Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty

Detailed analyses. . . . Instructive and provocative. . . . Essays in this book promote thoughtfulness. * Journal of Law & Politics, February 2009 *
These smart and wise essays map and illustrate the main battle lines between two of our most cherished rights—the right to worship the God we fear and the right to marry the one we love. Drawing on the best constitutional, comparative, historical, and social science lore, the authors work hard to define the hard issues, to defuse the false charges, and to discern the best methods for bringing religious liberties and marital rights into greater concordance. Specialists and novices alike will much learn from these pages. -- John Witte Jr.
Governments cannot be neutral in the coming clashes between those whose religious beliefs deem homosexual conduct immoral and those who believe that gay and lesbian people deserve to live openly and safely with the same regard and protections accorded others. The fair-minded authors in this volume identify emerging legal and policy choices as governments negotiate these clashes and in so doing, illuminate contrasting visions of liberty and equality embedded in current and potential legal doctrines. Each chapter and the judicious afterword by Douglas Laycock deserve close attention by policy-makers, advocates for religious communities, advocates for lesbian-gay-bi-sexual-transgender communities—and lovers of liberty anywhere. -- Martha Minow, Harvard Law School
A scholarly, thoughtful, and well-written collection of essays from leading thinkers in the field—a must for anyone interested in religious liberty, gay rights law, or both. Coeditor Doug Laycock, one of the top religious freedom scholars in the nation, characterizes the essays well in his afterword: they are an "oasis of reasoned discourse amidst all the conflict," and people on all sides of the same-sex marriage debate have much to learn from them. -- Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law
Will the recognition of same-sex marriage create serious burdens on the religious liberty of those who object to such marriages? Can those burdens be avoided by reasonable rules of law? This book offers the first sustained exploration of these important questions and reveals the diversity of views on how to balance these two powerful concerns. -- Andrew Koppelman, Northwestern University School of Law
Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty: Emerging Conflicts, a thought-provoking book of six chapters by as many authors, examines likely and potential conflicts facing faithful Christians and Jews if (or as several authors believe, when) same-sex 'marriage' becomes legal. Very good book. * National Catholic Register, August 2009 *
Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty is an indispensable new book . . . Eventually, proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage will need to have a conversation about their shared interest in a society that ensures room for dissent from majoritiarian norms. Consider this book the conversation-starter. * Commonweal Magazine, October 2009 *