God vs. The Gavel Quotes

“Thomas Jefferson famously said: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god.” In other words, government has no business interfering with our beliefs, but legitimately protects us from each other.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Despite its many virtues and its enduring presence, though, a good deal of religious conduct cannot be tolerated by enlightened societies. Herein lies the problem – some religious conduct deserves freedom and some requires limitation. Ridding society of religion is no answer, and therefore we must grapple with religion at its worst and its best.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Congress also kicked around a constitutional amendment in 2004, the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) (formerly known as the Federal Marriage Amendment), which would have banned all gay marriages in the United States.18 It is a classic example of elected representatives using religion and religion only to justify a law. Representative”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“It is also a profound fact that power protects power. Then and now: A-list religious leaders, media owners and editors, and politicians trade favors. The Penn State sex abuse scandal was riveting in part because it was the story of clergy abuse without the religious baggage. How many times do we have to hear the story of the men who put each other's reputation above the welfare of children?”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Legal doctrine has not been the only cause of harm to these children. There has also been a long era, at least since 1950, during which the people of the United States have believed as a general matter that religion is always moral and that it is as innocuous as apple pie. This view was fostered in the latter 20th century by Stephen Carter's widely read book, The Culture of Disbelief. This Pollyanna understanding of religion sold these children short and cannot be sustained in the face of these facts.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Three legal regimes make it possible for religious entities to run child-care centers without having to abide by the usual state licensing requirements. First, some states have exempted religious child-care centers from their licensing system altogether. For example, Missouri exempts “[a]ny child-care facility maintained or operated under the exclusive control of a religious organization[,]” so long as the facility receives no state or federal funding.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Teen Reach responded aggressively to the closing, and filed a lawsuit against the state for violating its First Amendment right to the freedom of religion, as well as other claims. It also resolutely refused to obtain a license for its operations. A state judge rejected the argument that Teen Reach was not a child welfare agency, which means it will have to be licensed to reopen. Teen Reach is appealing.182 At roughly the same time it defied the state's licensing requirement, a bill was introduced into the Arizona legislature that would have exempted faith-based agencies from having to be licensed,183 which would permit religiously motivated abuse of children to go forward without state knowledge or oversight.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Neil E. Edgar and Christy Y. Edgar, the leaders of a small Kansas City church, God's Creation Outreach Ministry, disciplined their nine-year-old son, Brian, by wrapping him in duct tape, only leaving space for his nose. He died by suffocation, as a result of choking on his own vomit.174 Mother, father, and babysitter all received life sentences.175 Further investigation into the storefront church led investigators to bring abuse charges against five more women who abused the ministers’ children and a family friend. At least two of the women pled guilty and received probation.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The child fought the members’ (including his mother's) hands that restrained him, while the pastor, Ray Anthony Hemphill, pressed his knee against the boy's chest. After three weeks of meetings, the child quieted down, but when the 12th ceremony ceased, the boy could not be revived, because he had died of suffocation. Hemphill defended himself on the grounds that he was engaging in a religious practice to no avail, but his religious motivation seems to have softened the prosecutor's will. A jury convicted him of child abuse, and he was sentenced to a mere 30 months in prison and barred from performing exorcisms for 10 years without formal training in the practice.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Some of the boys have sued, and the FLDS's response has been the First Amendment, with one of the church's legal representatives telling one reporter, “There is no exception in the First Amendment for minors.”166 Nor is there an exception in family law for the religious abandonment of children. In fact, there is no First Amendment principle that protects any organization, religious or not, from discarding its children at will. Parents have responsibilities to their underage children, and any interpretation of the First Amendment that says otherwise has hijacked fundamental principles in an ordered society. Yet,”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Religious conduct occupies no “forbidden field,” but rather stands shoulder-to-shoulder with all other conduct that engenders the same harm. The question was whether the behavior was so reprehensible as to deserve punitive damages. Obviously, a jury thought so.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“At this time, thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have religious exemptions for civil claims of medical neglect, fifteen states for criminal misdemeanors, and seventeen states for felonious medical neglect.112 To be clear, these exemptions are not benign grants of religious liberty with no victims. They mean that religious parents and caretakers may not be charged with the crimes specified when they withheld readily available medical treatment from their child.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“In addition, the Supreme Court has explained that children have rights independent of their parents: Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow that they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have reached the age of full legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves.111”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The federal government is partly at fault for the many state exemptions permitting the medical neglect of children. From 1974 to 1983, the states were required to enact such exemptions to qualify for federal funding related to children.109 This federal law was the result of Christian Scientists in positions of power in the Nixon Administration.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“While the United States bars FGM within its borders, there is no federal law yet that punishes parents for taking their daughters to their countries of origin for FGM. Bills to deter the transport of girls for FGM have been introduced since 2010, but have not yet passed, which means girls who do not receive an illegal FGM here may still be transported to another country.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“In truth, there is no constitutional right to immunization exemptions. If the unvaccinated numbers continue to grow, states will legitimately have to consider whether even the religious exemption is safe public policy.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The vaccination problem highlights how religious exemptions can spur claims for nonreligious exemptions, and a breakdown in the purposes of the law in the first place. Parents who unfortunately bought into the autism hype around vaccinations and saw that religious parents were obtaining exemptions demanded the same for themselves.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The abuses by individual clergy in religious organizations are evil; the persistent cover ups by religious organizations, which empowered clergy pedophiles to get ever more victims, is worse; but the Roman Catholic hierarchy's lobbying against access to justice for all child sex abuse victims is about as cynical as it gets.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine clearly stated that it understood the “enormity” of the harm done to children where sexual abuse is “inflicted in the context of religious activities,” and then provided a rote recitation of the principle that judicial examination of a religious organization's conduct is “wholly forbidden by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Colorado City and Hildale in June 2012, alleging that by acquiescing to the influence of the FLDS Church in the areas of law enforcement, housing, and access to public facilities, and discriminating against non-FLDS residents, the two areas and agencies under their control violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as the Fair Housing Act and Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.75 The lawsuit is currently pending.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The complaint describes the fate of one Deborah Palmer, who was in the commune between 1957 and 1988. At 15, she was given to Roy Blackmore, 57, to be his sixth wife, or “concubine,” in the terms of the complaint, and later to two more husbands. She eventually escaped with her eight children. Given the alleged inbreeding within Bountiful, she is stepmother, sister-in-law, and niece all to the same man, Winston Blackmore. Women are taught to obey the men, or “their souls will burn for all eternity in Hell,” and that their life's purpose is to assist the men in reaching “godhood,” which is attained if the man has many concubines.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“The FLDS was in the news in 2008 when Texas authorities raided their Yearning for Zion Ranch, and discovered girls who appeared to be pregnant, records of underage marriages, and a bed in the sanctuary.65 The authorities prosecuted and convicted eleven men, including Warren Jeffs.66 Throughout the proceedings, their lawyers argued that the prosecutions were “anti-religious” and were in violation of their constitutional rights. This is the kind of discourse we, as a culture, have encouraged. It is dangerous when courts listen.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status when it forbade interracial dating in 1983. Later, its policies changed on interracial dating, but its current sex abuse policies appear to be in line with other religious groups, which have erred on the side of protecting image rather than children.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“This has been a repetitive pattern in the United States, where the Roman Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Jews, and other denominations have had evidence that one of their own was a predatory pedophile, yet they responded by ignoring the problem, ultimately endangering thousands of children.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“After being arrested in June 2000, Reardon pleaded guilty of 75 counts of abuse, including rape, of 24 boys, and received up to 50 years in prison for his crimes. The YMCA quickly settled the boys’ claims against it; but the church held out for another year.46 The Boston Archdiocese finally paid $85 million to settle the claims of 552 victims, including Reardon's, in September 2003.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Nor can one underestimate the lengths to which the Catholic hierarchy went to keep its ugly secrets to itself. One lay Catholic described it as follows: “Their structure and social chemistry is almost identical to the Mafia. There is a deep secrecy and a fierce loyalty to the organization.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Second, because of their ignorance, some refused to believe a child who tried to tell them about the abuse. Indeed, in some circumstances, the abused child was beaten by a parent for having the nerve to suggest their beloved clergy would do something so heinous, so abuse piled on top of abuse.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“For decades (really centuries), the Roman Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the ultra-Orthodox Jews, among others, have handled reports of clergy abuse as though the public good were not their problem and have insisted on silence as they refused to report the crimes to authorities.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“I will endorse the Supreme Court's unfairly maligned opinion in Employment Div. v. Smith, and I will argue that there is no constitutional right to harm others simply because the conduct is religiously motivated. The Court's First Amendment doctrine is wise. Legislatures can exempt the religious from some laws, but only where legislators and prosecutors ask the hard questions and where the religious entities have borne the burden of proving that exempting them renders significant harm.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty

“Not all freedom from the law occurs as a result of legislation. Sometimes there is religious “liberty” from the law when prosecutors fail to enforce the law and instead pander to religious leaders, ergo, perceived voting blocs. For decades, prosecutors across the United States knew about the abuse in the Catholic dioceses, but hesitated to prosecute for fear of Catholic backlash.”
― Marci A. Hamilton, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty