Separation of Church and State
Should Christmas trees be banned in tax-funded public spaces?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Although I’m a committed nontheist and ardent church-state separationist, I’m not inflexible about it. Which is to say I see no good reason to oppose Christmas trees, for example, in public, tax-supported spaces. It’s been a centuries-long American civic tradition to erect Ch
Nancy Pelosi’s swan song implies America is a Christian nation
Reading Time: 3 minutes US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s epoch-ending, gavel-passing speech Thursday on the floor of the House demonstrated—the Founding Fathers’ vision of secular governance notwithstanding—how casually and normatively embedded Christianity remains at the summit of American governmen
Scaling the summit for religious freedom
Reading Time: 3 minutes What do reproductive rights, marriage equality, and gender-affirming care have in common? We know that they are freedoms that conservatives are trying to strip from everyone, but there is one crucial thread tying them all together. They are all under threat because of a group
The Students’ Religious Belief Protection Act protects no one
Reading Time: 4 minutes Columnist’s note: My Monday essay titled “Hearing loss, failing eyesight, and the struggles we try to hide“ did not properly display temporarily but that glitch is now fixed. The correctly displayed article is accessible via the linked headline in this note. The so-called Stu