The New Alarmism: How Some Christians are Stoking Fear Rather Than Hope — Smith responds to some voices within the church who portend the decline of Christianity. “[My] critique is not a progressive dismissal. For nearly a decade I have been trying to diagnose the causes of Christian assimilation to culture in books like Desiring the […]
The Earth Has Oceans And Continents: How Weird Is That? This essay offers students an example of how the thoughtful non-theist discusses the puzzles and perplexities of creation and natural order: “Continents and oceans, we have them both. But it didn’t have to be this way. And on most planets, it probably isn’t. And, here, I […]
Court decides to censure, not remove anti-gay marriage judge: Here is the Associated Press coverage on municipal judge Ruth Neely (member of an LCMS congregation) who in 2014 mentioned to a reporter that she would not preside over a same-sex marriage and was then charged with ethics violations by the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics.
Christian Bakers, Gay Weddings, and a Question for the Supreme Court: This readable article provides a succinct and balanced summary of the small business issues of religious freedom and civil rights–mom-and-pop stores, artistic liberty, corporate regulation, and competing goods in the commonwealth. It can serve as an introduction to the court cases, arguments, and principles at […]
Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. — SCOTUSblog is covering the transgender bathroom case at http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gloucester-county-school-board-v-g-g/ For an overview of Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. see Justices send transgender bathroom case back to lower courts, no action on same-sex marriage cake case.
If We are Not Just Animals, What Are We? There is something in the human condition that suggests the need for special treatment. Almost all people believe that it is a crime to kill an innocent person, but not to kill an innocent tapeworm. And almost all people regard tapeworms as incapable of innocence in […]
Anabaptist in America: This set of photographs portrays Anabaptist life in Lancaster, PA. The photos have no captions and invite students to an exploration of Menno Simons’ (1496-1561) reformation themes in the Low countries as well as Amish piety and the works of Swiss Anabaptist Jakob Ammann (b. 1644). Their understanding of the two kingdoms […]
Betsy DeVos’s Misunderstood Alma Mater: Calvin College is no fundamentalist Christian school — Students can use this profile of Calvin College to compare their own campus and perceptions, and how their friends perceive Christian higher education. “Calvin is a school that has produced both DeVos and Paul Schrader, the writer behind both Taxi Driver and […]
Concordia Journal, Winter/Spring 2017: Five feature articles on key Ref 500 themes and topics including “Luther, Learning, and Reformation: a Look at Then with Some Thoughts for Now” by Robert Rosin: “Without the ‘New Learning’ as the liberal arts revival was called, Luther’s Reformation simply would not have happened.”
Is It Time for Evangelicals to Strategically Withdraw from the Culture? For a few years, Rod Dreher has been exploring the idea of the local congregation stepping out of culture stream. He is not proposing a new monasticism–but some are not sure precisely what the implications are of such a withdrawal. Here is a four-part […]
