by A few days ago, Steve Smith posted a comment, “Wrong-headed Friends,” in which he described a couple of his friendships maintained across today’s cultural divide. I hope that this blog will help to generate the sorts of friendships that Steve Smith describes. But I fear that the intensity of moral commitments around at least two current cultural issues make such friendships very difficult. Those on the right find it difficult to have close friendships with those who support the right to kill unborn human beings. Those on the left find it difficult to have friendships with those who want to reserve marriage for opposite sex couples. This difficulty may be because concern for the goodness of the friend is a central component of friendship (certainly the classic notion of friendship).
Read the full postMonthly Archive for April, 2010
by When I was a kid, I loved reading books by pro athletes about their Christian faith (Terry Bradshaw: Man of Steel was my favorite), and hearing about athletes leading bible studies in the locker room. I think it made me feel that my faith, which often seemed intensely uncool, had a bit of coolness factor after all. I’m guessing that it’s this desire not to feel so uncool that has led to the disturbing effort to bail out actor Stephen Baldwin from his financial troubles.
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by I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about the connection between justice, judgment and love in Christian theology. This post is particular to Christian theology, but I’m very interested to hear from my non-Christian colleagues about how they see the themes of justice and judgment in relation to their faith traditions. When I was in [...]
Read the full postThe scholarship of our own Russ Pearce is the focus of the film “Red State, Blue State: Lawyers, Politics, & Moral Counseling.” It concerns an issue that we hope will be central in this blog’s discourse, the place of a lawyer’s moral values in her practice. Below is a post about the film from Tim Zinnecker over [...]
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by It’s good to have friends, and especially in these troubled, culturally divided times it’s a particular blessing to have wrong-headed friends– i.e., friends whose religious and/or political views differ diametrically from one’s own. I was reminded of this blessing twice yesterday. Andy Koppelman was here in San Diego for a conference, and in the afternoon he and I went for a several hours’ walk and exchanged views on things like politics, religion, and marriage. It was a reprise of similar walks and talks we’ve had here, in Chicago, in South Bend, in Baltimore, in Princeton, and probably other places I’m not remembering at the moment. Andy and I disagree on most of these matters, and although once or twice I’ve gotten vexed at what seemed to me his wrong-headedness on some point or other, I’ve always found him to be cordial, respectful, and genuinely interested in understanding and engaging my views. I believe I’m a (slightly) better person for having had these conversations.
Read the full postA draft of my book chapter for a forthcoming volume on “Law and Christian Realism” is available on SSRN: A Critical Realist Theology of Law, Neurobiology and the Soul. I’d very much appreciate any comments on the draft. I think it’s one of the first efforts to develop a Christian theology of “law” in light [...]
Read the full postResolved: Christians should henceforth avoid the temptation to make the sweeping, but generally unhelpful, self-serving, and (in many contexts) un-Christian declaration that “America is a Christian nation.”
Read the full postI think an exchange in the CLS oral argument is relevant to a topic we have discussed in recent weeks—the value of judges from different religious backgrounds. During the argument, Justice Breyer, one of two Jewish justices, pressed Hastings attorney Gregory Garre on whether the Hastings non-discrimination policy would allow an Orthodox Jewish Club that separated men and women. Garre ultimately admitted that it would not. The exchange (which went on longer than almost any other in the argument) is included below. It starts with a question about Orthodox religious services, but develops into a discussion about Orthodox clubs. Justice Breyer is not Orthodox, but maybe there are Orthodox members of his family. Maybe it took a Jewish justice to be sensitive to this issue.
Read the full postThe blogosphere and mainstream media have been abuzz with commentary on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. Judging by the spate of amicus briefs filed in support of CLS by religious organizations, I may be off base here, but: I confess that as a legal scholar and a Christian, I feel conflicted about this case.
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by My recent post, “How the Religious Right Promotes Abortion,” elicited a quick response from Michael New of the Witherspoon Institute, which was just as quickly endorsed by Rick Garnett and Thomas Peters. Prof. New wants us to believe that, even though a very large number of American women receive no instruction about contraception before their first sexual experience, giving them that information would have no effect whatsoever on the rate of unintended pregnancy. Now June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, on whose work I rely in that post, have written a response, which I post below. They answer New’s arguments better than I could.
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