Christians Say Predatory Loans are Sin: Christians in 30 states—from Alabama to Wyoming—say it’s a sin to lend money to someone who can’t afford to pay it back.Most want the government to protect consumers from loans with excessive interest. Still, 1 in 6 Christians has taken out a high-interest payday loan, while few of their fellow […]
SCOTUS for Students: The Supreme Court’s Contraceptive-Mandate Cases — If you have followed developments in the Supreme Court’s contraceptive-mandate cases, you may be scratching your head, wondering what’s going on. You are not alone. Even seasoned Court watchers are somewhat surprised and mystified by the challenge the Justices now face to sort out a complex morass […]
From ‘Exodus’ to ‘God’s Not Dead 2’: The new wave of religious movies, explained — Hollywood observers tend to group religious movies together as part of a faith-based trend. But, like any family, the offspring aren’t all alike. In fact, the movies tend to fall into a handful of different camps. Some are most interested in […]
Our Shared Brokenness: This review of the best seller, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel and Grau, 2015), introduces the reader to the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need. The book takes its epigraph from Reinhold Niebuhr: “Love is […]
Freedom and Intellectual Life: This essay makes a case for the arts and humanities. “As enrollments decline, programs are cut, and tenure diminishes, mainstream educational institutions are becoming uncomfortable places for teachers who want to pass on a zeal for humanist learning. This is a crisis of confidence among ourselves, a crisis caused by a […]
Christian cross has no place on L.A. County seal, judge rules: Under threat of a lawsuit in 2004, the County redesigned its Seal replacing a cross that was on it with a depiction of the San Gabriel Mission. Subsequently the San Gabriel Mission added a cross on its building and the County Board voted to […]
Citizenship test change admits freedom of religion, not just worship: “The First Amendment protects the rights of freedom of expression, speech, assembly, and religion, as well as the right to petition the government. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an office under the DHS, changed ‘religion’ to ‘worship’ eight years ago to be more ‘inclusive’ […]
Did Catholic theologians influence the Zubik order? Lyle Denniston, long-time reporter and commentator on the Supreme Court, offers this analysis of the problem of complicity in sin. Is the fire wall proposed between religious conscience and compelling government interest in health care “thick enough to meet the religious protest, and is the government going to be […]
Against Martyrdom: A Liberal Argument for Accommodation of Religion: (Note: one pdf download allowed from the link.) Religious accommodation is going through a period of heated contestation in multiple arenas: in the courts, in the academy, and in public and political debate. Liberals have adopted a position that is much more critical of religious accommodation as such. To slow or […]
Reasoning badly and reasoning well: A primer on practical reasoning — There are two difficulties. One lies in the intellect, because students may not know how to reason well. The other lies in the will, because they may not want to. Those who do want to reason well can be taught how to do so, although […]
