Mark Movsesian

Every year, it seems, Christmas becomes more commercialized. In NYC this year, we started seeing Christmas decorations in stores in October. In  October . Christmas is starting to lap Halloween. I was thinking about this when I read that the Catholic Church in Italy is working to repeal that . . . . Continue Reading »

One often hears that America’s foreign policy elites don’t understand religion. Mostly secular themselves, they dismiss religion as a factor in world events; at most, they believe, religion operates as a pretext for other, deeper motivations, like politics and economics. This attitude can . . . . Continue Reading »

Last month, I posted the welcome news that Stanford has started the nation’s first law school clinic focusing on religious liberty . This week, at CLR Forum , the blog of the St. John’s Center for Law and Religion , the new clinic’s director, Jim Sonne, answers a few questions . . . . Continue Reading »

This week, the United States recognized the Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella organization of groups opposed to the Assad regime, as the government of Syria. Now, as everyone knows, the SNC relies heavily on fighters from the al-Nusra Front, an Islamist group that the United States has . . . . Continue Reading »

There are many reasons why America seems to be moving inexorably toward legalizing same-sex marriage. The Sexual Revolution that has swept American society since the 1960s is probably the main explanation. There’s plenty of evidence that Americans, especially Americans below a certain age, . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week, I wrote that the constitutional struggle between Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court – a struggle that continued this week, when pro-Morsi picketers shut the court down – might represent an attempt to impose a conservative . . . . Continue Reading »

For FT readers who might be interested, I’ll be the speaker tomorrow at the New York Guild of Catholic Lawyers First Friday series. My talk, which will address the law of religious symbols in the United States and Europe, will begin at 8:15 am at the Church of Our Saviour, 59 . . . . Continue Reading »

In response to Matt’s post about Trollope , I thought I’d point out the observations of another nineteenth-century European visitor—-“a perceptive Frenchman,” Justice Scalia once called him—-who also wrote about American religion. (Have Supreme Court justices . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s something you don’t see every day, even if you follow the law reviews. On SSRN, the Social Science Research Network, George Mason University economist Peter Leeson has posted an abstract for a new paper that explains human sacrifice in terms of property rights ( Human Sacrifice ). . . . . Continue Reading »

Obviously, Egypt’s version of the Constitutional Convention is not going as smoothly as everyone might have hoped. The plan was for a Constituent Assembly comprised of Islamists, Christians, and secular deputies to draft and vote on a consensus constitution sometime next January. Things . . . . Continue Reading »