Category: Law
Do Evangelicals Actually Want an Originalist on the Supreme Court?
We’re pleased to publish this guest feature by Matt Mellema and Ian Speir. President Trump’s tapping of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court has won near-universal praise from the Religious Right. Gorsuch has been lauded as an articulate originalist,...
Freeing Speech: Free Speech, Milo, and the University
A peculiar and noteworthy feature of our cultural conversations around the subject of free speech is their narrow focus upon the non-proscription of expression. If we were to employ Isaiah Berlin’s taxonomy, we could say that these conversations have framed...
On the Executive Order Regarding Refugees
Over the weekend, I suggested that the text of the now infamous and widely criticized Executive Order on refugees was, as written, “neither insane nor obviously unChristian.”
Are Religious Liberty Restrictions God’s Judgment on Racism?
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. – Amos 4:6 I did a number of medical school rotations in...
Replacing Justice Scalia and the Presidential Race
With the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the selection of nominees for the Supreme Court has once again been thrust into the center of the race for the White House. In one sense, it is disappointing that it took...
Evangelicals need to read Richard Hooker.
I’m pleased to host this excellent interview between Mere Fidelity contributor Alastair Roberts and my friend Dr. Brad Littlejohn. Dr. Littlejohn, who did his doctoral work at Edinburgh with Mere O favorite Oliver O’Donovan, has just published a popular level...
The Privilege of Atheism, The Politics of Urgency, and The Limits of Policy
What matters more: changing hearts or changing laws? When Hillary Clinton was recently confronted by Black Lives Matter activists about racial injustice in America, she had some frank words: “I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws.”...
Christian Ethics, Evangelicals, and Functional Marcionism
Last week the Nebraska Unicameral voted 32-15 to abolish the death penalty in my state. Governor Pete Ricketts may veto the bill, but since it only takes 30 votes to override the veto the bill is likely to pass regardless of...
Arguing For and Against Capital Punishment
The response from younger evangelicals to the Tsarnaev ruling last week was predictable enough. It amounted to what Derek Webb sang many years ago in “My Enemies are Men Like Me”: “Peace by way of war is like purity by way...
The Dangers of Prudence and the Supreme Court’s Health Care Ruling
The Supreme Court’s decision yesterday on health care reform launched a tidal wave of commentary and opinion that captivated, if only momentarily, discourse among even casual observers of American politics. The ruling was expected to be momentous, but the surprise...