We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html Read more

On Friday, February 10, Michael McClymond (St. Louis University) will speak on “Jonathan Edwards and the Future of Global Christianity.” Professor McClymond is an award-winning historical theologian whose new book, The Theology of Jonathan Edwards, was recently released from Oxford University Press. Professor Gerald McDermott, Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College, is the co-author. George Marsden (Notre Dame), one of America’s most distinguished historians, writes of the new McClymond-McDermott book, “A truly impressive work. It is remarkable to find... Read more

I applaud Governor Christie’s stated intent to veto this bill if it reaches his desk, and I applaud his call for putting this question directly before the people at the polls. The question of same-sex marriage is for the whole society to decide, not for legislators seeking to undo alleged “discrimination,” and not for judges on supposed “constitutional” grounds. This is a “constitutional” question in quite another sense—that is, it is a constitutive question, about an institution that is foundational... Read more

If you were truly opposed to something, then you would try to defeat it, especially if your conscience tells you that this something is both a moral wrong in itself and disastrous in its consequences. Now, it might be that, for various reasons, your desire to act to defeat this something is thwarted, or that your action would lead to more harm than good. One thing is certain, though: it would make no sense whatsoever to work with diligence for... Read more

The publication in Turkey of a new work by Paul Auster — even before it is released in the United States — would seem to be a cause for celebration there. But instead it has provoked a war of words between Mr. Auster, who has used the occasion to call attention to human rights violations in that country, and the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, who mocked the author as “an ignorant man.” http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/paul-auster-responds-after-turkish-prime-minister-calls-him-an-ignorant-man/ Read more

A sound political philosophy would hold that the state should be concerned about the welfare of all people. This means that our obligation to the poor has to be tied to their well-being, and thus necessarily connected to influencing their behavior. This is best understood not in terms of rights—whether positive ones to welfare or negative ones of noninterference—but in terms of promoting their good, with its material and moral components. In essence, any legitimate care for the poor has... Read more

Sixteen scientists took to the pages of the Wall Street JournalFriday to argue that there is “no compelling scientific argument” for “drastic actions on global warming.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/27/16-scientists-declare-no-compelling-scientific-argument-for-drastic-actions-on-global-warming/#ixzz1kzgnCcuk   Read more

This topic is on my mind in part because of the publication of an excellent recent book, Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life, by Nicholas Phillipson. The book devotes a chapter to the influence Francis Hutcheson, a professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University, played in Smith’s intellectual development. Among Hutcheson’s main philosophical opponents in the 18th century was Bernard Mandeville, a brilliant and witty satirist whose aim was to demolish the belief that sociable affections were based on benevolence. Mandeville... Read more

Let me first take a matter where I very much changed my mind, and in fact, it’s the major area where as a sociologist I changed my mind, and that is the question of the relationship of religion to modernity. When I started out my work in sociology of religion, almost everyone in the field believed in what generally was called secularization theory, which when you take apart some of the pretentious verbiage of sociologists really is a very simple... Read more

The worldview of The Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and other religious extremists present a clear and present danger to Egypt’s historic Coptic community, the region’s largest Christian minority. Their churches and their faithful have already been targets of religious-fueled terrorism. There are reports that thousands of Copts have already fled in wake of the Islamist political tsunami. But there are millions of Copts, representing at least 10% of Egypt’s population. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/24/is-there-any-room-for-jews-copts-and-other-religious-minorities-in-new-egypt/#ixzz1kZmdHUYw Read more