the Vatican. I envisioned an elderly gentleman, but our guide turned out to be an attractive young woman who, I soon decided, was a practicing Catholic. At one point, she asked me guardedly what I thought of Pope Francis. I’m not a Catholic, I said, so it’s
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August 26, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The news for the Roman Catholic Church keeps getting worse and worse. But let’s stop right there for just a moment. “News” is exactly that—it is what we know from the news media, whose accuracy and depth Power Line readers, among others, know to distrust. There are some first-hand documents (more on this in a moment) to go on, but do we really want to place complete credulity in the
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August 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Alex Acosta’s Department of Labor has issued a Directive regarding the exercise of religious liberty by employees of federal contractors. The document, promulgated by DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance, is here. It instructs staff to be mindful of recent developments in Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding religious freedom. Specifically: Pursuant to Masterpiece Cakeshop, agency staff “cannot act in a manner that passes judgment upon or presupposes the illegitimacy of religious
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August 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Jack Phillips is the Christian cake baker from Colorado who had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid being punished after declining to bake a wedding cake for a couple celebrating their gay marriage. To have baked the cake would have violated his strongly held religious beliefs. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission didn’t care. It found him in violation of the law. The Supreme Court overturned
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August 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this month, Chai Feldblum, whose renomination as EEOC commissioner is stalled due to her positions on what should happen when considerations of gay dignity collide with considerations of religious liberty, tweeted: “After months of having my views misrepresented, I am finally speaking for myself.” She speaks for herself in this article called “What I Really Believe About Religious Liberty and LGBT Rights.” In her article, Feldblum tries to position
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May 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
When Speaker Paul Ryan fired Rev. Patrick Conway from his job as Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, critics of the decision argued that Ryan made the decision because Conway is Catholic. Conway himself reportedly took that position in a complaint against the Speaker’s office. The claim is absurd. Ryan himself is Catholic. A more plausible charge is that Ryan fired Conway because of his theology. Conway is a
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