Religious Freedom and Gay Rights: Emerging Conflicts in the United States and Europe

by Jack Friedman, Timothy Shah (Editor), Thomas Farr (Editor)

Overview

In the United States and Europe, an increasing emphasis on equality has pitted rights claims against each other, raising profound philosophical, moral, legal, and political questions about the meaning and reach of religious liberty. Nowhere has this conflict been more salient than in the debate between claims of religious freedom, on one hand, and equal rights claims made on the behalf of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, on the other. As new rights for LGBT individuals have expanded in liberal democracies across the West, longstanding rights of religious freedom -- such as the rights of religious communities to adhere to their fundamental teachings, including protecting the rights of conscience; the rights of parents to impart their religious beliefs to their children; and the liberty to advance religiously-based moral arguments as a rationale for laws -- have suffered a corresponding decline. Timothy Samuel Shah, Thomas F. Farr, and Jack Friedman's volume, Religious Freedom and Gay Rights brings together some of the world's leading thinkers on religion, morality, politics, and law to analyze the emerging tensions between religious freedom and gay rights in three key geographic regions: the United States, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe. What implications will expanding regimes of equality rights for LGBT individuals have on religious freedom in these regions? What are the legal and moral frameworks that govern tensions between gay rights and religious freedom? How are these tensions illustrated in particular legal, political, and policy controversies? And what is the proper way to balance new claims of equality against existing claims for freedom of religious groups and individuals? Religious Freedom and Gay Rights offers several explorations of these questions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190604141
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

TS: Associate Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Visiting Assistant Professor of Government, Georgetown University; co-author of God's Century (Norton, 2011)TF: Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and International Affairs at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University JF: Research assistant at the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction Matthew Franck I. The United Kingdom 1. Equality and Religious Liberty: Oppressing Conscientious Diversity in England John Finnis 2. Gay Rights Versus Religious Rights Stephen Law 3. At the Door of the Temple: Religious Freedom and the New Orthodoxy Archbishop Tartaglia II. The United States 4. Wrongful Discrimination? Religious Freedom, Pluralism, and Equality Richard W. Garnett 5. Civil Marriage for Same-Sex Couples, "Moral Disapproval" and Tensions Between Religious Liberty and Equality Linda C. McClain 6. The Politics of Accommodation: The American Experience with Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Freedom Robin Fretwell Wilson 7. Die and Let Live? The Asymmetry of Accommodation Steven D. Smith III. Continental Europe 8. Tensions Between Claims for Homosexual Equality and Religious Freedom: Moral and Conceptual Frameworks Rocco Buttiglione 9. Same-Sex Partnership and Religious Exemptions in Italy: Constitutional Textualism vs. European Consensus Andrea Pin 10. A Scandinavian Perspective on Homosexuality, Equal Rights, and Freedom of Religion Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg Afterword Roger Trigg

Editorial Reviews

"[T]his is an excellent volume and is a must-read for anyone interested in the nexus between religious freedom and LGBT rights in the West." — Journal of Church and State

From the Publisher