Word: secularism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Although the above facts suggest that the ordinance unfairly targets the Santeria religion, the city claims that the ordinance is a neutral governmental decision not formulated with religion in mind. Richard G. Garrett, the lawyer who will argue the city's case, protests rather disingenuously that both secular and religious animal sacrifices are outlawed by the ordinance...
...what are secular sacrifices? Are they what the American people must make in order to reduce the deficit? The concept is absurd. Sacrifice is a religious practice by definition: One sacrifices animals in order to placate a deity or a spirit, not an IRS auditor. Despite the city's arguments, it seems clear that the issue is freedom of religion...
...Court's traditional criterion for judging the relative importance of secular laws and religious rights has been "compelling state interest." For example, the state would have an obvious interest in protecting citizens from a human-sacrifice cult, an interest which would outweigh the group's "freedom of religion" argument...
Berkowitz is affiliated with the Hartman Institute, which studies topics such as politics from both secular and traditional Jewish perspectives. He will soon publish a book on Nietzsche...
...purely economic terms. We're talking about $37.5 million retail dollars just for the book, and $20 million for the album, at the very least. Score one for market capitalism. For this alone, Madonna merits far more respect than any federally funded artist in the oh-so-chic secular high church of contemporary art. She is hawking herself on the open market instead of playing courtesan to the National Endowment for the Arts. If you don't approve of her performance or her product, you don't have to buy it. Your tax dollars aren't at stake...