A faulty understanding of conscience as an instrument of subjective preferences and feelings is fueling efforts to undermine conscience protection for doctors who oppose abortion and provision of contraceptives. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5902?utm_source=RTA+Brugger+Conscience&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

Theology on Tap This Thursday, 8 PM 419 restaurant/bar out front under the awning Read more

Michael New Since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the pro-life movement’s incremental strategies—strengthening parental consent laws, advancing legal protection on the basis of fetal pain, and defunding Planned Parenthood—give us reason to be optimistic about the future of the pro-life movement. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5918?utm_source=RTA+New+Casey&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

Robert Gagnon Alan Chambers dodges the real issue at hand and inadvertently plays the role of judge. http://www.robgagnon.net/ArticlesOnline.htm Read more

Almost all the water that feeds the river is diverted by Syria, Jordan and Israel before it reaches the south, he explained. But for the first time, Israel — which is two-thirds arid and has battled drought since its establishment 64 years ago — has a water surplus. This follows decades of massive investment in the country’s water infrastructure. It re-uses 75 percent of its wastewater, mostly for agriculture, and by next year, 85 percent of drinking water will come... Read more

The threats to religious freedom in our nation are real, and they’re serious. And things will get worse unless we defend our rights. The first in a two-part series. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5897?utm_source=RTA+Moschella+Religion1&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

One of the more puzzling things about contemporary arguments regarding what things a good or free society ought to allow and what things it ought to forbid is our turn toward the “expert,” the ethicist, the person who has made a professional career of teasing out deductions from moral premises. But what really qualifies such a person to be regarded as a beacon of wisdom? Aristotle famously said that the best way to learn about justice would be to observe... Read more

It was only yesterday, was it not, that we were being assured that the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex partnerships would have no impact on persons and institutions that hold to the traditional view of marriage as a conjugal union? Such persons and institutions would simply be untouched by the change. It won’t affect your marriage or your life, we were told, if the law recognizes Henry and Herman or Sally and Sheila as “married.” http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5884?utm_source=RTA+George+Marriage&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

The patristic authority Jerome (342-420) complained bitterly, in his commentary to Isaiah, about the Jews’ condemnation of notsrim (believers in Jesus, “the Nazarite”), in the benediction of the daily Amidah known as Birkat ha-Minim: “The Jews . . . after having been invited by the Lord to do penitence . . . up to the present day persevere in blasphemy and three times a day in all their synagogues they anathemize the Christian name.” http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/4489/features/jews-curse-christians/ Read more

Mainline Protestants in liberal-led denominations are long used to advocacy of GLBT causes. But is this advocacy now even in generally conservative Pentecostalism? Seemingly so, based on presentations at the Society of Pentecostal Studies (SPS) gathering at, ironically, Pat Robertson’s Regent University earlier this year. http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/07/14/queering-the-pentecostals/ Read more