Joseph Knippenberg

It used to be that around Christmastime (and Hannukah)  there would be all sorts of stories about political and judicial conflicts about the various signs of the season: creches and menorahs in public spaces, carols and songs sung or not sung at “holiday” programs in elementary . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday Ross Douthat penned—can we still say that?—a column based on the annual report on The State of Our Unions issued jointly by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values . The report . . . . Continue Reading »

As I’ve noted before, I’ve been following presidential faith-based initiatives since early in the Bush Administration.  I’ve hitherto been underwhelmed by faith-based 2.0, the Obama version. But Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships must be doing . . . . Continue Reading »

Distinguished sociologist Peter Berger defends what he regards as American civil religion, the first commandment of which is (he says)  “Thou shalt be tolerant!”  He takes as his text this story about an interfaith Thanksgiving service in suburban Westchester, New York. In the . . . . Continue Reading »

MoJ’s Rob Vischer uses this story about the culture of marital infidelity in Russia to raise questions about the relationship between law and cultural norms in maintaining general public adherence to the practices constitutive of healthy family life. Do not laws, he seems to ask, that are . . . . Continue Reading »

Might this be a creative examination of what a world without a Creator would look like? Is this what the professor had in mind when he gave his students this assignment? I doubt it, but, then, God works in mysterious ways. . . . . Continue Reading »

From the invaluable Mirror of Justice blog, we learn that Apple seems to have caved in to pressure and will no longer offer the Manhattan Declaration app in its App Store. Now, no one is calling the App Store a public forum, and Apple is entitled to make this sort of business decision. But the . . . . Continue Reading »

In reflecting on Putnam and Campbell’s American Grace , Rod Dreher wonders if—indeed, worries that—our (relatively) newfound tolerance of religious diversity doesn’t come at too high a price: The good news is that we Americans of different faith traditions get along remarkably . . . . Continue Reading »

Mark Silk notes that a Christian counseling center that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann co-owns with her husband receives a bit of funding from the Minnesota state government and questions whether she’s in any position to object (as she has) to potential public funding for the . . . . Continue Reading »

In her new book, Sarah Palin claims that most people who teach at universities “don’t share the religious faith of their fellow Americans.”  A blogger for the Chronicle of Higher Education unearths evidence that he believes proves she’s wrong.  According to a . . . . Continue Reading »