Notes from a Byzantine-Rite Calvinist: Religious Freedom Day

17 January 2013

Religious Freedom Day

Some of us may have missed it, but President Obama declared yesterday Religious Freedom Day in the United States. Here is an excerpt from the presidential proclamation on the White House's website:

Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.

As we observe Religious Freedom Day, let us remember the legacy of faith and independence we have inherited, and let us honor it by forever upholding our right to exercise our beliefs free from prejudice or persecution.

While it is good to know that the US government is doing something to recognize so fundamental a right, it would be good if it could acknowledge the injustice of forcing Hobby Lobby and other businesses to act against their owners' consciences on pain of crippling fines. Otherwise such a proclamation sounds empty indeed.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

David Koyzis, Global Scholar

David Koyzis is a Global Scholar with Global Scholars Canada. His work for this organization sees him delivering online lectures, recording remote courses, being interviewed for radio programmes and podcasts, and engaging in conversations with readers of his books around the world.

David holds the PhD in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of the award-winning Political Visions and Illusions (2019), We Answer to Another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God (2014), and multiple scholarly and popular articles.

His new book, Citizenship Without Illusions: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement, is now available from IVP, local bookstores, and the many online vendors.

David currently writes for First Things, Christian Courier, Kuyperian Commentary, and Cateclesia Forum. He has maintained this blog since 2003. He taught undergraduate political science at Redeemer University College for thirty years.

David is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and the Canada 150 Flamborough-Glanbrook Nation Builder Award in 2017.

David has enjoyed a growing relationship with the Christian community in Brazil, which he visited in 2016 and where the second Brazilian edition of Visões e Ilusões Políticas (2021) was published by Edições Vida Nova in São Paulo. He has delivered many remote lectures to audiences in Brazil in recent years on subjects related to his two books.

A Spanish translation, Visiones e Ilusiones Políticas, was published in 2022.

David's interests are many and varied, but he takes special interest in the biblical Psalter. He recently completed a 36-year-long project of setting the 150 Psalms to verse to be sung to their proper melodies in the 16th-century Genevan Psalter. He is also engaged in another ongoing project which he has named The Niagara Psalter. His Genevan Psalter blog can be found here.

Born near Chicago of Greek-Cypriot and American parents, David now lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.