Items included for this subject area come from a variety of sources. The perspectives conveyed may or may not express a Lutheran ethos. They can serve our instruction as discussion-starters, examples (positive and negative), and illustrations of intersections between God’s two kingdoms, intersections sometimes characterized by tension, sometimes by congruence. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
From Foreign Policy: There is a growing threat to religious freedom around the globe. In an earlier era, the greatest hostility to faith came from secular autocracies or totalitarian regimes. But that has changed. Today, the most active persecutors of religious minorities and dissenters are religious extremists. In this still-young century, the world has witnessed […]
Alan Jacobs reviews The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933-1973 by Mark Greif (Princeton University Press, 2015). “For a long period in the mid-twentieth century, fundamental anthropology—the problematic nature of ‘man’—became a main rhetorical and contemplative current in the streams of thought and writing that shape a public philosophy.”
These two articles on sex identity and gender identity are written by Christopher O. Tollefsen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute. They may be useful for helping students identify the forms of the Aristotelian/Thomist arguments (Luther or Bonhoeffer take a different approach) that favor […]
This review of the Planned Parenthood incident and their use of abortion organs and tissue can help students consider several elements of the controversy and particularly why the issues continue to be intractable. The discussion could be used with courses in research, journalism, ethics, psychology, pre-law, and other social sciences.
USAToday overviews several legal cases at stake regarding the civil rights of religious liberty and discrimination following the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision. This popular press article can be used to update students on several pending cases and the broad contours of the arguments.
Wheaton College will not offer a student health insurance plan (SHIP) due to the federal requirement under Obamacare that the plan offer “morally objectionable” products and services—abortifacient drugs and intrauterine devices (IUDs). On July 8 a federal appeals court declined Wheaton’s petition for a preliminary injunction in connection with its civil suit to be free […]
According to a recent Pew Research Center report, an estimated 77 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where religious freedom is “highly” or “very highly” restricted. Speaking at the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Katrina Lantos Swett, head of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “would make […]
Longtime Supreme Court reporter and analyst Lyle Dennison explains how the ACA health mandates will continue to churn back through the Federal District and Appeals Courts for a long time to come. Here is useful article for understanding the legal/theological controversy.
Religious colleges worry that if they stick to their convictions, they may lose tax-exempt status. This 4 min. audio clip from NPR provides a brief summary of the topic and the issues and can serve as a useful starter piece for class or group discussion.
Bethel College, in Indiana, last month adopted a new policy on the creation of the Earth and humanity — and applied it in a new way that has led one professor to quit and raised concerns among others about the state of academic freedom at the institution.
