The Sun’s Not Yellow, It’s Chicken: An Analogy for Chick-Fil-A Skeptics

August 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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I came cross this blog post last night via the Facebook wall of Hunter Baker. On that blog, called "The American Jesus," a young Christian man named Zack Hunt explains why he did not participate in "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day." (For some reason, "The American Jesus"  cannot be accessed right now. Hopefully, it is only a temporary glitch). Although I very much appreciate the thought that went into Zack's post, I want to focus on one claim he makes: "Regardless, for me, dedicating a day to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christians, Marriage, politics Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

The Joy of Calvinism

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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I just noticed that Greg Forster has published a new book, The Joy of Calvinism. Given the divisions that arose as a consequence of the movement that spawned Calvinism, perhaps a sequel to the book should be entitled The Joy of Sects. In all seriousness, Greg is a wonderful scholar, and the author of a three-part series that will be published at Public Discourse. The first installment is entitled "Evangelicals and Politics: The Hundred Years' War." … [Read more...]

Filed Under: politics, Protestantism Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

When the Saint Goes Swearing: Mormonism and the Romney Candidacy

April 5, 2012 By 1 Comment

In 2007, I published an article at First Thing's On the Square, "When the Saint Goes Swearing In." It was a review essay of Hugh Hewitt's 2007 book, A Mormon in the White House? Given the scuttlebutt over comments made by the gentleman who introduced Governor Rick Perry at the Value Values Summit last year, the Rev. Robert Jeffress (Pastor, First Baptist Church, Dallas), as well as the strange stuff emanating from MSNBC,  my First Things review essay has become relevant again. Here's an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Christianity, Evangelicalism, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, politics, Southern Baptists Tagged With: , , , , 1 Comment

What Reagan Can Teach Romney and Santorum

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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That's the title of my latest piece over at The Catholic Thing. Here's how it begins: American Conservative politicians are at a rhetorical disadvantage running for national office, not only because the national media are largely liberal. Our cultural vocabulary is infused with liberal assumptions. For this reason, many of us who largely agree with social and economic conservatism cringe when we listen to conservative politicians either struggling to convey a conservative answer without giving … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Mitt Romney, politics, Rick Santorum, Ronald W. Reagan, The Catholic Thing Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

The New Anti-Catholicism: Occupy the Vatican

February 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
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That's the title of my latest column over at The Catholic Thing. Here's how it begins: The old anti-Catholicism found its expression in the mid-nineteenth century when the first large wave of Catholic immigrants arrived in the United States. Some of these immigrant groups had set up their own private religious schools. Many non-Catholic Americans, however, believed that Catholic schools indoctrinated students in superstitions that were inconsistent with the principles of American democracy. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Barack Obama, Catholic, Catholicism, politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Religious Liberty Tagged With: , 1 Comment

An Uncomfortable and Awkward Question for Conservative Christian Gingrich Supporters

January 23, 2012 By 37 Comments
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Are you prepared for America to have a First Lady who was a home wrecker and was once the President's mistress (if Gingrich were to become President)?  Many Christian conservatives--smitten by Newt's rhetorical flourishes, as they are of any "good preaching"--seem not to have the imagination to entertain this question. It crossed my mind weeks ago, but I thought it churlish to raise it online, until I witnessed Gingrich's retort to John King when the CNN correspondent brought up the ABC … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Newt Gingrich, politics Tagged With: , 37 Comments

My critique of Roe v. Wade and its progeny

January 19, 2012 By 1 Comment

Sunday, January 22, is the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (1973). Even though many citizens reject the opinion, not many know why it is so flawed. In chapter 2 of my 2007 book, Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press), I offer a detailed analysis of Roe and some subsequent Supreme Court opinions. An earlier version of that chapter was published in 2006 (1.1, pp. 37-72) in the inaugural issue of the Liberty University Law Review under the title … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Abortion, Culture of Death, Law, politics, Prolife Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

Ken Starr: Can I Vote For a Mormon?

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Judge Ken Starr, the President of Baylor University (where I am a tenured faculty member in the philosophy department), published a thoughtful essay in yesterday's Washington Post, "Can I Vote For a Mormon?" It begins this way: Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary looms large on the political horizon. In the midst of lively public debates over taxes, jobs, the national debt and similarly important questions related to the future vitality of our nation, a different kind of question continues to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012 Election, Baylor, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, politics Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

Taking Rites Seriously: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Marriage

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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That's the title of my latest column over at The Catholic Thing. Here's how it begins: Political Liberalism, as we know it today, is not even three decades old. It began to develop in the early 1980s in the writings of several well-known philosophers that included Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, and John Rawls. The purpose of their project was to offer the political culture an intellectually respectable way to sequester the policy goals of the fledgling movement of religious conservatives while … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, John Rawls, Marriage, Political Liberalism, politics, Religious Liberty Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

Newt Gingrich, Redemption, and the Presidency

December 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
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That's the title of my latest entry over at The Catholic Thing. Here's are some excerpts: In 2009, Gingrich was received into the Catholic Church, the faith of his third wife, Callista Bisek. Because Catholic conversion requires the sacrament of confession, Gingrich has been absolved of his sins. This, of course, suggests to many, including me, that one cannot evaluate Gingrich’s candidacy and character without taking his conversion seriously. It is a mistake for Christians to emulate the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Culture, Conservatism, conversion stories, Newt Gingrich, politics, Republican Party, The Catholic Thing Tagged With: , , 2 Comments