by Little did you know that LawReligionEthics.com has had a correspondent in Juba, Sudan for the last few days. Sudan has experienced violent religious conflict over the last three decades, leading to the deaths of three million people. I was brought here by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to speak to a group [...]
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Last week, the Obama Administration publicly argued that Florida pastor Terry Jones should not burn Korans because to do so would lead to the deaths of many American servicemen overseas. This morning on Good Morning America, Richard Cizik, head of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, argued that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf should [...]
Read the full postThe news today is full of stories of James Lee’s take-over of the Discovery Channel headquarters. The stories including earlier pictures of him carrying signs that say: “Discover Channel: Save the Planet.” My question is, why isn’t the news media calling in Al Gore and other leaders of the environmental movement, demanding that they condemn [...]
Read the full postA project has sent me to reading all things Brandeis. I ran across an interesting statement by Brandeis that may capture an important aspect of the religious practice of fasting. This may seem strange to those who know much about Brandeis. Brandeis lived a very modest lifestyle, but I know of no instance of his [...]
Read the full postIt has long been my sense that most men’s sexual orientation is attraction to numerous female partners. Most, at least after marriage, do a pretty good job of controlling that inclination. Even those who cannot control themselves generally profess to believe in the moral and social responsibility to remain monogamous. This may be changing. A [...]
Read the full postI see that David and Rob have already made thoughtful posts about CLS v. Martinez. I would like to raise a few more issues related to the opinion. The first issue concerns Justice Ginsburg’s statement that the Hastings “all comers” policy is content neutral. This seems to me to be clearly wrong. The policy prefers broad, [...]
Read the full postWe generally think of theological translation issues as obscure questions, battled out in seminaries and divinity school ivory towers, with little relevance for the day-to-day lives of believers. Thankfully, it appears that Christians can rely on most of most of the modern English translations of the Bible. But the (mis-?) translation of one word in English versions of the Bible may have mis-directed generations of Christians about one of the most significant issues in the Christian life.
Read the full postSorry for my failure to communicate over the last few weeks. I have been on a trip to Rwanda and Uganda on behalf of Pepperdine and Saddleback Church’s Justice Task Force (Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback). I believe our trip illustrates some significant, relatively new, forces in evangelical Christianity. At the end of this [...]
Read the full postAs Rob Vischer reports below, Christianity Today suggests that evangelicals might not be able to relate to Elena Kagan. Evangelicals Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for whom she worked, seem to think otherwise.
Read the full postA few days ago, Steve Smith posted a comment, “Wrong-headed Friends,” in which he described a couple of his friendships maintained across today’s cultural divide. I hope that this blog will help to generate the sorts of friendships that Steve Smith describes. But I fear that the intensity of moral commitments around at least two current cultural issues make such friendships very difficult. Those on the right find it difficult to have close friendships with those who support the right to kill unborn human beings. Those on the left find it difficult to have friendships with those who want to reserve marriage for opposite sex couples. This difficulty may be because concern for the goodness of the friend is a central component of friendship (certainly the classic notion of friendship).
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