http://www.alliancealert.org news from the frontlines of the culture war Thu, 24 May 2012 23:12:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/05/21/jeremy-waldron-what-is-natural-law-like/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/05/21/jeremy-waldron-what-is-natural-law-like/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 18:58:09 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=134232 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/05/21/jeremy-waldron-what-is-natural-law-like/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/04/13/piero-tozzi-not-%e2%80%9crights%e2%80%9d-vs-%e2%80%9cfreedom%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-reclaiming-the-universal-declaration-from-the-left-and-defending-it-from-the-right/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/04/13/piero-tozzi-not-%e2%80%9crights%e2%80%9d-vs-%e2%80%9cfreedom%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-reclaiming-the-universal-declaration-from-the-left-and-defending-it-from-the-right/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:18:13 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=131091 Piero Tozzi at Turtle Bay and Beyond: A word of caution is in order before adopting the framework and verbiage proposed by McCarthy in its entirety, however, for he throws out the baby with the bathwater, and his characterization of the “utopian” Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 fails to give a rounded appraisal of that landmark document. Moreover, his underlying premise of “freedoms” vs. “rights” is historically both incorrect and unessential to adopt in order to get to where the author wants to lead us. The concept of “rights,” properly understood, was very much part of the Founding Fathers’ vocabulary — as in the “bill of rights” (!!) and “unalienable rights” based on the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” The tension is thus not between “rights” and “freedoms,” but rather between “negative rights” and “positive” ones — a tension that is reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/04/13/piero-tozzi-not-%e2%80%9crights%e2%80%9d-vs-%e2%80%9cfreedom%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-reclaiming-the-universal-declaration-from-the-left-and-defending-it-from-the-right/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/03/07/just-war-and-the-iran-crisis/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/03/07/just-war-and-the-iran-crisis/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:44:12 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=127856 Public Discourse: It would be wrong for the United States to engage at this time in an attack on Iran or to participate substantially in an Israeli action. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/03/07/just-war-and-the-iran-crisis/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/02/23/catholic-bishops-prez-our-rights-don%e2%80%99t-depend-on-obama/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/02/23/catholic-bishops-prez-our-rights-don%e2%80%99t-depend-on-obama/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:25:43 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=126712 LifeNews: Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2012/02/23/catholic-bishops-prez-our-rights-don%e2%80%99t-depend-on-obama/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/10/18/robert-p-george-pornography-public-morality-and-constitutional-rights/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/10/18/robert-p-george-pornography-public-morality-and-constitutional-rights/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:03:04 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=116143 Public Discourse: Every member of the community has an interest in the quality of the culture that will shape their experiences, their quality of life, and the choices effectively available to them and their children. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/10/18/robert-p-george-pornography-public-morality-and-constitutional-rights/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/26/translated-text-of-pope-benedicts-address-to-the-german-parliament/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/26/translated-text-of-pope-benedicts-address-to-the-german-parliament/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:09:03 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=114543 Pope Benedict addresses the German parliament ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/26/translated-text-of-pope-benedicts-address-to-the-german-parliament/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/23/an-interview-with-professor-robert-p-george/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/23/an-interview-with-professor-robert-p-george/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:15:44 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=114447 ISI's American Studies Institute: 1) What led you to become a political philosopher? The intellectual experience that changed my life, placing me on the path to becoming a professor and a political philosopher, was reading Plato's dialogue Gorgias in a political philosophy seminar I took as an undergraduate at Swarthmore. Socrates's questions to Gorgias and his other interlocutors in the dialogue led me to question my own beliefs and values. They made me think about existential, social, and political questions that I had not before paused to consider. My encounter with the dialogue caused me to see, for the first time, the overriding value of truth and the importance of the pursuit of truth, not merely as a means to other ends, but above all for its own sake. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/23/an-interview-with-professor-robert-p-george/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/20/robert-george-remarks-on-natural-law-at-notre-dame-morality-rationality-and-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/20/robert-george-remarks-on-natural-law-at-notre-dame-morality-rationality-and-natural-law/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:29:25 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=114065 Mirror of Justice: During my recent visit to Notre Dame to participate in the wonderful conference in honor of John Finnis organized by Gerry Bradley, I also had the opportunity to give a lecture for the ND Law School Federalist Society chapter. The campus newspaper called the Irish Rover has published a story on my remarks, but the reporter, though plainly well-intentioned, didn't quite manage to report everything accurately. So here is the text of what I actually said . . . ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/20/robert-george-remarks-on-natural-law-at-notre-dame-morality-rationality-and-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/14/alan-e-sears-christians-face-a-freedom-gap-in-our-culture/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/14/alan-e-sears-christians-face-a-freedom-gap-in-our-culture/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:33:27 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=113479 Alan E. Sears at Townhall: Freedom is more than “just another word for nothing left to lose.” It is an ordered framework of liberty for which our Founders risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. As such, it should be extended to people of every race and tribe, and of every faith and tradition. This applies to those who value the Judeo-Christian tradition as much as it applies to anyone else. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/14/alan-e-sears-christians-face-a-freedom-gap-in-our-culture/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/01/legal-periodical-consideration-regarding-natural-law-in-common-law-systems/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/01/legal-periodical-consideration-regarding-natural-law-in-common-law-systems/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:46:13 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=112442 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/09/01/legal-periodical-consideration-regarding-natural-law-in-common-law-systems/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/24/walter-e-williams-legal-obedience/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/24/walter-e-williams-legal-obedience/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:53:58 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=111662 Townhall: Decent people should not obey immoral laws. What's moral and immoral can be a contentious issue, but there are some broad guides for deciding what laws and government actions are immoral. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/24/walter-e-williams-legal-obedience/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/17/legal-periodical-what-are-moral-absolutes-like/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/17/legal-periodical-what-are-moral-absolutes-like/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:52:30 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=111091 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1906850 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/17/legal-periodical-what-are-moral-absolutes-like/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/15/book-review-exiting-a-dead-end-road-a-gps-for-christians-in-public-discourse/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/15/book-review-exiting-a-dead-end-road-a-gps-for-christians-in-public-discourse/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:00:13 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=110710 The University Bookman: Directions Back to the Public Square: About a third of the way through the book is an essay by Piero A. Tozzi, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, wherein the decline of universal rights is demonstrated to help the reader see that—minus an acknowledgement of, and adherence to, universal rights—the losses suffered by the Church must also be suffered by society at large. For instance, Tozzi writes about the “restoration” of ’48: a moment wherein both Europe and the world were emerging from the Nuremburg trials and subsequently reaching for “a universe whose rules were governed by natural law.” There was bald revulsion at what the Nazis had done, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) was penned to serve as a restraint on such things in the future. Tozzi is describing a point in time where even the secularists were brought face to face with the heinous outworking of Nietzsche’s “God is dead” paradigm, and even they had to seek a means to constrain behavior by re-asserting universal rights across the board. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/08/15/book-review-exiting-a-dead-end-road-a-gps-for-christians-in-public-discourse/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/03/17/moral-relativism-challenged-by-acclaimed-natural-law-scholar/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/03/17/moral-relativism-challenged-by-acclaimed-natural-law-scholar/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:33:28 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=98333 Christian Newswire: In a new and revised edition of his groundbreaking work, "What We Can't Not Know", Professor J. Budziszewski challenges the modern assumption that moral truth is obscure or even unattainable. With clear, logical arguments he rehabilitates the natural law tradition, restoring confidence in a moral code based upon human nature. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/03/17/moral-relativism-challenged-by-acclaimed-natural-law-scholar/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/02/03/witherspoon-institute-natural-law-natural-rights-american-constitutionalism/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/02/03/witherspoon-institute-natural-law-natural-rights-american-constitutionalism/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:42:42 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=94564 this new resource website. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/02/03/witherspoon-institute-natural-law-natural-rights-american-constitutionalism/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/06/legal-periodical-in-defense-of-minimal-naive-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/06/legal-periodical-in-defense-of-minimal-naive-natural-law/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:31:56 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=90305 In Defense of Minimal, Naive Natural Law (December 26, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1731330 "This paper articulates a defense of a minimal natural law view in two ways. First, it argues that a minimal natural law view - a view which affirms that the law itself is intrinsically valuable, reason-giving, and normative - is compatible with a weak view of legal obligation, and with a sharp distinction between law and morality. Second, this paper argues (albeit indirectly, in a methodological way) for the naive view that the law's seeming normativity is best explained by the law's being really normative, in itself and in abstraction from any further circumstance or social facts. The naive view, I argue, is or seems to be our own pre-theoretical view of the law. Yet, the positivist project, as traditionally understood, is committed to denying this intuitive naive view; on the positivist view, the law may really give reasons in some circumstances, but it does not give reasons necessarily, that is, it is not intrinsically reason-giving. This paper argues that the positivist project consequently has a skeptical burden to bear: it must show that all those (including most readers, and including, I suspect, even most positivists) who have some minimal, natural law intuitions are probably confused or mistaken. The positivist has this burden because it is a grounding assumption of the positivist project that the thing to be theorized by a legal philosopher is not any normative thing; unless this assumption is justified, the entire positivist project stands unsupported, and must be dispreferred to the naive view. Addressing the reasons which might be offered for the skeptical conclusion, including the theories and arguments of Joseph Raz and Andrei Marmor, this paper concludes that the positivist burden remains." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/06/legal-periodical-in-defense-of-minimal-naive-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/05/prof-donald-r-mcconnell-why-do-many-protestants-christians-fail-to-believe-in-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/05/prof-donald-r-mcconnell-why-do-many-protestants-christians-fail-to-believe-in-natural-law/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:27:27 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=89948 Trinitarian Don: "One of the strange questions in Christian legal philosophy is why most Protestant Christians no longer believe in the doctrine of natural law – the idea that there is an unwritten identical trans-cultural objective moral standard accessible to all human beings . . . One major reason Protestants tend not to believe in natural law is they think natural law is incompatible with a strong view of the fall . . . A second reason many Protestants do not believe in natural law is kindred to the first: this is the belief man’s reason is fouled by sin and hence does not support moral knowledge . . . The third reason many Protestants do not accept natural law is that they have never heard a proper explanation of it." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2011/01/05/prof-donald-r-mcconnell-why-do-many-protestants-christians-fail-to-believe-in-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/13/rick-santorum-and-hadley-arkes-at-thomas-more-college-natural-law-and-the-catholic-statesman-in-21st-century-america/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/13/rick-santorum-and-hadley-arkes-at-thomas-more-college-natural-law-and-the-catholic-statesman-in-21st-century-america/#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:27:23 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=86172 Thomas More College of Liberal Arts: "In a symposium sponsored by Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, nearly 200 visitors gathered to listen as three prominent figures addressed the role of the Catholic statesman in 21st century America—in the light of the example of St. Thomas More, and of the legacy of President John F. Kennedy’s epochal 'Houston Speech,' in which then-Senator Kennedy promised an audience of Protestant ministers that he would keep his political conscience free of Catholic influence. It is a promise that the Kennedy family and its political heirs would keep with a vengeance, as the symposium revealed." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/13/rick-santorum-and-hadley-arkes-at-thomas-more-college-natural-law-and-the-catholic-statesman-in-21st-century-america/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/03/the-ambitions-of-natural-law-ethics-a-reply-to-arkes/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/03/the-ambitions-of-natural-law-ethics-a-reply-to-arkes/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:09:36 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=84862 Public Discourse: "In my review of Hadley Arkes' book Constitutional Illusions I criticized Arkes' account of natural law ethics. My main complaint was that Arkes' aspirations for what natural law ethics could accomplish were unrealistic, and that in particular his argument for grounding morality in "laws of reason" such as the principle of non-contradiction was unsuccessful. Now Professor Arkes has issued a friendly challenge to me in reply: If he is wrong, then what's the alternative? And in a healthy Socratic spirit, Arkes wants examples. How would I demonstrate the wrongfulness of racial discrimination, for instance, if not by showing that racists necessarily contradict themselves?" ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/03/the-ambitions-of-natural-law-ethics-a-reply-to-arkes/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/02/hadley-arkes-the-particular-appeal-of-universal-principles/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/02/hadley-arkes-the-particular-appeal-of-universal-principles/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:05:59 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=84564 Public Discourse: "The most serious criticism [Matthew O'Brien offered] dealt with . . . what he sees as a Kantian strain seeking to find the ground of our moral judgments in 'the laws of reason.' The anchoring proposition in the laws of reason is of course the law of contradiction, and the test then of any proposition claiming the standing of a necessary truth, a first principle, is that it cannot be contradicted . . . Might MacIntyre or Anscombe, or any of these other writers we both esteem, offer a more satisfying account of natural law—and a sounder judgment in rendering a just decision in these cases? Let’s make sure that this account, or judgment, is not dependent on claims that are merely probabilistic and which may not hold true from one case or place to another. And let’s make sure that it doesn’t depend merely on generalizations about our fellow humans, which may not hold true all the time." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/12/02/hadley-arkes-the-particular-appeal-of-universal-principles/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/the-shock-of-recognition-%e2%80%9cwhere-orthodoxy-is-optional-orthodoxy-will-sooner-or-later-be-proscribed-%e2%80%9d/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/the-shock-of-recognition-%e2%80%9cwhere-orthodoxy-is-optional-orthodoxy-will-sooner-or-later-be-proscribed-%e2%80%9d/#comments Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:38:23 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=83287 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/the-shock-of-recognition-%e2%80%9cwhere-orthodoxy-is-optional-orthodoxy-will-sooner-or-later-be-proscribed-%e2%80%9d/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/law-review-the-natural-law-challenge-to-choice-of-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/law-review-the-natural-law-challenge-to-choice-of-law/#comments Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:30:34 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=83422 The Natural Law Challenge to Choice of Law (November 17, 2010). THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, Donald Earl Childress III, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1710904 "Would a jurisdiction supremely confident that some or all of its own municipal law rests on natural law and universal legal truth ever have a good, purely principled, reason to look to ordinary choice of law principles and apply the substantive law of another place in a case involving foreign elements? This essay, a chapter in an upcoming volume on 'The Role of Ethics in International Law,' suggests several such reasons, some of them grounded in the natural law tradition itself and in sustained analysis of the relationship between natural law (if such a thing exists) and positive law. The essay also suggests at least a rough analogy between the jurisprudential challenges of choice of law and the theological challenges of interreligious encounter. It ends with a short effort apply the general argument to the specific question of the inter-jurisdictional recognition of same-sex marriages." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/22/law-review-the-natural-law-challenge-to-choice-of-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/15/book-review-constitutional-illusions-anchoring-truths-the-touchstone-of-the-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/15/book-review-constitutional-illusions-anchoring-truths-the-touchstone-of-the-natural-law/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:12:58 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=81972 Constitutional Illusions & Anchoring Truths: The Touchstone of the Natural Law (Cambridge University Press) by Hadley Arkes at Public Discourse: "In Constitutional Illusions Arkes revisits in eight chapters a number of the moral, political, and legal problems provoked by American constitutional jurisprudence, which have been the subject of his scholarly and popular writing for nearly fifty years. It is the burden of Arkes’s argument in the book to show that moral reasoning is inescapable—for the average man just as much for the rarified jurist—and to demonstrate the seamless connection between law and morality." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/11/15/book-review-constitutional-illusions-anchoring-truths-the-touchstone-of-the-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/the-persuasiveness-of-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/the-persuasiveness-of-natural-law/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:31:01 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=79353 writing at The Imaginative Conservative: "This past Wednesday night, Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideas and Institutions at Princeton University, gave the keynote address at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s annual Red Mass . . . According to Dr. George, natural law theory provides a persuasive alternative to other theories because it can explain two features of human action and experience that other theories, such as utilitarianism and biological determinism, not only cannot explain, but dismiss as mere illusions. Natural law can also account for the fact that most of us act 'as if' there are morally binding, objective and universal principles of human conduct, even if we do not believe such principles exist." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/the-persuasiveness-of-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/bill-whittle-on-natural-law/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/bill-whittle-on-natural-law/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:28:37 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=79351 YouTube: "What makes some laws worth obeying, while others demand to be overturned? In Part 4, Bill examines the difference between Natural Law and Political Law." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/29/bill-whittle-on-natural-law/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/21/tea-party-metaphysics-economics-and-first-principles/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/21/tea-party-metaphysics-economics-and-first-principles/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:55:52 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=77664 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/21/tea-party-metaphysics-economics-and-first-principles/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/obama-drops-creator-from-declaration-again/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/obama-drops-creator-from-declaration-again/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:44:03 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=77569 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/obama-drops-creator-from-declaration-again/feed/ 3 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/what-the-left-doesnt-understand-about-america/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/what-the-left-doesnt-understand-about-america/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:14:05 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=77402 writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: "Monday was the third time in a little over a month that President Obama wrote the Creator out of one of our nation’s founding documents . . . And the President is not alone. MSNBC's new 'Lean Forward' Progressive Movement branding campaign also leaves out 'by their Creator' from their reading of the Declaration. Again, this is no accident . . . For far too long the American people have allowed the Progressive Movement to read out of existence the checks that America’s Founders placed on government in our founding documents." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/20/what-the-left-doesnt-understand-about-america/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/charles-j-chaput-religious-liberty-as-the-foundation-of-human-liberty/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/charles-j-chaput-religious-liberty-as-the-foundation-of-human-liberty/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:16:22 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=77016 Text of remarks Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered during a tri-diocesan catechetical congress in Victoria, British Columbia, on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 15 and 16, 2010: "[John Courtney] Murray saw that religious freedom is humanity’s first and most basic freedom . . . And any attempt to suppress the right of people to worship, preach, teach, practice, organize and peacefully engage society because of their belief in God is an attack on the cornerstone of human dignity . . . Canadian and American Christians often have trouble understanding the brutality of anti-religious repression or serious religious discrimination. It's not part of our national heritage. But many millions of Christians are now being persecuted or harassed for their faith around the world. We need to pray for them. And we also need to pray for ourselves. Because we're not as securely free as we might like to think." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/charles-j-chaput-religious-liberty-as-the-foundation-of-human-liberty/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/r-j-snell-marriage-and-the-law-of-tradition/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/r-j-snell-marriage-and-the-law-of-tradition/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:58:08 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=76894 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/18/r-j-snell-marriage-and-the-law-of-tradition/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/13/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life-2/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/13/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life-2/#comments Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:01:45 +0000 ADF Alliance Alert http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=76484 Brennan, Patrick McKinley, Human Law and Natural Law in the Catholic Tradition: Authoritative Guides to the Good Life (October 1, 2010). TEACHING THE TRADITION: A DISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, J. Piderit, M. Morey, eds., Oxford University Press, 2011; Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2010-18. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=168605 The Catholic tradition offers a distinctive account of the nature of human law and political authority. This chapter – written for a volume (to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011) that is intended to state the Catholic position(s) on a range of disciplines, from physics and astronomy to medicine and law – both develops the Catholic account of law and demonstrates its “pay off” at the level of contemporary U.S. constitutional law. The core of the argument is that the definition of human law is not a matter of custom or invention: the very definition of law is provided by what is first in the order of being, viz., the eternal law, in which humans in turn participate through the natural law. The natural law is a real law, not just metaphorically law, and it sets binding terms and conditions of human lawmaking. These include that (1) law is always what the lawgiver intended and promulgated and (2) true laws are always just and thus conducive to the good life human beings. The chapter develops these and other claims through an examination of how Buck v. Bell would be decided if Catholic principles of law were to guide the Court. The chapter shows that the Catholic position entails neither judicial “activism” nor passivism, but a much more nuanced role that is a function of the people’s and their rulers’ indefeasible obligation to make the natural law effective in their living. ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/13/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life-2/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/04/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/04/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:29:16 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=74911 Human Law and Natural Law in the Catholic Tradition: Authoritative Guides to the Good Life (October 1, 2010). TEACHING THE TRADITION: A DISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, J. Piderit, M. Morey, eds., Oxford University Press, 2011; Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2010-18. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1686059 "The Catholic tradition offers a distinctive account of the nature of human law and political authority. This chapter – written for a volume (to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011) that is intended to state the Catholic position(s) on a range of disciplines, from physics and astronomy to medicine and law – both develops the Catholic account of law and demonstrates its “pay off” at the level of contemporary U.S. constitutional law. The core of the argument is that the definition of human law is not a matter of custom or invention: the very definition of law is provided by what is first in the order of being, viz., the eternal law, in which humans in turn participate through the natural law. The natural law is a real law, not just metaphorically law, and it sets binding terms and conditions of human lawmaking. These include that (1) law is always what the lawgiver intended and promulgated and (2) true laws are always just and thus conducive to the good life human beings. The chapter develops these and other claims through an examination of how Buck v. Bell would be decided if Catholic principles of law were to guide the Court. The chapter shows that the Catholic position entails neither judicial 'activism' nor passivism, but a much more nuanced role that is a function of the people’s and their rulers’ indefeasible obligation to make the natural law effective in their living." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/10/04/law-review-human-law-and-natural-law-in-the-catholic-tradition-authoritative-guides-to-the-good-life/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/20/philosopher-to-defeat-same-sex-marriage-conservatives-must-defend-traditional-sexual-morals/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/20/philosopher-to-defeat-same-sex-marriage-conservatives-must-defend-traditional-sexual-morals/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:19:26 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=69610 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/20/philosopher-to-defeat-same-sex-marriage-conservatives-must-defend-traditional-sexual-morals/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/18/david-j-theroux-c-s-lewis-on-mere-liberty-and-the-evils-of-statism-part-1/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/18/david-j-theroux-c-s-lewis-on-mere-liberty-and-the-evils-of-statism-part-1/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:27:42 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=69302 writing at Patheos: "For decades, some Christians, both 'conservative' and 'liberal,' have unfortunately embraced an ill-conceived 'progressive' (i.e., authoritarian) vision to wield intrusive government powers as an unquestionable and even sanctified calling for both domestic and international matters, abandoning the Christian, natural-law tradition in moral ethics and economics. In contrast, the Oxford/Cambridge scholar and best-selling author C. S. Lewis did not suffer such delusions, despite the gigantic and deeply disturbing advances and conflicts of total war, the total state, and genocides that developed during his lifetime." ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/18/david-j-theroux-c-s-lewis-on-mere-liberty-and-the-evils-of-statism-part-1/feed/ 0 http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/11/jordan-lorence-on-kfuo-the-vindication-of-dr-kenneth-howell/ http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/11/jordan-lorence-on-kfuo-the-vindication-of-dr-kenneth-howell/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:20:33 +0000 Admin http://www.alliancealert.org/?p=68357 Jordan Lorence appeared on KFUO with Roland Lettner to discuss the case of Dr. Kenneth Howell. | MP3 23:39 ]]> http://www.alliancealert.org/2010/08/11/jordan-lorence-on-kfuo-the-vindication-of-dr-kenneth-howell/feed/ 0