Faith In Rights

Projecting a global interdisciplinary vision, this insightful book develops a peer-to-peer learning methodology to facilitate reconciling religion and human rights, both in multilateral contexts and at the national level. Written by leading human rights practitioners, the book illuminates the tension zones between religion and rights, exploring how the ‘faith’ elements in both disciplines can create synergies for protecting equal human dignity.

This book argues that the idea of human rights is not exclusively religious, but that its realization in practice requires urgent action on the part of people of all faiths, and of none. Acknowledging the ambiguous moral legacy of their own tradition, Christianity, the authors draw on christological themes to draft blueprints for a culturally sensitive "theology of human rights."

This multi-disciplinary collection interrogates the role of human rights in addressing past injustices. The volume draws on legal scholars, political scientists, anthropologists and political philosophers grappling with the weight of the memory of historical injustices arising from conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Australasia. It examines the role of human rights as legal doctrine, rhetoric and policy as developed by states, international organizations, regional groups and non-governmental bodies. The authors question whether faith in human rights is justified as balm to heal past injustice or whether such faith nourishes both victimhood and self-justification. These issues are explored through three discrete sections: moments of memory and injustice, addressing injustice; and questions of faith. In each of these sections, authors address the manner in which memory of past conflicts and injustice haunt our contemporary understanding of human rights. The volume questions whether the expectation that human rights law can deal with past injustice has undermined the development of an emancipatory politics of human rights for our current world.

Chief Justice John Marshall argued that a constitution "requires that only its great outlines should be marked [and] its important objects designated." Ours is "intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs." In recent years, Marshall's great truths have been challenged by proponents of originalism and strict construction. Such legal thinkers as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argue that the Constitution must be construed and applied as it was when the Framers wrote it. In Keeping Faith with the Constitution, three legal authorities make the case for Marshall's vision. They describe their approach as "constitutional fidelity"--not to how the Framers would have applied the Constitution, but to the text and principles of the Constitution itself. The original understanding of the text is one source of interpretation, but not the only one; to preserve the meaning and authority of the document, to keep it vital, applications of the Constitution must be shaped by precedent, historical experience, practical consequence, and societal change. The authors range across the history of constitutional interpretation to show how this approach has been the source of our greatest advances, from Brown v. Board of Education to the New Deal, from the Miranda decision to the expansion of women's rights. They delve into the complexities of voting rights, the malapportionment of legislative districts, speech freedoms, civil liberties and the War on Terror, and the evolution of checks and balances. The Constitution's framers could never have imagined DNA, global warming, or even women's equality. Yet these and many more realities shape our lives and outlook. Our Constitution will remain vital into our changing future, the authors write, if judges remain true to this rich tradition of adaptation and fidelity.

The first book to examine religious feminist activists in Israel, the U.S., and Kuwait

Over the past fifteen years, associations throughout the U.S. have organized citizens around issues of equality and social justice, often through local churches. But in contrast to President Bush's vision of faith-based activism, in which groups deliver social services to the needy, these associations do something greater. Drawing on institutions of faith, they reshape public policies that neglect the disadvantaged. To find out how this faith-based form of community organizing succeeds, Richard L. Wood spent several years working with two local groups in Oakland, California—the faith-based Pacific Institute for Community Organization and the race-based Center for Third World Organizing. Comparing their activist techniques and achievements, Wood argues that the alternative cultures and strategies of these two groups give them radically different access to community ties and social capital. Creative and insightful, Faith in Action shows how community activism and religious organizations can help build a more just and democratic future for all Americans.

The relationship between religion and the law is a hot-button topic in America, with the courts, Congress, journalists, and others engaging in animated debates on what influence, if any, the former should have on the latter. Many of these discussions are dominated by the legal perspective, which views religion as a threat to the law; it is rare to hear how various religions in America view American law, even though most religions have distinct views on law. In Faith and Law, legal scholars from sixteen different religious traditions contend that religious discourse has an important function in the making, practice, and adjudication of American law, not least because our laws rest upon a framework of religious values. The book includes faiths that have traditionally had an impact on American law, as well as new immigrant faiths that are likely to have a growing influence. Each contributor describes how his or her tradition views law and addresses one legal issue from that perspective. Topics include abortion, gay rights, euthanasia, immigrant rights, and blasphemy and free speech.

Master cake artist and a man of profound faith, Jack Phillips found himself in the middle of one of the highest-profile religious freedom cases of the century. In July 2012, two men came to Jack Phillips's shop requesting a custom wedding cake celebrating their same-sex marriage. In a brief exchange, Jack politely declined the request, explaining that he could not design cakes for same-sex weddings but offered to design cakes for other occasions and to sell them anything else in his shop. Little did Jack know that his quiet stand for his Christian convictions about marriage would become a battle for the right of all Americans to live out their faith. Now, Jack Phillips shares his harrowing experience for the first time in this powerful new memoir. The Cost of My Faith is Jack’s firsthand account from the frontlines of the battle with a culture that is making every effort to remove God from the public square and a government denying Bible-believing Christians the right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. Despite a Supreme Court victory in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the fight to protect the right of Americans to freely exercise their beliefs is more critical than ever. The Cost of My Faith provides new insight into the case that shook the country and offers readers courage and inspiration to stand and live out their faith when facing their own battles.