Author: Wendy Kaminer

Does God hate Texas? As I write this in early September 2011, the state is being ravaged by wildfires after suffering through a devastating drought during the historic heat wave of the spring and summer . Is God laughing at Texas? The fires have been fueled by the winds of tropical storm Lee, which is …

Fifty years after the onset of the modern feminist movement, sexual violence remains a primary issue, especially for young women asserting their right to dress or undress as they choose. The “slut walk” is the latest protest gimmick, inspired by the stupidity of a Toronto police officer who advised women (rather unoriginally) to “avoid dressing …

Like many writers, I suspect, I have long been in love with the sound of my own sentences. But lately, even on a good day they provide at best a guilty pleasure; with everybody incessantly talking about everything, silence seems the better part of valor. (“Too much is sufficient,” my grandfather once said, and we …

“The Catholic Church: More Sinned Against Than Sinner?” That was the question posed at a panel discussion in which I participated during the 2010 Battle of Ideas, an annual event in London. You might consider the question absurd because the answer is obvious, but in Britain, angry demonstrations against the 2010 papal visit and colorful …

Have facts ever been less relevant in political debates? Have fictions ever been harder to disprove? Contempt for what an aide to George W. Bush famously called the “reality-based community” is an old story by now, although, thanks partly to Fox News and leading propagandists on the Right (Palin and Limbaugh, among others), it’s a …

All through elementary school, I recited the mandatory New York State school prayer, every day. I can still remember my relief at its mysterious elimination. No one told us that the Supreme Court had invalidated the prayer (in Engel v. Vitale, in 1962); our teachers simply expunged it from our morning routine. I had always hated …

A majority of Americans profess respect for science, according to a recent Pew Forum report: 84 percent of people surveyed agree that “science’s effect on society” is “mostly positive.” That’s a finding likely to be met with skepticism by many secularists, who blame religion for what they believe is widespread hostility to science. Considering religion’s …

It’s unlikely that we will ever know how many people were wrongly and summarily imprisoned, tortured, or otherwise abused in the aftermath of 9/11, but we do know that illegalities were systemic. A report by the Justice Department’s inspector general released back in 2003 documented the wrongful, abusive, extended detention of immigrants (often on minor …

It’s hard to know if we should characterize as good or bad news a recent Pew Forum survey suggesting that public opinion is fairly evenly split over the legitimacy of torture. Support for torture was disproportionately low among people who do not attend religious services (which may reflect their political affiliations rather than any particular …

Secularists had reason to be disappointed but not terribly surprised by President Barack Obama’s Bush-lite approach to government funding of sectarian religious groups. In establishing his own White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (the subject of this issue’s cover feature), Obama let stand George Bush’s executive order allowing federally funded religious organizations to …

When former Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole launched a last-minute ad falsely accusing her Democratic opponent, now-Senator Kay Hagan, of palling around with atheists, taking their godless money, and attending a secret fund-raiser hosted by the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (PAC), she was sharp­ly criticized in the press for smearing the churchgoing, Sunday school-teaching, God-fearing …

“Some Americans question religion’s role in politics,” the Pew Forum announced in August 2008, citing new survey evidence that a “narrow majority” of the public agreed that “churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters.” Pew speculated that increased skepticism about church involvement in politics reflected “frustration and disillusionment among social …

  Opponents of gay rights often warn that legalizing same-sex marriage would inexorably lead to legalizing polygamy. Maybe it would, and maybe it should. Denying gay couples the right to marry violates state constitutional guarantees of equality, as the California and Massachusetts high courts have rightly ruled. (The Supreme Court of California also held that …

Americans are virtually unanimous in their professed support for free speech, according to the Freedom Forum’s 2007 report, “The State of the First Amendment.” Ninety-eight percent of survey respondents agreed that “the right to speak freely about whatever you want” is “essential” or, at least, “important.” But this strong expression of support for the idea …

Does the First Amendment protect the right to make statements that might be construed falsely as solicitations or offers of child pornography? The Supreme Court confronts this question this term in U.S. v. Willia ms, a case that doesn’t bode well for free speech. In 2003, Congress passed a child pornography law (the PROTECT Act) …

Eventually, the exclusion of gay people from the institution of civil marriage will seem as irrational and unjust as laws against interracial marriage; given the relative indifference of the young toward other people’s sexual orientations, time is on the side of gay rights. But, in the meantime, opposition to same­sex civil marriage seems a good …

What’s the difference between self-proclaimed psychics who write books predicting future events and self-proclaimed psychics who read palms, tarot cards, or crystal balls? The book-writing psychics are endowed with virtually undisputed First Amendment rights, nationwide. The storefront psychics may or may not enjoy constitutional protection, or any right to prophesy for profit, depending on where …

Religious people claiming they’re the victims of excessive secular-ism generally have about as much credibility as conservatives complaining about the liberal media. America has only a subculture of disbelief, inhabited by a small, maligned minority who probably have less influence on law and policy than marginalized left-wing magazines. Aspiring theocrats, like Supreme Court Justice Antonin …