Dale Coulter is a fine historical theologian. His recent article at this space (“Two Wings of Evangelicalism”) helpfully provides perspective on the divide in evangelical theology. But it does not get at the root problems. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/11/07/evangelical-maximalism/ Read more

It’s time for a partnership between religion and freedom. http://spectator.org/archives/2013/11/05/why-classical-schools-just-mig Read more

Judicial precedent, historical awareness, and the very nature of prayer all make it clear: legislators have the right to begin their assemblies with a prayer. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/12/11157/ Read more

Christians can learn from Jews. We can learn how to thrive in the secular world that no longer regards faith as central. So argues Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the 2013 Erasmus Lecture. Speaking to more than five hundred people on the evening of Monday, October 21st at the Union League Club in New York, Sacks outlined a vision in which religious communities—Jewish and Christian—can function as creative minorities. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/10/on-creative-minorities Read more

In most cases, Catholic social teaching provides the correct principles for resolving complex social and economic questions, not specific policy requirements. Nathan Shlueter reviews Sam Gregg’s new book in the voice of Paul Ryan. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/11/11136/ Read more

“Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world!” It’s one of the most quoted stats by Christian leaders today. And it’s perhaps one of the most inaccurate. http://frjohnpeck.com/not-so-fast-the-real-divorce-rate-among-christians/ Read more

Economist Doug Allen’s new study, published earlier this month, found lower high-school graduation rates among children of same-sex couples than those of opposite-sex couples and even single parents. (A brief and informative summary of the study is available here.) Meanwhile, the majority of, but not all, prior studies have concluded that there are “no differences” in outcomes for children raised by same-sex couples. Obviously, both of these claims cannot be true. So what are the differences between the studies that... Read more

It almost always starts with an emotional story: an infertile couple trying desperately to conceive; a woman diagnosed with cancer, worried that she may lose her fertility when she undergoes chemotherapy or radiation treatment; a couple with a dreaded inheritable genetic disease that they do not want to pass on to their children; a sick child in need of a transplant from a “savior sibling.” And now added to the list is the same-sex couple or the single-by-choice person who... Read more

The most signal contribution of David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, and Bliss is to clarify that serious theists and atheists, though they debate frequently concerning the reality of God, are hardly ever using the word “God” in the same way. This fundamental equivocation contributes massively to the pointlessness and meanness of most of these discussions. http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2013/10/31/atheists_dont_get_god.html Read more

The Senate is expected to move forward soon on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA (S. 815). Since ENDA is terrible public policy, conservatives and libertarians are right to raise principled objections. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362682/enda-agenda-ryan-t-anderson?utm_source=RTA+ENDA&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more