Trinity Lutheran: The Church-State Case Looms at the Supreme Court — The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June, 2017, on a case brought by Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, against the state. The ruling could have powerful implications for the separation of church and state and the funding of religious schools in […]
Religiously affiliated hospitals win Supreme Court pension case: This case study can introduce students to the establishment clause, 7th commandment issues for pension and retirement funds, religious liberty issues, and who says what the church is and is not. The 8-0 ruling reverses lower court decisions that sided with hospital workers who argued that the exemption from […]
Christians and Lawsuits: The usual starter text for law suits is 1 Cor. 6:1-8. ADF is among the better known Christian legal services and presents four factors to explain when and why the church may use a culture’s legal system to engage in litigation (citing Calvin here, though Luther addressed this concern also as he […]
When the financial market is god, who pays? — Among other reviews available, this brief article provides an overview of Harvey Cox’ book, The Market as God (Harvard University Press, 2016), 320 pages. Cox argues that our now-sacralized market endows corporations with personhood, grants them immunity from double jeopardy, gives them the right to a trial by […]
Keep Christianity Weird: This review of Destroyer of the Gods by Larry Hurtado (Baylor, 2016), 304 pages, notes that book reminds us how weird Christianity was to the Roman world. Christianity’s sheer familiarity has desensitized us to its radical claims. Hurtado aims to show how the “odd” became “commonplace,” by surveying the first three centuries of the Jesus […]
Why the US Military Wants Fewer Generic Christians: The general categories of “Protestant, no denominational preference” and “Protestant, other churches” have been removed from the Department of Defense (DoD) list of recognized religions as the US military seeks out more detailed designations for its 1.3 million service members. The Armed Forces Chaplains Board made these changes to […]
Christian Human Rights: A Debate — The annunciation of human rights in the 1940s is now viewed by the general public and professional scholars as the uncomplicated triumph of liberal democracy. But it is equally if not more viable to regard human rights as a project of the Christian right, not the secular left. Their […]
Hebrew Teacher’s ADA Suit Barred By Ministerial Exception Doctrine: The Supreme Court’s doctrine of ministerial exception continues to be worked out in the lower courts, including this case in religious education. In rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that her teaching of Hebrew was cultural, not religious, the court nevertheless commented that “a religious organization could abuse […]
From Myth To Science: Can We Make Sense Of The Origin Of All Things? Marcelo Gleiser offers a thoughtful essay that students can evaluate for insight and/or subtle fallacy. “Contrary to what some scientists say in hyped-up statements in books and social media, we can’t build a scientific model out of nothing — science needs […]
Meg Meeker, MD, on Teenagers and the STD nobody is talking about: Most people are aware of the physical repercussions of sex–we e now have 35 known STDs (in 1960, we only had two); teenagers make up one-third of the U.S. population, but they carry 50 percent of STDs; one in four teens has an STD. […]
