
Beyond offenders, research points to enabling conditions that make abuse easier to commit and hide.

We’ve mastered cynicism about marriage; it’s time to recover the drama of reconciliation.

Who is Clark Gilbert, the newest apostle called to join the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
Any time someone is nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, people of faith are intensely interested in how this person will understand and protect their free exercise of religion. And analyses of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s approach on this issue have begun to spring up. Andrea Picciotti-Bayer at the National Catholic Register concludes that on religious liberty issues Jackson’s “record is not encouraging.” But while Picciotti-Bayer asks several important questions about how Jackson will rule, ultimately she provides little reason for concern. On the other side, Michael Helfand at the Canopy Forum concludes, “Her engagement with questions of law and religion, for now, seem the kind of balls-and-strikes decisions you would expect from a federal judge.” He cites decisions from her in 2014 and 2017 in favor of religious freedom, and ultimately concludes that there is no reason that American Jews should be worried about her approach to religious freedom. Before her nomination, Tanner Bean looked at the religious freedom approaches of Biden’s short list including Jackson for us here at Public Square. For Jackson, Bean looked at the same cases Helfand does, but also looks extensively at her public comments during her last judicial confirmation, including that “religious freedom is a foundational tenet of our entire government.” Which suggests her statement in her confirmation hearings that freedom of religion is a “foundational constitutional right” may be more deeply felt than performative.


Does religious commitment by a scientist or university corrupt the neutral scientific process? Only if you’ve come to believe a popular myth about science itself.

Right-wing ideologues critical of the Church of Jesus Christ have again turned their attention to Joseph Smith’s martyrdom. Unsurprisingly, their ideas don’t stand up to historical muster.
Stay up to date on the intersection of faith in the public square.