Beyond the Scientology case : towards a better definition of what constitutes a religion for legal purposes in Australia having regard to salient judicial authorities from the United States of America as well as important non-judicial authorities
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Faith Profaned: The Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Religion in the Prisons
When Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)2 in 1993, it aimed to increase dramatically the level of protection for inmates' religious liberties, which had only received minimal judicial scrutiny in the past. RFRA was primarily a response to the 1990 case of Employment Division v. Smith,3 in which the Supreme Court refused to apply strict scrutiny review when generally applicable laws burdened religious practices." In addition to resurrecting strict scrutiny for these cases, RFRA extended this heightened level of protection to the free exercise claims of prisoners. "We want religion in the prisons," declared Senator Orrin Hatch, one of the original sponsors of RFRA. "It is one of the best rehabilitative influences we can have. Just because they are prisoners does not mean all of their rights should go down the drain .... Despite RFRA's apparent drastic change in the degree of protection for prisoners' religious rights cases, RFRA's stated level of scrutiny is not the controlling factor in the way many courts are deciding prisoners' free exercise cases. The reason stems from two tendencies that have plagued the history of the judiciary's involvement in this area of law and continue to exist under RFRA. First, many courts have failed to understand and evaluate prisoners'
Bladud: The Flying King of Bath
THE tale of Bladud, the flying king of Bath, one of the most curious legends of Britain, is first found in Geoffrey of Monmouth." According to Geoffrey, Bladud was the son of King Rud Hud Ludibras, who lived in the ninth century B.C. His claim to fame was to build the town of Caerbadum, or Bath, and the hot baths found there.2 These he dedicated to the goddess Minerva. Geoffrey then describes the temple to the goddess in an account which has been taken from the minor classical writer Solinus.3 Geoffrey goes on to relate how King Bladud was a magician who 'did teach nigromancy throughout the realm of Britain'. In the course of his experiments he built for himself a pair of wings and succeeded in flying as far as the Temple of Apollo in the town of Trinovantum, or London, where he crashed and 'was dashed into countless fragments'. Apart from Geoffrey's account, local legend, and a brief revival by Dickens,4 Bladud has languished in obscurity. However, he left his kingdom to a son of considerably more enduring literary fame: King Lear. Bladud's story was augmented in succeeding ages,5 and a statue of the mythical monarch, with an account of his deeds, authenticated by the local worthies of the day, still presides over the King's Bath in the town he founded. But how did this strange legend arise, why was Bladud the only British king to fly?6 It has been suggested that Bladud was an early Celtic deity, an echo of whom can be found in the extraordinary sculpture of the Gorgoneion, a male gorgon from the tympanum of the classical temple