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Daniel Mytens' painting of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore (1578-1632). (Collection of the Enoch Pratt Free Library / Baltimore, Maryland).

The English Origins of American Toleration

Can the origins of American religious freedom be traced to the religious and political history of England and its empire?
by Scott Douglas Gerber via Law & Liberty on June 15, 2022
Walmart Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith As Lieutenant General Of The Nauvoo Legion

The Fallacy of Religious Freedom

When the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith ran for president, he wasn’t seeking further glory but a policy change in religious liberty.
by Tamarra Kemsley via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 11, 2021
Statue of Thomas Jefferson and an American flag.
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Jefferson's Other Legacy: Religious Liberty

Religious bigotry is only less pressing today than racial bigotry because of progress Jefferson helped bring about.
by Cameron Addis via HNN on January 10, 2020

James Madison Understood Religious Freedom Better than Jefferson Did

One emphasized the freedom to think; the other, in effect, the freedom to pray.
by Steven Waldman via National Review on May 20, 2019
NYC street preacher <loc.gov/pictures/item/2020636204/>
Exhibit

Religious Freedom

Tracing the long and contested history of religious freedom in the U.S., from colonial times to recent skirmishes over school prayer, abortion rights, and religious displays.
Protestor outside the Supreme Court, with a Bible and a sign denouncing bigotry.
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Discriminating in the Name of Religion? Segregationists and Slaveholders Did It, Too.

If religious freedom trumps equality under the law, it provides a “cover” that actually encourages discrimination.
by Tisa Wenger via Made By History on December 5, 2017

How to Balance Competing Claims of Religious Freedom?

Peyote use has been defended with religious liberty arguments. So has Bible reading in public schools.
by Tisa Wenger via The Christian Century on October 16, 2017

Talking God in the United States

What are Americans really talking about when they talk about religious freedom?
by Rachel Gordan via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 31, 2017

The True Story of the Fight for Religious Equality in the US

The U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, but the fight for religious equality was only just beginning.
by Richard D. Brown via Aeon on June 28, 2017

Freedom vs. Liberty: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Chose One Over the Other

Religious "freedom" and "liberty" have always had different connotations.
by Stephanie Russell-Kraft via Religion Dispatches on October 12, 2016
An American flag flying in front of a large Christian cross.

The Religious-Liberty Attack on Transgender Rights

Conservative Christians are out to restore their historical legal privileges.
by David Sehat via Boston Review on May 27, 2016
Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Prior Convictions

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on April 14, 2008
View of New Amsterdam from the 1620s.

The Dutch Roots of American Liberty

New York would never be the Puritans' austere city on a hill, yet it became America’s vibrant heart of capitalism.
by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on April 10, 2025
Stamp commemorating "Contributors To The Cause... Haym Salomon, Financial Hero."

Dusting Off the Old Stories

What does the Jewish experience in the Revolutionary War say about America?
by Richard Kreitner via Jewish Review of Books on January 15, 2025
The American Flag, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and a Jewish Star with Hebrew words.

The Spirit of '76: A Jewish Perspective on the American Revolution

What was “exceptional” about the American Revolution wasn’t so much the creation of a single republic but the immediate opportunity it provided for action.
by Michael Hoberman via Marginalia Review of Books on September 27, 2024
A political cartoon depicting Brighma Young walking in front of a group of his wives, the majority of whom are depicted as non-white.

The Sovereignty of the Latter-day Saints

Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.
by Katie McBride Moench via JSTOR Daily on August 28, 2024
"The American River Ganges," a 1871 political cartoon by Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly, depicting Catholic priests as foreign crocodiles preying on US children, illustrating the fear behind the proposed Blaine Amendment.

After the Blaine Era

The landscape for educational freedom is finally freed of 19th century prejudices, but other federal constitutional questions remain.
by Bruno V. Manno via Law & Liberty on December 4, 2023
John Trumbull's painting of Alexander Hamilton, 1806 (National Portrait Gallery).

Founding Philosemitism

Alexander Hamilton always believed that the providential protection that kept the small Jewish world alive would embrace his own extraordinary nation.
by Juliana Geran Pilon via Law & Liberty on October 3, 2023
Jacob Duché delivers the first prayer in the Continental Congress, 1774.

The Traitor Chaplain Who Gave Government Prayer to America — A 4th of July Corrective

When drafting the Constitution, our founders had no need of prayer.
by Andrew L. Seidel via Religion Dispatches on July 3, 2023

The Fight for the Sabbath

The partnership between rabbis and labor that delivered the two-day weekend.
by Avi Garelick via Jewish Currents on February 21, 2023
Protesters outside the Supreme Court on December 5, when oral arguments were heard in 303 Creative LLC v. Eleni.

The New Faith-Based Discrimination

A sharp uptick in challenges to U.S. antidiscrimination laws threatens decades of progress in extending civil rights to all.
by Louise Melling via Boston Review on December 14, 2022
A group of anti-gay activists protests a parade during a Pride event in support of LGBTQ rights in Seoul on July 16.
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The White Christian Understanding of the U.S. Has a Global History

Missionaries spread the idea that Christianity accounts for American success throughout the world.
by Chanhee Heo via Made By History on August 31, 2022
Image of a cross combined with a scale to symbolize the connection of religion and justice in today's America.

The Supreme Court Has Ushered In a New Era of Religion at School

For two centuries, America had kept questions of church and state at bay. The country is not ready for the ones to come.
by Adam Laats via The Atlantic on July 15, 2022
The cover of the book "This Earthly Frame," depicting clouds swirling around the US Capitol dome.

The Struggle to Make the United States Secular

How progressives came to think that any recognition of Christianity by a public institution violates others’ rights.
by Johann N. Neem via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 15, 2022
Painting of pilgrims on a boat embarking towards the New World

One Manner of Law

The religious origins of American liberalism.
by Marilynne Robinson via Harper’s on July 1, 2022
The Supreme Court Building in the nation's capital.

A Family’s Journey From a School Prayer Dispute to the Supreme Court

The Weisman family objected to religious prayers at a 1986 school graduation. The case went to the Supreme Court, which is again ruling on prayer in schools.
by Linda K. Wertheimer via Retropolis on June 20, 2022
Statue of Jefferson in front of white columns of building facade

The Decline of Church-State Separation

The author of new book explains the fraught and turbulent relationship between religion and government in the U.S.
by Steven Green, Eric C. Miller via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on April 26, 2022
Illustration of Nation of Islam members holding hands with Muslims from the Middle East over globe.

The Nation of Islam's Role in U.S. Prisons

The Nation of Islam is controversial. Its practical purposes for incarcerated people transcend both politics and religion.
by Olivia Heffernan via JSTOR Daily on March 22, 2022
Illustration of bishops titled "The Mitred Minuet"

No Bishops, No Kings: Religious Iconography and Popular Memory of the American Revolution

Popular religious iconography and art in the decades preceding the Revolution offer a fuller narrative arc of the development of revolutionary ideas within American society.
by J. L. Tomlin via Age of Revolutions on December 6, 2021
A woman on her knees wearing a cowboy hat with an anti-vaccination protest as the background

The Baffling Legal Standard Fueling Religious Objections to Vaccine Mandates

As anti-vax plaintiffs seek faith-based exemptions, the judicial system will renew its struggle to determine what beliefs are truly “sincerely held.”
by Charles McCrary via The New Republic on September 27, 2021
Image from front cover of Bad Faith.

The Evangelical Abortion Myth

The rhetoric about abortion being the catalyst for the rise of the Religious Right collapses under scrutiny.
by Randall Balmer via Religion Dispatches on August 30, 2021
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