When Shrugging is Not an Option
- May/June 2025
- April 30, 2025
It has been said, cynically enough, that the twentieth century didn’t begin on January 1, 1900, but on July 28, 1914. That was when World War I officially started, the worst bloodbath in history up to that point, only to be exceeded a few decades later by World War II. But 1914 wasn’t merely the
READ MORETwo recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court relative to religious freedom and freedom of speech should give pause to those religiopolitical conservatives who insist that civil government is on a rampage against Christians and who believe the American secular state is determined to regulate speech in compliance with an agenda of coerced tolerance
READ MOREAgape love is the central premise of Protestant Christian theology. According to The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics, “Luther’s rediscovery of the primacy of agape was the linchpin of the Reformation and the rediscovery of genuine Christian ethics.”1 Many confuse the concept of agape love with the concept of caritas, or charity, but these are two separate
READ MOREBritish writer Aldous Huxley is known primarily today as the author of Brave New World (1932), which along with George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) set the gold standard for dystopian literature. But Huxley was also the author of the lesser-known The Devils of Loudun (1953), which, along with The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is
READ MOREThe cover illustration says it all. A simple monk on a mission. Ninety-five theses, or discussion points, in hand. About to nail them to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. Above him hovers the ominous gargoyle threat that so characterized cathedrals and churches of that era five centuries ago.As the poet William Butler
READ MOREThe Eighth IRLA World Congress Now, more than ever, we need a holistic understanding of religious freedom.” These words from Ganoune Diop, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), summed up one of the key objectives of a unique international gathering of religious freedom advocates held August 22 to 24 in Hollywood, Florida.
READ MOREDuring the past 30 years, with a few exceptions, the Supreme Court has interpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment to mean as little as possible. The Court seems content to enforce a minimalist, formalistic understanding of both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause. Constitutional prohibitions will invalidate overt discrimination against religion
READ MOREMost people have heard the phrase “the Young Turks.” The appellation first came to prominence, in American politics in the early 1960s, when it referred to some Republicans in Congress who, upset with the status quo, sought to bring radical change to the party (among these “Young Turks” were Gerald Ford, Donald Rumsfeld, and Melvin
READ MOREA haunting close-up image of an Arizona mother, 36-year-old Garcia de Royos, awaiting expulsion to Mexico, sadly peering through the metal mesh confinement window of a deportation van, flashed across the news services. Though she had lived in America for decades, de Rayos was being separated from her home and family. She had been seized
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