63 results for tag: religious freedom
Legal Precedent, Religious Freedom, and the Hobby Lobby Court Decision
By Anya Arndt
Religious freedom in the United States will never look the same again; while the majority of Supreme Court justices believe that their ruling on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case will not be taken to extremes, history tells us otherwise. In fact, it was unexpected consequences of the ruling on the Citizens United case that partially allowed the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling to turn out as it did. When Citizens United is boiled down to its fundamental principle that corporations have the same rights as individuals, it translates into the Supreme Court’s ruling on the side of Hobby Lobby as a corporation with religious beliefs. As I ...
Madison and Jefferson v. Scalia and Thomas on Church-State Separation
by Ken Burrows
The May 5th Supreme Court decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway concluded that the practice by the Greece, NY, town board of opening its meetings with predominantly Christian prayer does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. This despite the fact the practice causes a certain religious imposition on those citizens attending the town board meetings who see themselves as excluded or at least marginalized by being subjected to official governmental prayer, sectarian in nature, that effectively endorses a faith they do not themselves subscribe to.
Justice Anthony Kennedy in writing the Greece opinion insisted it ...
We Are Not So Separate
A poem by Emma Brachtenbach
Last night, I slept upon the springtime, mountain ground and thought about the universe.
Under the ancient constellations I pondered the possibilities of sacredness and secular creation and my mind just wouldn't stop turning.
Like how beautiful would it be if god was genderless and endlessly gendered all at once because then religion could be constructed as truly all encompassing. More than bodies and how we can compartmentalize human beings.
And what if the earth was our original mother: heart beat ringing beautifully every time a new soul slipped from the dark womb of the mother who made us into the light and ...
Creating Community Breakfast Raises over $51,000
More than 500 community members gathered to create community and celebrate diversity at Citizens Project’s tenth annual Creating Community Breakfast. The breakfast highlighted the work Citizens Project is doing in the Pikes Peak region to promote equal rights, diversity, and religious freedom through separation of church and state, and civic engagement.
This event raised over $51,000 in general operating support for Citizens Project’s many programs including: candidate survey voter guides, its monthly publication Citizens Project Online News, and the Citizens Project Activist Network, which currently serves over 1,500 subscribers. Corporate ...
Citizens Project Mid-Year Update
Earlier this year we asked you, our loyal friends and supporters, to give us feedback about our work and impact. Thanks to the participation of 100 Citizens Project supporters, we learned a lot about our organization, including our strengths and our challenges. One of the opportunities for growth we identified was communication: we learned that we could be doing a better job of keeping you posted on all our programs and successes. To that end, we happily present this mid-year report of exactly what Citizens Project has been up to:
Collaborating with the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition: On February 14, we worked closely with member organizations of ...
Language Matters
By Kristy Milligan
A few weeks ago, I shared lunch with a close friend, who also happens to be a Citizens Project donor, volunteer, committee member, and former board member.
When it was my turn to give a work update, I droned on for several minutes on about our organizational priorities and calendar for the next few months. My friend paused, considered and asked the most simple, profound question.
“What does all that actually mean?”
Most cultures, ranging from ethnic to geographic to professional specialty, adopt a particular vernacular to describe the world around them. That specialized vernacular appears in the form of acronyms, ...
#IHeartCOS
If you love Colorado Springs (and we know you do) join Citizens Project and the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition to spread the love today in our city:
Follow the action on Twitter and use #IHeartCOS to share your own reasons for loving this city
Change your own profile picture to the image at the right
Take a selfie and share with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers why you ♥ Colorado Springs
Finally check out this Buzzfeed article to see why others love Colorado Springs and maybe get some inspiration yourself!
We believe in the transformative power of language. By changing the conversation about our community, we can change our ...
Happy End of the Gregorian Calendar Year!
By Anya Arndt
***Disclaimer: It’s “War on Christmas”-time again, and I’m sick of it. So if you think the “War on Christmas” is a real thing, you should probably stop reading here, because I’m about to take on “Happy Holidays” as well, and explain to you why that too should be removed from casual conversation with strangers.
It’s the “Holiday Season,” and as we grow accustomed to the inundation of society with red and green, it’s sometimes easy to forget how uninclusive even a wish of “Happy Holidays” can be. The “Christmas Spirit” permeates society, and in the back corner at Target, we see a small Hanukkah ...
What Will Your Community Investment Be?
By Kristen R. Downs
Having moved from Washington D.C. to Colorado Springs more than 12 years ago, my husband and I had envisioned a ‘life-style’ change, from the hustle and bustle of traffic congestion and work-stress, to one of the most beautiful locations in the United States. Colorado Springs, a tourist destination, with an ideal climate for year-round recreational activities and less commute-time seemed like the perfect community. Having lived in Chicago and Washington D.C. prior to moving to Colorado, we were accustomed to diversity; the local grocery store was an eclectic mix of language and culture, and work colleagues represented ...