The ongoing sexual abuse case against Stanley Z. Levitt, a rabbi and former teacher at the Maimonides School in Brookline shows that different types of religious hierarchies often respond to troubling accusations in the same hushed manor. Even when a religious institution has its own procedures for punishing wayward clergy, the sexual abuse of children... Continue Reading

Man is nothing more than “a bundle of desires attached to a bundle of rights.” This view of man, adopted by modern “secular” states, he said, leads inevitably to state persecution of traditional religious faith. The roots of the anti-life and anti-family movement in law around the world go deep into the history of philosophical... Continue Reading

Union Theological Seminary, home of Dr. James Cone, has had a hey day in the wake of Glenn Beck’s attack on social justice and black liberation theology. I’m not the biggest fan of Glenn Beck, but I certainly don’t think he’s all wrong. So when I read this interview over at Religion Dispatches between a... Continue Reading

…a penalty of revoking any privilege involves a violation of the “free and voluntary” principle. This is contrary to our Constitution. The PCA General Assembly has approved a proposed amendment to the Book of Church Order that will institute a tax on all churches and ministers to pay for the work of the Administrative Committee’s... Continue Reading

A preplexed reader called our office a few minutes ago looking for part one of an article – since his phone did not register on our caller ID, I thought I’d try to respond with this note. The reason you could not find another article in the magazine listed as Part One of Marshall St.... Continue Reading

The most underrepresented groups on elite campuses often aren’t racial minorities; they’re working-class whites (and white Christians in particular) from conservative states and regions …Last year, two Princeton sociologists, Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford, published a book-length study of admissions and affirmative action at eight highly selective colleges and universities. Unsurprisingly, they found that... Continue Reading

The year 2010 has a number of significant markers in the life of the institutional ecumenical movement (as opposed to the kind of “mere” ecumenism or “ecumenism in the trenches” experienced by Mere Comments readers). Last month saw the 100th anniversary of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. It also saw the formation of a new... Continue Reading

Warren Buffett contributed $3 billion to the foundation, and most of the foundation’s spending goes to “abortion and contraception advocacy and research.” The tragedy of abortion remains one of this nation’s greatest reasons for shame, and the fact that over a million abortions are performed each year is nothing less than horrifying. In light of... Continue Reading

I believe that the Gospel will reach the Muslim people and release them from a legacy of pain and anger, and from the anger against them. I believe that many of Abraham and Hagar’s sons and daughters will be constrained with the compelling love and deep-healing grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. I believe that... Continue Reading

So, what should we do? It is clear that neither amnesty alone nor increased enforcement are wise options to solve the immigration problem Clear solutions to the immigration conundrum are difficult to arrive at. What we can get at, however, is a broad set of principles (which some Christian conservatives have a difficult time grasping)... Continue Reading