“How Christian Institutions Can Stay Christian Amid Secular Pressure” is a thorough interview with the authors of Free to Serve: Protecting the Religious Freedom of Faith-Based Organizations by Stephen Monsma and Stanley Carlson-Thies (Brazos, 2015, 208 pages). They discuss the concept of principled pluralism and strategies to offset the secular assumption that only nonreligious ideas should inform civil […]
“Churches step in after feds drop Fugitive Safe Surrender” is an in-depth article on a program for fugitives from law enforcement. Churches in more than 50 cities have hosted Fugitive Safe Surrender events over the past decade, some of them more than once, resulting in thousands of cleared warrants. Churches are integral to Fugitive Safe […]
“What Happens When the Moral Majority Becomes a Minority?” This article overviews a response to the culture shifts call “the Benedict option” that has received some attention from both Christian and non-Christian commentators. Student can use the essay as an introduction to the discussion of whether the church should step back from the current culture, or […]
From the Journal of Lutheran Ethics: Lutherans have a complex and complicated relationship with the public and organized struggle for social justice, especially when it involves political action and taking a prophetic stance. Calls for the church’s active involvement in social, economic and political causes is often viewed with suspicion. Luther himself had a complicated relation […]
Christian belief and the 325th anniversary of American newspapers: America’s first newspaper was published 325 years ago in Boston. Publications in the 17th century usually put out only news that would make the king or his officials look good, but New England Puritans encouraged the reporting of bad news because they saw everything, good and […]
The Hinxton Group, an international consortium on stem cells, ethics, and law, has published their Statement on Genome Editing Technologies and Human Germline Genetic Modification: “We acknowledge that when all safety, efficacy and governance needs are met, there may be morally acceptable uses of this technology in human reproduction, though further substantial discussion and debate […]
This 45 min. exchange from The National Constitution Center on various proposals of legislation regarding religious freedom and equal rights touches on several of the disparate, conflicting, and confusing issues in advocacy, practice, and the role of religion in the public square. While the discussion wanders a bit, it does serve as a way to […]
The Great Math Mystery: this 60 min. NOVA program on the nature of math addresses an old question that many students have never considered: is math a human invention that we impose on reality, or is math part of the nature of reality and already “put in place” which we then discover? One’s answer to […]
This 50 min. audio interview with two of the directors of the Vatican Observatory offers for students a thoughtful conversation with two Jesuit astronomers about science, faith, the Christian narrative, and the ways they think about research, the universe, and the love of God.
“Did Neanderthals Have Souls?” is a brief starter article that can be used to explore views and responses to the findings in paleoanthropology, human origins, human nature, and the image of God. The article includes the usual popularized ideas and will need additional content and sources to assist students with the larger discussion.
