Issues covered in Religious Liberty in America
Religion and the Media
Religion coverage ‘too sensational?’
A survey indicates that most Americans say media coverage of religion is “too sensationalized”; and less than one-fifth of reporters consider themselves “very knowledgeable” about religion. (Release date: April 27, 2012)
Religion and politics
Presidential candidates rev up the culture wars
Political rhetoric regarding the separation of church and state has changed substantially since John F. Kennedy delivered his landmark speech on the issue in 1960. The “culture wars” have driven a wedge between religious and secular-minded Americans. Politicians attempt to gain votes by exploiting these divisions. (Release date: March 15, 2012.)
Presidents and religion
The early American presidents had widely varying perspectives on God and religion. Nonetheless, many find it convenient to invoke a particular president or Founder to support their own position on religion in public life, as if the selected view were THE view. (Release date: Feb. 18, 2012.)
‘Not one of us’
An analysis of Sarah Palin's rhetoric. (Release date: Nov. 16, 2009)
Toxic mix? Book measures religion and politics
God and guns; religion and politics – they go together about as smoothly as drinking and driving; but nonetheless these are indelible facets of American society. Bruce T. Murray delves into these enduring features of American politics in his University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective. (Release date: April 19, 2008)
The First Amendment
See First Amendment-related issues covered in Religious Liberty in America, including The Supreme Court, faith-based initiatives, the Founders, Abraham Lincoln, freedom of conscience, political civility, the U.S. and Europe, and the Olympics.
The ‘culture wars’
Tracking America's ‘culture wars’
“America the sacred” and “America the secular” — these two ideologies have fueled a long-standing battle that plays out in the courts, the media and the public square. The University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, analyzes the culture wars in the context of America’s centuries-long debate over religion in public life. (Release date: May 30, 2010)
Christmas and the culture wars
Merry Chr- … Hol- … Solstice?
Arguing about religious symbols in public places is never out of season in America, especially during the Christmas holidays. Flashpoints in the yuletide “culture wars” produced a steady stream of news stories in 2011. (Release date: Dec. 17, 2011)
Ringing in the yuletide culture wars
Lesson for 2010: What is “correct” holiday symbolism? Religious
Liberty in America analyzes the culture wars in the context of America's
longstanding debate over religion in public life.
(Release date: Dec. 4, 2010)
‘Merry
_ ... ’
‘Happy _ ... ’
Whatever
Lesson 2009: Reinforcing the “correct” holiday greeting – whatever that is. (Release date: Dec. 7, 2009)
‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Merry Christmas?’
Lesson 2008: What is the “correct” holiday greeting?
Every December ushers in new yuletide ballyhoo over the “correct” holiday greeting – “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”? Religious Liberty in America examines the Christmas ‘culture wars’ and Supreme Court’s rulings on holiday displays. (Release date: Nov. 12, 2008)
Religious and cultural civility
Remembering St. Patrick
Being Irish for a day wasn't so easy in early America, when conflict between Catholics and Protestants was rife. The history of religious diversity in America is surveyed in the University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray. (Release date: March 9, 2010)
Civil religion and immigration
Immigration and Civil Religion
The ongoing immigration debate casts light on Americans’ deepest-held values and conception of national meaning – sometimes known as civil religion. Religious Liberty in America includes an in-depth discussion of civil religion, including how it factors in the immigration debate. (Release date: July 15, 2009)
Civil religion and economics
Occupy Wall Street and civil religion
The ongoing worldwide financial crisis has called into question a core basis of America’s economic system: Belief that the pursuit of one’s self-interest will lead to the betterment of all. Instead, wealth has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest Americans, while wages for the rest are stagnant or in decline. (Release date: Oct. 14, 2011)
Self-interest ‘wrongly understood’
The worldwide financial meltdown has shaken the very basis of America’s free-market system: self-interest. The new University of Massachusetts Press Book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, analyzes where laissez-faire economics conflicts with the civic good and civil religion. (Release date: Nov. 12, 2008)
Martin Luther King
‘The content of his words’
In his call for civil rights, King effectively fused the rhetorical style of African-American preaching with another powerful tradition in American life known as civil religion (Release date: Jan. 13, 2012)
Analyzing King’s rhetoric; civil religion
Author Bruce T. Murray analyzes Martin Luther King’s rhetoric in the context of civil religion – a belief system that binds the nation’s deepest-held values with transcendent meaning. (Release date: April 4, 2008; updated Jan. 14, 2010.)
Putting ‘prophetic tradition’ of King, Obama in context
Author Bruce T. Murray shows how the prophetic rhetoric of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama intersects with another American tradition, civil religion. (Release date: April 10, 2008)
Barack Obama
2009 Inaugural anniversary
Barack Obama employs the “civil religious” rhetoric of his predecessors, including Ronald Reagan and John Winthrop – the first governor of Massachusetts. (For release, Jan. 1, 2010.)
2008 election anniversary
In the historic 2008 election, Barack Obama achieved what many thought was impossible. Read what gave him the edge.
(Release date: Oct. 28, 2009.)
View from the ‘city on a hill’
In his first debate with Sen. John McCain, President Barack Obama said that as president, he would "restore that sense that America is that shining beacon on a hill." Where does this familiar language come from? The University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, traces the origins this rhetoric — from America's early colonial period to the present. (Release date: Nov. 5, 2008.)
Who will claim the ‘city on a hill?’
As Barack Obama and John McCain sparred during the presidential election campaign, some familiar religious themes cropped up; and each candidated addressed them in a different way. Religious Liberty in America explains the meaning of this rhetoric. (Release date: Sept. 27, 2008)
Analyzing Obama’s ‘civil religious’ language
Author Bruce T. Murray analyzes the language being employed in the 2008 presidential debate, quoting both Barack Obama and Sen John McCain. Obama, in particular, employs the language of civil religion, as Murray defines and details in his University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective. (Release date: April 29, 2008)
Decrypting political rhetoric
The back-and-forth political sniping among the U.S. presidential candidates has often crossed over into religious territory. Author Bruce T. Murray provides a clear explanation of the connection between religion and politics in America in his University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective. (Release date: April 13, 2008)
A question of patriotism?
Many have called Obama's loyalty into question because of statements made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. Religious Liberty in America includes an analysis of Obama's rhetoric, in the context of civil religion. (Release date: March 25, 2008)
Clash of Civilizations
Iran and the clash within civilizations
The deadly street demonstrations during the summer of 2009 highlight the concept of “clash within civilization” — a turnaround of the much-bandied phrase, “clash of civilizations.” (Release date: July 9, 2009)
Religion and Terrorism
Ten Years After
The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are a decade in the past, but reaction against the religion of the perpetrators is very much in the present. How can America’s longstanding values of religious liberty and pluralism survive in such an atmosphere? (Release date: Sept. 11, 2010)
Religious liberty in a time of intolerance?
Fear of the religious “other” is not new to the American experience. Religious Liberty in America discusses the challenges of religious pluralism. (Release date: Sept. 11, 2010)
Religious liberty in a time of terror?
The First Amendment’s precepts of religious liberty were fomented at a time when Europe and Britain were suffering religious wars, and the Ottoman Empire was threatening the continent with hegemony. Religious Liberty in America shows how America's founders devised a system of religious liberty despite the “clash of civilizations.” (Release date: May 29, 2008)
The Pope
Papal visit highlights state of religious relations
Pope Benedict’s first American visit highlights the integral and amiable relationship between the United States and the Holy See. It wasn’t always this way. Strife between Catholics and Protestants was a fact of life in colonial America, and distrust between the two groups lasted well into the last century. University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, examines the history of religious diversity and conflict in America. (Release, April 18, 2008)
University of Massachusetts Press
UMass Press catalog entry
In recent years a series of highly publicized controversies has focused attention on what are arguably the most important 16 words in the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...” See the UMass Press catalog, Fall-Winter 2007–2008. Also see Web Sage news release.