What endures in Wittenberg: Despite its nearness to arms-producing factories, Wittenberg was largely spared the bombing that destroyed so many other German cities during World War II. Ordinary American Lutheran soldiers, it turns out, pleaded with their generals to go easy on the geographical source of their religion. Even for Protestants, supposedly free of saints and […]
The Sentimentality Trap: The writer, especially the Christian, is today as obligated to avoid the sentimental anti-sentimentality of the edgy as he is to avoid puppies and Pollyanna. Sentimentality offers us the dubious chance to feel while bypassing the messiness of any real human engagement: not too much feeling but too thin an experience. Sentimentality is emotional […]
“Freedom” vs. “Liberty”: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Favor One Over the Other: Etymology is not usage, and language is fluid. This article can help students consider definitions and applications of the concepts of two important words in the public square. And consider the claim of the last quotation.
Desanctification of Law and the Problem of Absolutes: (Note: one free download allowed) Legal Scholar Jeremey Waldron reflects on the current breach between the application and practice of positive law and any of its sources in moral absolutes and in the sacred. “I am talking about modes of critical moralizing that seem natural, appropriate, and […]
Appeals court upholds California’s abortion education law: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s FACT Act which requires licensed pregnancy counseling clinics to disseminate a notice on the existence of publicly-funded family planning services, including contraception and abortion. The court affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction to three religiously-affiliated non-profits, rejecting free speech and […]
