Free Exercise, Penance, and Delaware Court: The State of Delaware sought civil penalties against both a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation and the individual elders in an abuse case. The defendants sought summary judgment against the charges on religious freedom and priest-penitent “privilege” grounds. A Delaware Superior Court judge denied the motion. The decision is an illustration of what happens […]
On Supreme Court Case: Why We Can’t “just sign the form” — Sister Constance Veit, communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor, offers an explanation. “Form 700 is neither a simple declaration of conscientious objection, nor an “opt out” regarding the HHS Contraceptive Mandate. Form 700 is a permission slip. Signing Form […]
Putting The Body Back In Biology: Natasha Myers’s book, Rendering Life Molecular, examines science as a cultural practice. She explores the ways in which scientists’ intuitions, attitudes and expectations are shaped by their shared work together in the setting of their scholarly communities. Her focus is on the protein, chains of amino acids and amino acids produced by DNA […]
Death, the Prosperity Gospel and Me — A first person account from Kate Bowler, historian and author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford Univ Press, 2013), recently diagnosed with stage four cancer at the age of 35. Helpful for analysis of the God’s will/God’s plan discussion, American notions of the Gospel, and faith […]
Rise of the Neurolawyers: A position paper on law, the courts, and neuroscience. A number of scientists, lawyers, and philosophers suspect that free will is going the way of geocentrism to make room for a revamped theory of human action more in line with the findings of research. The article can serve as an opening piece for […]
Two Articles from Foreign Policy on Outreach to China Through Education: The magazine offers two very detailed stories of how Chinese students are flooding into U.S. Christian secondary schools with the knowledge and blessing of their atheist parents, and how Chinese studying in American universities have become a fruitful mission field for American Christian campus groups. Chinese […]
Teaching about Religion in a Children’s Museum: The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the largest children’s museum in the world, has taken on a potentially controversial subject: world religions. The exhibit follows children and families of several faiths as they participate in religious pilgrimages and rituals. In addition to covering religious history and culture, the exhibit explores contemporary […]
U.S. Churches Offer Safe Haven For A New Generation Of Immigrants: Echoing an earlier civil disobedience campaign in the 1980s, U.S. churches are again defying federal immigration authorities. Across the country, a handful of congregations are opening their doors to offer safe haven to Central American immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and are under deportation […]
Point / Counterpoint: What It Means to be a “College of the Church”: Robert Benne and Tom Christensen engage in a conversation about Lutheran higher education, exploring a variety of topics including the quality of a Christian faculty, their vocation, the liberal arts, and being defined by a discipline or defined by the Gospel.
