Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

March 21, 2014

Fr. Philip LeMasters on Orthodoxy and Partisan Politics

Today at Ethika Politika, I review Fr. Philip LeMasters’ recent book The Forgotten Faith: Ancient Insights from Contemporary Believers from Eastern Christianity. With regards to the book’s last chapter, “Constantine and the Culture Wars,” I write, … LeMasters does a good job in acknowledging the line between principles of faith and morality on the one hand, and prudential judgments that may not be as clear-cut on the other. Continue Reading...
March 20, 2014

Why is a Michigan School District Discriminating Against Christians?

Usually, discrimination against Christians is subtle and discreet. But the Ferndale Public Schools in Oakland County, Michigan, seems to be quite open about their bias. As Michigan Capitol Confidential discovered, the teachers union contract requires the district to provide “special consideration” to “those of the non-Christian faith” in hiring decisions: The contract ran from 2011 to 2012 but was extended to 2017. Continue Reading...
March 14, 2014

Whose Higher Ed Bubble Will Burst?

Consider the following (emphasis added): “Higher education is an industry in danger,” says Clayton Christensen, the Harvard Business School guru and a senior advisor (unpaid) at Academic Partnerships. “It’s very plausible to say that 15 years from now half of the universities that exist will be bankrupt and in some fundamental way facing extinction and the need to totally change themselves.” Continue Reading...
March 14, 2014

Our Sad Sex Economy

As much as progressives balk at the “imposition” of religious morality and the church in public and social spaces, secular humanism’s moral relativism is not working in America and continues to leave children vulnerable to profound evil. Continue Reading...
March 13, 2014

Jesus Christ, a Small Businessman at Work

Mark Tooley of IRD highlights a talk by Michael Novak, “Jesus Was a Small Businessman.” Speaking to students at the Catholic University of America, Novak observed: When he was the age of most of you in this room, then, Jesus was helping run a small business. Continue Reading...
March 12, 2014

The Four Questions of Christian Education

One of the advantages of living in a free society is that parents have multiple options for how they can educate their children, including enrolling them in religious education. Christian education is unique in that teachers can integrate faith and learning in the classroom to unlock academic disciplines from mere materialistic or rational concerns to direct interdependence and collaboration with the providential work of the Triune God in his plan to redeem the entire cosmos. Continue Reading...
March 07, 2014

Explainer: What is President Obama’s Budget?

What is the President’s budget? Technically, it’s only a budget request—a proposal telling Congress how much money the President believes should be spent on the various Cabinet-level federal functions, like agriculture, defense, education, etc. Continue Reading...