RELIGIOUS FREEDOM—A FABLE

I was walking on Fillmore Street when I saw a middle-aged man in a crimson ball cap bent over, his hands on his knees. A woman was comforting him. “You okay?” I asked. The man turned towards me. His cheeks were as crimson as his University of Alabama cap. “Never should’ve come to San Francisco,”…

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THE COURT’S REAL LESSON

Two days ago, the Supreme Court—on the final day of the 2012–13 session—struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. The justices also ruled by a vote of 5–4 that proponents of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, had no standing to appeal after Prop. 8 was struck down by a Federal judge in San…

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WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard an appeal against California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. If the arguments for Prop 8 hold weight, the court’s decision—if it doesn’t dismiss the case and renders one in June—may force my wife and I to divorce. First, a disclosure. We have a gay son. A married gay…

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MAKEOVER 101

Republicans are upset. Speaker of the House John Boehner proclaimed that President Obama is out to destroy the GOP. But the GOP’s wounds seem self-inflicted. As Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, recently declared, “We need to understand that we can’t come off as a bunch of angry white men.” All it takes…

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THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT

From time to time, the leader of a Torah study session or Shabbat services will ask the group to come up with an Eleventh Commandment. (The Ten Commandments Moses received on Mount Sinai are well known but often misunderstood.) One of the earliest of these Eleventh Commandments was Holocaust survivor Emil Fackenheim’s instruction to survive…

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