Take and Rread: Ethics, an annotated list of the best new titles selected by Jonathan Tran April 24, 2017 — Ten newer books on ethics and agency including Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity by Alasdair MacIntyre, Brent Waters’ book on Christians and capitalism, a title on the Stoics and the early Christians as rival traditions, and […]
The Real “Anti-Science”: Agree or disagree, this argumentative essay can assist students with teasing out the continuing public issues over science education, definitions of science, science and ideology, and who speaks for science. “There are at least three means by which these supposed defenders of science actually undermine it through their political tactics.”
Can Christians Affirm Transhumanism? This 30 min. audio program discusses just how fast technology is changing, why Christians may be willing to genetically modify their children, and the best way to understand transhumanism. “It seems to me that the biggest misunderstanding of Christians for transhumanism is that they think that it’s just science fiction, that’s it’s some […]
Whatever Is Pure: Cedarville Requires Professors to Apply Philippians 4:8 — Cedarville University (Baptist) enacted new curriculum guidelines inspired by Philippians 4:8 and aimed at purifying coursework of erotic and graphic content. Faculty have pushed back against stricter standards keeping curse words, R-rated movies, and sexual content out of their curricula.
An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb: Scientists have created an “artificial womb” in the hopes of someday using the device to save babies born extremely prematurely. Study research Dr. Alan Flake says his team has no interest in trying to gestate a fetus any earlier than about 23 weeks into pregnancy: “I […]
Should Christians Abandon Public Schools? This commentary advocates Christians remaining involved in public education: Influential thought leaders are advocating withdrawal from public life in order to preserve historical Christian beliefs. That includes withdrawal from public schools and other public institutions. But what would a large-scale Christian withdrawal from civic life look like?
Cheese State Reality Check: On the Wisconsin Idea and the Social Gospel — This essay presents some background on Abraham Lincoln, the slave state controversy, and the founding of the Republican party in Ripon, WI, in 1854 as the radical religious left. Students may be interested to consider how movements begin and change over time […]
Do Discretionary Religious Exemptions Violate The Establishment Clause? (Draft, University of Missouri School of Law, Research Paper No. 2017-13) The Establishment Clause is not violated when government enacts regulatory or tax legislation but provides, concerning these new burdens, an accommodation for those holding conflicting religious beliefs or practices. In an unbroken line of cases now spanning a century, […]
Faith, Football, and the First Amendment: Threading the Needle between Establishment and Free Exercise — Courts are being faced with determining when a coach’s expressive conduct around the football field is “private” speech expressing the views and emotions of the individual, or “public” speech expressing the views of the school and the state. This paper sheds […]
Loving the Sinner: Evangelical Colleges and Their LGB Students — From Quinnipiac Law Review 35:147 (2017), 70 pages. In his Obergefell dissent, Chief Justice Robert wrote: “Hard questions arise when people of faith exercise religion in ways that may be seen to conflict with the new right to same-sex marriage.” This article looks at one […]
