The Right to Religious Liberty, Second Edition: The Basic ACLU Guide to Religious Rights

This revised and updated edition of The Right to Religious Liberty sets forth an individual’s religious rights under present law, offering suggestions as to how they can be preserved and protected.

The ACLU has diligently and vigorously advanced claims that the religious liberty of individual believers and religious institutions are infringed upon by government. Written by two ordained Christian ministers and a former Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school student, The Right to Religious Liberty represents the view that far from being militantly atheistic, the ACLU’s insistence on the separation of church and state is in the best interests of both church and state.

Like other handbooks in the ACLU series, this volume is developed in the hope that Americans, informed of their rights, will be encouraged to exercise them. Barry Lynn, Marc D. Stern, and Oliver Thomas explain this shared conviction through the use of a question and answer format that addresses a broad range of issues dealing with church-state separation and religious liberty. In detail, the authors discuss establishment and free exercise clauses, religion and public education, governmental aid to religious organizations, religious displays, the role of chaplains, religion and family law, accommodation of religion, church autonomy, conscientious objection, refusal of medical treatment for religious reasons, zoning and religious institutions, clergy confidentiality, religion in the workplace, prisoners’ rights, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, state constitutions, and the controversial topic of deprogramming.

In presenting the material as objectively as possible, the authors do not always concur with each of the cited decisions, nor do they always agree with the specific solutions of a case. Instead, their goal is to give the interested reader a synopsis of the most current and relevant information and a general sense of the meaning and application of the law.