WASHINGTON (ABP) — Ira “Chip” Lupu is the F. Elwood and Eleanor Davis professor of law at The George Washington University Law School. He is a religious-liberty expert and has spent much of the last decade closely monitoring domestic church-state developments on the legislative, judicial and executive-branch fronts — and particularly efforts to expand government’s ability to fund social services through religious providers. In an e-mail interview, he reflected on major developments in his field over the last decade and where things might go in the decade that just began:
Chip Lupu
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Q: What have been the most important developments for religious liberty — legally, politically and culturally — in the last decade?
A: George W. Bush's faith-based initiative, continued with little change by Obama, and the associated changes in legal, political, and cultural acceptance of partnership between government and faith-based institutions
The struggle between gay rights (same-sex marriage in particular), and a religious orthodoxy that paints homosexuality as sinful (the latter position has been increasingly marginalized in the culture, because young people increasingly reject it).
The surprising late-decade rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in America (New York Islamic center, the Quran-burning threat).
Q: What issues, trends or potential battles do you see on the horizon in 2011?
A: The rise of ever-more-assertive atheism (witness the rising use of the metaphor of "coming out of the [atheist] closet;" the increasing wars between atheistic signs and Christmas season signs in December).
The legal fight over Proposition 8 in California (9th Circuit will decide something on this in 2011, but the path to the Supreme Court may be long and complicated, and the legal battle certainly won't be over by the end of 2011).
Q: Expanding that into the following decade, where do you see trends taking the United States and the rest of the world in 2011-2020 in terms of religious freedom?
A: Gay rights winning, and anti-gay sentiments increasingly marginalized as bigotry (witness the comparable history of white supremacy).
If a Republican wins the White House in 2012, and gets to replace Justice Ginsburg or Breyer, the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overruled, and the consequent political fights in all 50 states about regulation of abortion.
Continuing and rising tide of anti-Muslim cultural attitudes in Europe .
Also in Europe, the rise of secular, anti-religious establishment sentiments (in law and culture) — witness the cases arising in Italy about display of the crucifix in public schools, a long-standing practice which courts have recently invalidated on grounds of violation of human rights and religious liberties of those who do not share the official faith.
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.