Religion

We Americans preen when we lecture other nations about human rights. We are especially proud of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, as we should be. Let's hope nobody looks too closely. We're a lot better at words than we are about applying them. This is especially true when it comes to questions that cause the state the slightest discomfort. Take religion, for instance, tucked firmly into the First Amendment as a seemingly inviolable right. Once the rationalizers in robes get going, that right becomes dependent on how much power a religion has. Any religion can look absurd from the outside.

What role should religion play in the public square? How did my own Roman Catholicism shape my work as a senator? Such questions were never far from my mind while I served in Congress. So, when Mitt Romney gave his "religion speech," I listened not as a political analyst, but as someone who wrestled with this subject for more than a decade. Romney's speech was thoughtful and courageous. Unlike John F. Kennedy in 1960, he didn't cop out and say his faith does not matter. Romney gave an impressive defense of the believer's right to be engaged in politics.

Two-hundred and thirty-five years ago, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence separating the American colonies from Great Britain. John Adams suggested that the occasion "ought to be celebrated as the day of deliverance with solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty from this time forward forever more. " Since then there has been a debate over whether the Founders envisioned the United States as a Christian nation. There is no easy answer. The Founders, like the American people, hailed from several religions, the majority being Protestant.

IN HIS LETTER ON the difference between cults and religions, Larry Lueder asked an interesting question: What the difference is between a cult and a religion? Speaking as an atheist, it strikes me that a fine line distinguishes religions from cults. In fact, some may argue that religions and cults are the same thing. I don't know what the difference is. But I do know that Lueder is mistaken if he thinks that only religions that call for the death of nonbelievers must be cults. If our government banned any religion that called for the death of nonbelievers, both Christianity and Judaism would be affected, based on what's in their scriptures.

As the New York Knicks began preparing for tomorrow's game against Miami, players were dealing with a swirling controversy over coach Jeff Van Gundy's remarks about the negative influence of religion on the NBA. Van Gundy told New York magazine he would like to limit the time the team chaplain, Pastor John Love, spends with his players before games. Allan Houston, Charlie Ward and Mark Jackson attend Love's 10-minute pregame Bible study session. Van Gundy said "the two worst things to happen to the NBA were God and golf.

It would be wrong to resurrect religious ceremonies in public school classrooms. Yet, neither should the sentiments of those who are urging a return to prayer in schools be dismissed out of hand. Even if their solution to the problem is misguided, they are right to sense that there is indeed a problem. Barely more than 30 years ago school children in Pennsylvania began their day by listening to 10 verses from the Bible and reciting together the Lord's Prayer. It was the U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 ruling in School District of Abington Township v. Schempp that decisively put an end to such religious exercises in public schools here and throughout the nation.

GOD HAD NO part in the recent tsunamis. Religion is the problem with this world. Too many people believing in too many gods that don't exist. My theory about the Bible is that if the first story (Adam and Eve) is made up, why wouldn't the rest of it be phony, too? The Bible says own slaves. OK, give me one to do some house chores. One person (Jesus) was born without semen, walked on water and rose from the dead, all in 30 years? Sounds like a crock to me. If a person goes to church every Sunday for 70 years, he wastes a full 151 days of his life and thousands of dollars that will go to pay for lawsuits for perverted priests.

As if Jim Bakker's shabby demise wasn't grief enough, the politicized Christian right is getting the wind knocked out of its high-flying campaign to reshape the public school classroom. Three times fundamentalists' lawsuits have inched up the federal-court ladder, only to get knocked off - twice this week alone. That's good news for the republic. The first defeat came in June when the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for Louisiana to require the teaching of the pseudo-science of "creationism" - basically the book of Genesis - in public classrooms.

SEVERAL months ago, in a modest courtroom at 16th and Callowhill, a young man from Lebanon was granted asylum. A Maronite Christian, he successfully convinced an immigration judge that he had suffered persecution at the hands of his native government on account of his religion and was entitled to the protection of the U.S. How fitting that his chosen refuge is a city which was itself established as a haven for those fleeing religious persecution....

A deeply offensive comparison I found the commentary "Film's dystopia rings familiar" (Friday) deeply offensive. To compare President Obama's administration, which is trying to bring better health care to all of our citizens and to prevent banks from using our savings in very risky financial deals, to a regime that requires children to kill each other is beyond the pale. It is on the same level as those who have called Obama a Hitler. The author seems to have a searing personal hatred for Obama, not a reasoned argument against his policies.

Earth Day, the environmentalist holy day, is approaching again, reminding us that environmentalism has become a kind of religion. Which raises a question: Why is it OK to teach environmental religion in public schools, while the teaching of Judaism, Christianity, and other traditional religions is not constitutionally permitted? As Joel Garreau, a former Washington Post editor, wrote in 2010, "faith-based environmentalism increasingly sports saints, sins, prophets, predictions, heretics, sacraments and rituals.

Bible-believing evangelical voters kept Rick Santorum in the hunt for the Republican presidential nomination. But their fervor didn't translate into the dollars he needed to withstand the ad blitz of the deeper-pocketed Mitt Romney. Does Santorum's suspension of his campaign mean religion won't play a role in the fall campaign? No, with a Mormon and a Protestant who still gets wrongly accused of being a Muslim in the race, you can expect religion to remain a factor in the election.

DETROIT - Some Detroit-area Muslims have been held at gunpoint, handcuffed, and repeatedly harassed about their religion when returning to the United States from Canada, according to a lawsuit that seeks to bar government agents from asking questions about religion. The Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said border agents and the FBI were violating the First Amendment and a 1993 federal law that guarantees freedom to practice religion. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in Detroit.

The Easter season is a celebration of deliverance, and the liturgical calendar sets up Easter Week as a kind of catharsis. Holy Thursday and the Last Supper have an ominous feel because they are preparation for Good Friday and the dolorous story of Jesus' crucifixion. Yet two days later, the tale ends in triumph and resurrection. Whatever questions Christians may have about the meaning of that empty tomb, most of us have experienced a sense of joy when the words "He is risen, alleluia!"

NEW YORK - The New York Police Department collected information on businesses owned by second- and third-generation Americans because they were Muslims, according to newly obtained secret documents. They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring people based on religion, despite claims from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary. The NYPD has faced intense criticism from Muslims, lawmakers - even the FBI - for spying operations that put entire neighborhoods under surveillance.

Alain de Botton isn't exactly what you'd call religious. The Swiss-born philosopher and novelist has never been shy about proclaiming himself an unbeliever - a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool atheist. But as he argues in his new book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion (Pantheon; 320 pages; $26.95), de Botton does believe, passionately, in religion. Paradox? Folly? Madness? De Botton, who has been accused by critics of trading in the first and suffering from the other two, will speak about the book at the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia Sunday at 2 p.m. Born in Zurich, but living in Britain since his early teens, de Botton, 42, made a splash at 23 when his debut book, Essays in Love (published in America as On Love: A Novel )

LONDON - When it comes to religion, British politicians tend to heed the advice of Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell: "We don't do God. " In contrast to the United States, the deity is rarely invoked on the campaign trail or in political speeches. But a Muslim cabinet minister has become the latest member of Prime Minister David Cameron's government to urge the country to embrace its Christian heritage. Sayeeda Warsi also said "militant" secularism posed a threat to Europe, a comment that has angered atheists and highlighted the divisive political potential of religion.