Specifically, 303 Creative addressed whether a Colorado anti-discrimination law can require a designer who believes marriage is only between a man and a woman to create a wedding website for a same-sex couple.

Two years ago, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the answer was "yes."

But on June 30, 2023, a bitterly divided Supreme Court reversed that judgment, holding 6-3 that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibited state officials from requiring the designer to create a website that communicates a message with which she disagrees.

As a professor of law who pays particular attention to First Amendment issues involving freedom of religion and speech, I see the case highlighting the tension between two competing fundamental interests - ones that clash routinely in 21st century America.

Compelled speech?

The underlying dispute involves graphic artist Lorie Smith, the founder and owner of a studio called 303 Creative.

According to court documents, Smith will work with clients of any sexual orientation.

However, she will not create content that goes against her religious beliefs, such as "that marriage is a union between one man and one woman."

Conflict arose when Smith challenged Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act, under which it is discriminatory and illegal to refuse services to someone based on "disability, race, creed, colour, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin or ancestry."

In 2016, Smith unsuccessfully sued the members of the state's Civil Rights Commission and Colorado's attorney general.

She and her attorneys argued that creating a website counts as an act of speech, and so being required to prepare a same-sex wedding website would violate her First Amendment rights: The law would force her to speak, legally referred to as "compelled speech."

Smith and her attorneys also claimed that requiring her to create a website would violate her First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.

The federal trial court in Colorado rejected Smith's attempt to block enforcement of the anti-discrimination law in 2019.

When she appealed, a split 10th Circuit affirmed that Smith could not refuse to create websites for same-sex weddings, even if it would have gone against her beliefs.

In the court's opinion, protecting diverse viewpoints was a "good in and of itself," but combating discrimination "is, like individual autonomy, ‘essential' to our democratic ideals."

In a lengthy dissent, the chief judge of the 10th Circuit focused on compelled speech. He criticized the panel for taking "the remarkable - and novel - stance that the government may force Ms. Smith to produce messages that violate her conscience."

SCOTUS speaks

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Smith's case but limited the issue to free speech, sidestepping the dispute over the free exercise of religion.

The question before the court was "whether applying a public accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment."

Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that "First Amendment protections belong to all, not just to speakers whose motives the government finds worthy."

Gorsuch reviewed the Supreme Court's cases protecting the rights of individuals not to express themselves.

In 1943's West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, for example, the court declared that public officials could not compel students who were Jehovah's Witnesses to salute the flag, because doing so violated their religious beliefs.

While noting the "vital role public accommodations laws play in realizing the civil rights of all Americans," Gorsuch reasoned that Colorado could not "force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance."

Further, Gorsuch harshly criticized the dissenting justices' argument that Colorado's law focused on business owners' conduct, not speech, contending that the dissent sidesteps a key question: whether a state can "force someone who provides her own expressive services to abandon her conscience and speak its preferred message instead?"

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose dissent was joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, lamented the majority's decision as a time when there is "backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities."

Sotomayor then argued that under Colorado's anti-discrimination law, Smith's "freedom of speech is not abridged in any meaningful sense, factual or legal." If Smith wants to "advocate the idea that same-sex marriage betrays God's laws," Sotomayor made it clear that she can.

Sotomayor went on to decry the ruling for symbolically "mark(ing) gays and lesbians for second-class status." Denying services to same-sex couples "reminds LGBT people of a painful feeling that they know all too well," she wrote. "There are some public places where they can be themselves, and some where they cannot."

Questions ahead

To see how 303 Creative's impact plays out, it is worth closely watching the parts of the U.S. with anti-discrimination statutes in place.

Justice Gorsuch noted that about half of all states have laws like Colorado's that "expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation."

More specifically, 22 states, plus the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., offer various forms of protections for LGBTQ+ individuals - including retail stories, restaurants, parks, hotels, doctors' offices and banks.

I believe 303 Creative presents a challenge for society to come to grips with the tension between two fundamental interests.

One is the Supreme Court's affirmation of Smith's key argument: that requiring her to prepare websites that go against her religious beliefs would violate her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The other is the interest of same-sex couples in hiring the services they wish - and simply to be treated equally in the eyes of the law, on par with any other potential customers.

Ensuring both freedom of speech and civil rights requires good-faith efforts at respect - and respect is a two-way street.

However, exactly what this looks like will likely be the cause of more litigation to come.

• Charles J. Russo is Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton.
• First published in The Conversation. Reproduced with permission.

After finally being released two days ago from a death sentence for converting to Christianity, she and her family have been arrested by Sudanese security agents after trying to flee for US shores.

But as well as hoping that she is finally liberated, her plight should draw attention to the persecution of Christians across the globe.

It is an issue not discussed enough by progressives, partly perhaps because of a fear that it has become a hobby horse of Muslim-bashers.

Anti-Muslim websites like Jihad Watch seize on examples of Christian persecution to fuel the narrative of Muslims as innately violent and threatening.

According to Rupert Shortt, who wrote Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack, the persecution of Christians is a "liberal blind spot", suggesting that we are "very, very sensitised to the perceived sufferings and complaints of Muslims, many of which I will be the first to say are justified."

I think this counterposing is unhelpful.

According to the Pew Research Centre, Christians and Muslims are united in being the two most persecuted religious groups on Earth: in 2012, Christians faced oppression in 110 countries, and Muslims have suffered in 109.

What should worry us is a general deterioration in inter-religious relations: according to Pew, 33% of countries had high religious hostilities in 2012, a dramatic jump from 20% in 2007. Continue reading.

Owen Jones is an English columnist and speaker, and author of Chavs: The demonization of the working class.

Source: The Guardian

Image: El Diaro

Within a week of Francis' election, the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that the new Pope's statements on the "option for the poor" were, in fact, inspired by Hugo Chávez from Heaven.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernández Kirchner, whose relationship with Archbishop Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was conspicuously lacking in warmth, announced after her first meeting with him as Pope that she had asked him to mediate in Argentina's long-standing quarrel with Britain over the Falklands Islands (or Malvinas).

The Vatican remained diplomatically silent on this but Fernández has since paid a number of visits to Pope Francis in Rome.

By contrast, the Vatican has accepted a request from the Government of Venezuela, as well as from the Opposition, the Democratic Unity Table (Mud), to mediate a deal that would end the violence that has plagued the country for more than four months.

Originally, the request was for Cardinal Pietro Parolin, former apostolic nuncio to Venezuela and now the Vatican Secretary of State, to mediate.

Not surprisingly to those who know him, Parolin seems to have made himself respected and liked during his time in Caracas.

He is sure to remain involved, but the actual "witnessing" of the Government-Opposition talks is being done by his successor as nuncio, Archbishop Aldo Giordano.

So far, the talks have yielded no results. Continue reading.

Source: The Tablet

Image: PRI

In one short trip, I prayed at the spot where Jesus was born, stood at the foot of the mountain where he fed the 5,000 and touched the rock into which his cross was planted.

To all those atheists who say "Jesus wasn't even real", I've been to his house - an unassuming little place in Nazareth where the Biblical stories and archaeological evidence cohabit.

Seeing all those wonders requires elbows of steel.

The queues of Orthodox pilgrims were not unlike those that sprang up when the first McDonald's opened in Moscow: thousands of old Russian women pushing and shoving their way to the front in a frenzied dash for a taste of the divine.

Yes, I may have swung the odd punch, but only ever in self-defence.

What's equally striking is the physical reality of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

A trip to the Western Wall in Jerusalem is instructive.

Jews believe that this is one of the walls of their sacred Temple and they come here from all over the world to pray, pushing their handwritten petitions into the cracks of the warm, smooth stone.

Jews were barred from the site until 1967, when they captured the Old City during the Six-Day War (you can still see the bullet holes).

They formalised their ownership of the Wall by bulldozing the 770-year old Moroccan Quarter that stood in front of it.

It was a horrendous piece of vandalism, but all in keeping with the history of the Holy Land. Continue reading.

Source: The Catholic Herald

Image: The Atlantic/AP

My lasting memory of that time is the chaos of the situation.

There was a camp that was beginning to be established and some families were trying to set up home on the pitches that they had been allocated.

The sight of the new arrivals who had not yet been registered in the camp was particularly distressing: small groups of people sitting in whatever shade they could find, waiting to be called forward.

They all, invariably, looked completely traumatised: their faces were blank, expressionless, looking as if they were not even sure if they were still alive.

The few bundles of clothes or household utensils that were around them were now all of their worldly possessions.

"All of them, without exception, had a look of fear on their faces"

At one point I went down to one of the crossing points at the border - a swampy, marshy area covered in dense undergrowth.

From the way that the mud had been churned up, this had been the point that many of the people at the camp had left Rwanda.

There was still a trickle of people coming over: mothers, grandmothers, small children, but very few men of any age. Continue reading.

Sunday was the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide. Rob Rees was Africa Programme Officer for CAFOD (Caritas England and Wales) at the time.

Source: CAFOD

Image: CAFOD

But in my first days here I have been struck by the extent of trauma people have experienced - and real worries that the violence that has rocked South Sudan since mid-December may not be over.

The capital of Juba is calm, but it is only "outwardly" so, one of the Catholic sisters I have been interviewing told me.

And the calm hides anger and grievances that could, with the right kindling, flare up again.

Fear and worry are palpable.

Last Sunday, I attended a Mass at a displacement camp run by the U.N., and after the service, several young men expressed real concern about what may be ahead.

They and their families - Juba residents - had been displaced in the recent violence and are not going back to their neighbourhoods because they are afraid for their lives.

"It is hard for us because the fighting is still going on, and we could still be killed," said John Khalid Mamun, 32.

The violence stems from multiple layers of political and ethnic tension and grievance.

Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes and communities, undermining hope for the future of a country barely three years old. Continue reading.

Chris Herlinger is a writer and journalist, particularly on humanitariam issues. He is currently in South Sudan with the National Catholic Reporter, covering the situation of political tension and escalating violence in the world's newest country.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Image: CWS Global

Crimea was once an independent Tatar khanate, captured by Russia in the 18th century.

The Tatars were deported by Stalin as punishment for alleged collaboration with the Nazis — although some fought on either side in World War II.

In 1954, Nikita Khruschev (then Soviet leader), gifted the territory to Ukraine.

The decision was of no practical consequence at the time since both Russia and Ukraine were simply states within the USSR. There was, however, no public (or even parliamentary) consultation.

In the Gorbachev era, many Tatars returned. They now form about 12 per cent of the population (about 60 per cent are Russian, the remainder Ukrainians, Bulgarians etc.).

Strategically, Crimea is important for its natural resources and its ice-free, deepwater port of Sevastopol, a major base of Russia's powerful Black Sea Fleet.

The international law claims are as complex as the history. Continue reading.

Justin Glyn SJ is a student of philosophy and theology in Melbourne who holds a PhD in international and administrative law.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: ShutterStock

But here in Syria, where St Paul found his faith, many churches stand empty, targets for bombardment and desecration.

Aleppo, where I have been bishop for 25 years, is devastated.

We have become accustomed to the daily dose of death and destruction, but living in such uncertainty and fear exhausts the body and the mind.

We hear the thunder of bombs and the rattle of gunfire, but we don't always know what is happening.

It's hard to describe how chaotic, terrifying and psychologically difficult it is when you have no idea what will happen next, or where the next rocket will fall.

Many Christians cope with the tension by being fatalistic: that whatever happens is God's will.

Until the war began, Syria was one of the last remaining strongholds for Christianity in the Middle East. We have 45 churches in Aleppo.

But now our faith is under mortal threat, in danger of being driven into extinction, the same pattern we have seen in neighbouring Iraq.

Most Christians who could afford to leave Aleppo have already fled for Lebanon, so as to find schools for their children.

Those who remain are mostly from poor families. Many can no longer put food on the table.

Last year, even amid intense fighting, you could see people in the streets running around endlessly trying to find bread in one of the shops. Continue reading.

Bishop Antoine Audo SJ is the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo and president of Caritas Syria.

Source: The Telegraph

Image: Caritas

But this is not the first time the region has been so critical to international affairs.

Many educated people have at least heard of the great struggle known as the Crimean War (1853-56), although its causes and events remain mysterious to most non-specialists.

If the conflict is remembered today, it resonates through the heroic charitable efforts of Florence Nightingale and the foundation of modern nursing.

Actually, that earlier war deserves to be far better known as a pivotal moment in European religious affairs.

Without knowing that religious element, moreover—without a sense of its Christian background—we will miss major themes in modern global affairs, in the Middle East and beyond. Continue reading.

Source: Christianity Today

Image: Officers of the 42nd Highlanders regiment, known as the 'Black Watch', during the Crimean War. Roger Fenton/Getty Image

Also suffering are places where we have only in recent years seen such violence: Nigeria, and in many parts of central Africa, in Russia and across central Asia, and in Burma, Thailand and the Philippines.

We can either see all of these acts of killing as separate - produced by various political contexts - or we can start to see the clear common theme and start to produce a genuine global strategy to deal with it.

The fact is that, though of course there are individual grievances or reasons for the violence in each country, there is one thing self-evidently in common: the acts of terrorism are perpetrated by people motivated by an abuse of religion.

It is a perversion of faith. Continue reading.

Tony Blair is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Source: The Guardian

Image: livinginphilistia.blogspot.com

As we remind ourselves each year, Joseph and Mary made their long journey, compelled by a census. It became a journey of joy as Mary gave birth to a baby whom we call the Prince of Peace.

As we sing Christmas carols we are invited to think of Bethlehem on the night when Jesus was born. This year I'd invite you to think also of what Bethlehem has become today.

To make the journey from Nazareth in Israel to Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territories today, Mary and Joseph would have to cross through approximately 70 Israeli barriers - checkpoints, fences, walls and barriers which would involve multiple interrogations and delays - and they would be lucky to be allowed through at all.

These same barriers prevent shepherds watching their flocks, either by day or by night. Most people in Bethlehem have been cut off from their grazing lands, having significant economic effects. Continue reading.

Bishop Pat Power is a retired auxiliary bishop of Canberra and Goulburn. He is a member of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network.

Source: Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, this article was reprinted in December's Wel-Com

Image: Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

The lineamenta for the Synod of Bishops' meeting in Rome in 2010 used the word several times. On June 23, 2011, the Holy Synod of Antioch (Greek Orthodox Patriarchate) called upon governments to secure "citizens' interests."

The notion of citizenship in these documents is not determined by ethnicity, linguistic grouping, confessional affiliation or the like.

In the present conflict in Egypt, reference to democracy is a dead end, since in different ways both sides are claiming—neither with overwhelming credibility—to be on the side of democracy.

Democracy in Egypt cannot work until a notion of citizenship is enshrined in law and practice.

For democracy to succeed in Egypt, all citizens—Muslims, Christians, secularists, moderates as well as the Muslim Brotherhood—must be guaranteed equal rights and obligations before the law.

When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia on Dec. 17, 2010, the Arab Spring began. Now, three years later, the results hoped for by people inside and outside the Middle East have clearly not been realised.

Iraq is still violently divided between Sunnis, Shiites and an increasingly autonomous Kurdish region.

Syria has sunk into a brutal civil war with over 110,000 casualties and 6.25 million citizens displaced to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan or within Syria itself. Most recently, Egypt's experiment with democracy has at best been sidetracked. Continue reading.

Source: America Magazine

Image: BBC

In one of a handful of scriptural references, he is the apostle who tells Jesus that five loaves and two fishes won't feed 5,000 people; a miracle soon proves otherwise.

Like other widely honoured saints, Andrew himself defies the laws of finitude by appealing to so many people in so many places.

Thirtieth November is a big feast day for Scotland, Romania, Cyprus, the Greek port of Patras and for Christians in Istanbul; in 13 days' time, the same feast will be celebrated in places where the old church calendar is kept, such as Russia and Ukraine.

And whenever it is observed, the annual feast day of Saint Andrew brings reminders that the first apostle of Jesus Christ, one of two fisherman brothers, can still create political waves.

Take Scotland. Andrew has been that country's official patron saint since 1320, and he was venerated there for centuries before that.

The diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew was flying defiantly in Edinburgh today, although yesterday's helicopter crash in Glasgow cast a pall over the commemorations.

Alex Salmond, head of the Scottish Nationalists, used the national holiday to stir patriotic feeling ahead of next year's independence ballot. Even his reaction to the helicopter crash mentioned the saint; he said today was a good moment to take pride in Scotland's resilience.

Meanwhile David Cameron has hoisted the Scottish emblem over his prime-ministerial residence in London and issued a Saint Andrew's message with the opposite intention: to remind the Scots of how well they have done as Brits. Continue reading.

Source: The Economist

Image: Form Ministry

Ashin Issariya appears unassuming, but the quiet demeanour quickly changes when he has something to say. In the pre-dawn light of Burma's nascent reform process the Buddhist monk and former Saffron Revolution leader isn't afraid to say what others won't, even if it seems to put him at odds with his own.

Based in the country's commercial capital, Rangoon, Issariya helped lead thousands of monks to challenge the former military regime in 2007, a choice that cost him nearly five years as a political prisoner. Now he heads up a grassroots organisation made up of different religious leaders opposed to the new 969 movement.

‘The real message of the 969 is not to attack other religions, but some monks are using it like a shield,' he said. Many would like to denounce it but hesitate because it is ‘the real teaching of the Buddha'.

The numbers represent the ‘three crown jewels': the nine attributes of Buddha; the six attributes of his teachings; and the nine attributes of the monastic order known as the sangha. Continue reading.

Brennan O'Connor is a Canadian photojournalist who has been documenting the lives of Burma's ethnic nationalities since 2008.

Source: New Internationalist

Image: Ashin Wirathu who has spent time in jail for inciting violence against Muslims, Brennan O'Connor

Tell me the ideology or political view that outweighs the right to life?

Around 9.3 million of Syria's 23 million inhabitants need aid. The number of people who have lost their homes or been forced to flee has now reached 6.5 million in Syria and over 2 million in neighbouring countries.

But behind every single number there is a fellow human being who cherishes life, loves his or her family and simply wants to live in peace.

Shaha and Abboud Ibrahim have two lovely girls and fled from Hasaki in Syria.

When an eighteen day battle raged around them they were trapped. When they and their children emerged into daylight so they could escape buildings continued to burn around them and dead bodies littered the streets.

Abboud told me, "A lot of our neighbours were killed or injured by shrapnel, we saw their bodies - we thought we would be next - the children were starving. We fled into the wild. It took us a month to walk to Lebanon." Continue reading.

Val Morgan is Media Officer for SCIAF, Scotland's Catholic International Development Agency and part of Caritas International. She recently visited Lebanon.

Source: Caritas Blog

Image: Shaha Ibrahim and one of her daughters, Val Morgan/SCIAF

Ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka have traditionally occurred between the largely Buddhist majority Sinhalese, who make up around three-quarters of the country's 20 million residents, and its minority Tamils.

A series of violent attacks against Muslims by extremist Buddhist groups, often led by monks from an organization known as the Bodu Bala Sena, have recently erupted.

"This incident is particularly troubling in light of a number of recent attacks against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka," the US Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.

Police last week deployed commandos and imposed a curfew on a Colombo neighbourhood after a Buddhist-led mob attacked the mosque.

Sources

Financial Times

AFP/Straits Times

AP/The Washington Post

Image: Reuters/IBN Live

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI has sent Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to neighbouring Lebanon, to meet pastors and members of the various churches present in Syria.

He will visit a number of refugees from that country and will also chair a meeting of Catholic charitable agencies to co-ordinate efforts to help the Syrian people, both within and outside the country.

The Pope personally announced the cancellation of his papal mission to Syria at the end of his general audience on November 7. He said he continued to follow with great concern the "tragic situation of violent conflict" and "untold suffering of many civilians" in the country.

"As I make my prayer to God," he said, "I renew my invitation to the parties in conflict, and to all those who have the good of Syria at heart, to spare no effort in the search for peace and to pursue through dialogue the path to a just coexistence, in view of a suitable political solution of the conflict.

"It is never too late to work for peace!"

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, also announced that a donation of $NZ1.2 million given by the recent Synod of Bishops, as well as a personal contribution from the Pope, will be made to assist relief efforts in the region.

The Pope had earlier named seven bishops, including New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to the proposed papal mission to Syria.

Sources:

Zenit

Vatican Radio

Image: Catholic Relief Services

As conflict between the Syrian government supporters and opponents is being compared to last year's fight for control of Libia, the archbishop is pleading for an end to all violence.

"Everybody is suffering in Syria because there is violence coming from every side," El-Sayeh of Antioch told the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need in remarks released on February 20.

"It is a desperate situation, ... I wish everyone would sit down and negotiate. Problems cannot be solved by violence."

However, as Syrian military advanced on regime opponents in the city of Homs, there were few signs of any lasting peace.

At least 5,400 Syrians have died since the movement against President al-Assad began in March 2011, according to U.N. figures released in January 2012. The regime's crackdown against protesters failed to break their resistance, and international observers are now warning of a civil war.

Pope Benedict too is sharing El-Sayeh's hopes for peace and has appealed for an end to violence and bloodshed.

In his recent Angelus message the Pontiff said he was following with great concern the dramatic and growing incidents of violence.

Saying it was urgent to respond to the legitimate aspirations of Syrians, the Pontiff invited everyone, and above all the political authorities in Syria to favour dialogue, reconciliation and a commitment to peace.

Sources

• CNA
• Image: Post Noon

Sub-saharan Africa leaps out as the place where the most people fear for their next meal, while the rich world has more to fear from obesity.

But there's plenty of salutary reminders and fascinating detail, like India's food problems and the vulnerability of Spain.

And it demonstrates the sickening, symbiotic relationship between lack of food and conflict: where one leads, the other follows.

We must start with the worst, in the horn of Africa.

In Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, human failings mean a severe drought has tipped millions into famine. It's a textbook case of why things go wrong.

• War begets poverty, leaving food unaffordable.
• Devastated infrastructure destroys both food production and the ability to truck in emergency food.
• The collapse of society means the effects of extreme weather such as drought cannot be dealt with. And
• the fear of violence turns people into refugees, leaving their livelihoods and social networks behind.

The recent spike in food prices, linked by some to the uprisings across north Africa and the Middle East, had also hit hard in Somalia. Maize prices in Mogadishu were 100% higher in June 2011 than in June 2010, and the price of sorghum in Somalia rose by 180% compared with 2010 prices.

Continue reading how Food is the ultimate security

Farhat, speaking at the International conference on the global Fight against Terrorism in Theran insisted that charity, dialogue and pardon were the ways forward.

"There is no word for terrorism in my religion, Christianity," Farhat said.

Meanwhile on Friday, Pope Benedict called for emergency assistance to be given to the thousands fleeing violence and attacks in North Africa and the Middle East.

"I pray that the necessary emergency assistance will be forthcoming, but above all I pray that every possible form of mediation will be explored, so that violence may cease and social harmony and peaceful coexistence may everywhere be restored, with respect for the rights of individuals as well as communities," the Pope said.

Benedict was speaking at the AGM of the Vatican coordinating body, ROACO, where he appealled to all nations to explore "every possible form of mediation" to bring an end to the conflicts.

Sources

• FARS News Agency
• Christian Post