Dave Barfield

The tension between gay rights and religious liberty has become tediously familiar, as evidenced by the endless procession of court cases in which some wedding vendor—a cake baker, a florist, or a website designer—has a conscientious religious objection to facilitating a same-sex wedding. The Supreme Court’s latest decision on the subject has left the issue more confused than it was before. Yet some recent court developments suggest that progress is possible.

When Florida’s Department of Education put forward a curricular plan that would require teachers to discuss not only the horrors of American slavery, but also the skills that blacks often acquired while enslaved, it was mocked and represented as a bigoted attempt to whitewash a great historical evil.

In his most recent essay, Compact Magazine columnist Michael Lind urges readers to “Forget the Founding Fathers.” He argues that respect for the American Founding constitutes a “cult” which inhibits our ability to make sound policy.