America’s Fighting Faith: The writer examines American civil religion and its influence on American foreign policy as these themes are related in the book, The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America’s Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest by Walter A. McDougall (Yale University Press, 2016). “Civil religion may once have described a kind of ecumenism. It now means […]
Rick Steves’ Luther and the Reformation: The popular travel guide, author, and TV host has produced a program on the sites that take us to Luther’s complicated political world of the 16th century. The package includes slides, discussion, Q&A, travel information, and kit for presenting the video. For the online material, go to https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/luther
For Darwin Day, 6 facts about the evolution debate: This piece from Pew begins by saying, “When Darwin’s work was first made public in 1859, it shocked Britain’s religious establishment.” That statement itself needs more attention, and Darwin’s work was initially received with mixed responses. Nevertheless, here are Pew’s six facts for today.
What Churches Can Bring to the Battle Against Servitude: This report concerns the multitude of scourges now described as modern slavery: bonded or indentured labour, human trafficking, prostitution rackets involving trafficked persons, and the criminal exploitation of vulnerable people on the move, and that anybody who consumes a product made with bonded labour, or patronises a business […]
The Refugees Among Us: Our theology of vocation (callings) calls upon us to pay special attention to our location. That is to say, it focuses on how God has placed us in particular places at particular times. The needs of our neighbor in these locations and at these times function as God’s call for us to […]
Bible Lessons at the Lunch Bell: Released Time programs began in 1914 and allows public school students to attend privately sponsored religious classes during school time. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public schools cannot endorse any religion or try to convert students during class, it upheld the constitutionality of released time in 1952 with certain limits: Released […]
Homeless Find Rest in Faith-based Shelters More Than Others: Religious organizations provide more than half of the emergency shelter beds for homeless people in major cities across the country, a new Baylor University study shows. In a study of 11 U.S. cities, 58 percent of emergency beds for the homeless were at faith-based organizations. The […]
The Deafening Silence of “Religious Freedom” Defenders on Trump’s Muslim Ban: This clamorous essay, while overwrought, can raise for students some issues that the church needs to weigh, especially in terms of the two kingdoms, Jn. 3:16, Mt. 25: 31ff, and Col. 4:5-6. Students can also consider how the writer’s case might be made more dispassionately […]
In Defense of Churches: Can the IRS Limit Tax Abuse by “Church” Impostors? A large gap in our Tax Code allows certain religious organizations to amass extraordinary riches while preying on the faithful. Their conduct is causing damage to the church as an institution and is inconsistent with the purpose of tax exemptions—to provide a public […]
Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age by Nelson Tebbe (Harvard University Press, 2017): “In Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age, I argue that these disputes, which are admittedly complex, nevertheless can be resolved without irrationality or arbitrariness. I describe a method called social coherence, which provides a way to reach justified conclusions, even in situations […]
