Goal for the day: To explore your views on freedom of religion
We began class today revisiting our discussion about freedom of the press. I asked everyone if we do truly have freedom of the press in this country. A four corners exercise showed that most, but not all, do, though no one was in the “strongly agree” category. Nolan brought up the point that because most media sources are owned by corporations, they are reluctant to cover stories that threaten these powerful interests. This is an important argument I want you to consider.
I then asked the class to discuss in small groups the top five things that religion, spirituality, or grappling with ultimate questions bring to society. To inspire this “top five” discussion, and recognize John Cusack, media activist, I showed this clip from the film “High Fidelity.” Once we reconvened and shared, I asked the group for the best argument that the freedom of religion is the most important of our First Amendment freedoms. The class came up with several arguments:
· persecutions of religion and persecutions caused by religion have been a constant throughout history
· spiritual or religious questions are a core part of what it means to be human
· beliefs and values rooted in spirituality are the source for all of our speech; without freedom to believe, the freedom of speech is meaningless
· religious and spiritual beliefs define our identity and identity has a profound effect on behavior
These are profound questions and the discussion could have gone on for longer. But we then moved into questions of the law. I passed out the Freedom of Religion survey to allow everyone to see how their own beliefs compare to others in the class and to our court system. Cumulative each question added up to a score and the scores placed people on a spectrum measuring religious freedom vs. equal protection under the law.
This provided an opportunity to discuss a bit of history. How the original colonies each had an official religion and how different cases had created the standard of the “substantial burden” standard—governments cannot pass laws that impose a “substantial burden” on expressions of faith unless there is a compelling government interest, the law has a secular purpose, there is no other way to achieve the aims of the law, and it is narrowly tailored.
We then looked at how these standards applied to the Hobby Lobby decision about a religious exemption to the contraceptive coverage guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. We watched the first part of this news segment and commentary from the PBS News Hour.
Students then blogged on how they interact with the freedom of religion and what they would lose if this freedom were restricted.
We ended class looking at a video about Joshua Wong, the 17-year leader of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Assignment for Friday, October 3rd
Finish reading the seminar packet and answering both sides of the seminar prep handout .
We began class today revisiting our discussion about freedom of the press. I asked everyone if we do truly have freedom of the press in this country. A four corners exercise showed that most, but not all, do, though no one was in the “strongly agree” category. Nolan brought up the point that because most media sources are owned by corporations, they are reluctant to cover stories that threaten these powerful interests. This is an important argument I want you to consider.
I then asked the class to discuss in small groups the top five things that religion, spirituality, or grappling with ultimate questions bring to society. To inspire this “top five” discussion, and recognize John Cusack, media activist, I showed this clip from the film “High Fidelity.” Once we reconvened and shared, I asked the group for the best argument that the freedom of religion is the most important of our First Amendment freedoms. The class came up with several arguments:
· persecutions of religion and persecutions caused by religion have been a constant throughout history
· spiritual or religious questions are a core part of what it means to be human
· beliefs and values rooted in spirituality are the source for all of our speech; without freedom to believe, the freedom of speech is meaningless
· religious and spiritual beliefs define our identity and identity has a profound effect on behavior
These are profound questions and the discussion could have gone on for longer. But we then moved into questions of the law. I passed out the Freedom of Religion survey to allow everyone to see how their own beliefs compare to others in the class and to our court system. Cumulative each question added up to a score and the scores placed people on a spectrum measuring religious freedom vs. equal protection under the law.
This provided an opportunity to discuss a bit of history. How the original colonies each had an official religion and how different cases had created the standard of the “substantial burden” standard—governments cannot pass laws that impose a “substantial burden” on expressions of faith unless there is a compelling government interest, the law has a secular purpose, there is no other way to achieve the aims of the law, and it is narrowly tailored.
We then looked at how these standards applied to the Hobby Lobby decision about a religious exemption to the contraceptive coverage guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act. We watched the first part of this news segment and commentary from the PBS News Hour.
Students then blogged on how they interact with the freedom of religion and what they would lose if this freedom were restricted.
We ended class looking at a video about Joshua Wong, the 17-year leader of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Assignment for Friday, October 3rd
Finish reading the seminar packet and answering both sides of the seminar prep handout .