Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Greg Lukianoff unpacks the latest Big Fed maneuver to control speech on campus through some pretty broad guidelines as to what now constitutes sexual harassment. Addressing a Title Iv and Title IX case at  the University of Montana,  a letter came to UM from the Justice Department and the Education Department:

But the joint letter, which announced a “resolution agreement” with the university, didn’t stop there. It then proceeded to rewrite the federal government’s rules about sexual harassment and free speech on campus.

Lukianoff is President of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). He writes:

The implications for professors and students are enormous. An unsuccessful request for a date, or even assigning a potentially offensive book like “Lolita,” could now be construed as harassment. As attorney and civil libertarian Wendy Kaminer commented on The Atlantic’s website this week: “The stated goal of this policy is stemming discrimination, but the inevitable result will be advancing it, in the form of content-based prohibitions on speech.”

It seems there is a growing “right not to be offended.” Also, students in some cases may be punished before guilt or innocence is even determined!

Lukianoff is also the author of Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate. And an atheist. His book is the subject of an article by Les Sillars, Professor of Journalism at Patrick Henry College in Virginia. The article is “Lukianoff’s Ashes: What a Candid Postmodernist Might Do to an Atheist’s Book Exposing Campus Censorship.” Sillars takes us to a campus book burning where Lukianoff is denounced by the Vice President of the Office of Intellectual Diversity. (Should Lukianoff now watch out for the IRS?)

“Lukianoff”s Ashes” will be published in the next issue of Salvo Magazine, which goes to press Monday. (You may subscribe here.)

Denyse O’Leary is on to something when she writes about the clearly growing unease that scientists who think science is the only path to true knowledge have with the Big Bang Theory. “Serious materialist atheists are well aware of its theistic implications and seek various ways to discredit it.”

Manufacturing doubts about the Big Bang
http://tbsblog.thebestschools.org/2013/05/09/manufacturing-doubts-about-the-big-bang/

The Big Bang: Fireworks still on despite downpour?
http://tbsblog.thebestschools.org/2013/05/08/the-big-bang-fireworks-still-on-despite-downpour/

Still under construction: A No Big Bang Universe
http://tbsblog.thebestschools.org/2013/05/08/under-construction-a-no-big-bang-universe/

The “I hate the Big Bang” Cosmology Club
http://tbsblog.thebestschools.org/2013/05/08/some-five-star-members-of-the-i-hate-the-big-bang-cosmology-club/

Hence, Multiverses are now the rage. So Christians are medieval and unscientific for believing in some heaven beyond our world, but scientists can state with a straight face that there are billions of universes–only we just can’t ever see them? Or (the latest) that Nothing existed, and then Nothing spit out our universe? Nothing? May favorite, though, if that there is an infinite number of universes from which ours happily came into being. So an atheist posits that something Infinite had to cause our world? Well, it’s not much, but maybe that’s a step in the right direction…..

A ond-day conference will be held at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church  on Chicago’s southwest side near Midway Airport, sponsored by Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Theology,  edited by Rev. Fr. Burnell F. Eckardt Jr. (see his Touchstone article, Nursery Crimes, Jan/Feb 2013). Rumor has it that Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon is planning to attend this conference. See you there? The cost is $12.

Soldiers in the Roman army in ancient times ran afoul of the Imperial cult when they testified to their allegiance to Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lord, Caesar of caesars if you will. Today’s Pentagon is not threatening capital punishment but merely a court martial to any one sharing his faith in Christ  with another soldier. There is some debate as to the intent of this–there have been some reported incidents of superior officers who are Christian forcing servicemen to attend religious services, for instance. But proselytization is a word that, in the view of a secularist judge, might include sharing one’s faith in the most natural way, in the midst of a conversation about life and death matters. One soldier says to another soldier about his demeanor after a harrowing experience, “How do you manage to take it?” He say, “I say the ‘Jesus Prayer.’” “What’s that?” Oh, no, don’t talk about it?

At CatholicVote.org, it is reported by Steve Skojec that clergy attempting to minister to the injured and dying at the Boston Marathon bombing scene were denied access, while other responders weren’t. The article quotes Jennifer Graham’s article in the Wall Street Journal:

…it is a poignant irony that Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy who died on Boylston Street, was a Catholic who had received his first Communion just last year. As Martin lay dying, priests were only yards away, beyond the police tape, unable to reach him to administer last rites—a sacrament that, to Catholics, bears enormous significance.

Skojec writes, “Final judgment on this story should be reserved until the Boston Police Department clarifies their thinking on the matter, which I hope they will do very soon.”

ACT3 Network Special Events

With the recent election of Pope Francis there is renewed hope among many evangelicals for an unprecedented new day for Christian unity in evangelism and mission. Many ask, “How can this be when we do not preach the same gospel?” How do we overcome the “anathemas” of the past and the widespread evangelical belief that the Catholic Church preaches “a false gospel?” Is there a better way forward and if so how?

Because ACT3 Network shares the vision that we call missional-ecumenism we offer these two special events to the public on Tuesday, April 30, 2013.

Leaders Luncheon

“Calvin & Aquinas: Friends or Foes in Understanding Paul’s Letter to the Romans?”

11:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Alberto’s Restaurant in the Holiday Inn, Carol Stream, Illinois

150 S Gary Ave  Carol Stream, IL 60188

ACT3 Missional Forum

“Catholics and Evangelicals: Allies or Enemies?”

7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Windsor Park Manor

124 Windsor Park Dr  Carol Stream, IL 60188

The speaker at both events is Dr. Charles Raith II, assistant Professor of Religion & Philosophy at John Brown University. Dr. Raith received his Ph.D. from Ave Maria University, doing a doctoral dissertation on the theology of John Calvin and Thomas Aquinas in relationship to Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. He received an M.Th. from Regent College and an M.Div. from Beeson Divinity School.

You must also register for one, or both, of these events at www.act3network.com. Each event has a different registration and fee. Please visit the web site and sign up online.

Much like the United States and the majority of Western nations, Scotland is moving into deeper darkness, as reported here, with some bias and approbation. St. Columba of Iona would weep. Scotland, once a major source of missionaries, was Presbyterian, and it seems could use some of the Presbyterian missionaries of Korea to re-evanglize the country. The Koreans are sending missionaries in droves, as reported last summer from the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton:

The number of Korean missionaries in 169 countries has exceeded 20,000 – more than doubling in 10 years. At this rate of growth, Korea is expected to surpass the United States as the top missionary-sending country in the world by the year 2020.

Scotland, of course, is moving along a path that has been followed for decades. The U.S. is not far behind. The report above also inadvertently suggests the link between the darkness and the desire for sexual license and the church’s approval of the new sexuality. As I recently heard a preacher ask, How can people decide not to know the difference between a man and a woman? Korean Christians know.

This is a good reason to visit Australia: The 7th World Congress of Families is meeting in Sydney this year. Many pro-life  pro-family organizations will be participating. The Fellowship is a partner with the Congress. You will have many opportunities to be encouraged by presentations, workshops, conversations, networking, and the positive energy of dynamic leaders who believe in the future of the family, or rather, that the best future of any society lies in healthy families.

The World Congress of Families is not like other Congresses. It has an ambitious and urgent task of shifting the debate in key areas to strengthen the natural family worldwide.

While the Congress will feature over 100 leaders from academia, business, law, politics, religion, media, health, education, entertainment, and activists, who will present data and reasoned arguments for strengthening the natural family, it is really those listening and learning, in other words, the delegates, that will determine the success of the Congress.

Why? Because delegates go away and become catalysts for change – at work, at home and in their affiliated organisations.

The evidence for the origin of life on Earth lies in our own skin, folks. Superbeings from somewhere else in the cosmos did it. Richard Dawkins will be glad to know. Now the date of this story from the Discovery Channel people is April 1, 2013….Coincidence?

You should know about an upcoming event this Friday sponsored by our good friends at The Family in America:

“The ‘War on Women’: Myth or Reality,” and speakers are our own Dr. Allan Carlson; Kay Hymowitz of The Manhattan Institute; Ross Douthat of the New York Times; Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America; and Ryan MacPherson, our senior editor and professor of history at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota. The symposium will be held on Friday, April 12, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, in the Capitol Visitors Center, Room 201, Washington, DC. Lunch will be provided, and the event is free.

Any who wish to register should call Nicole King, at (815) 964-5819, call or text (815) 742-4387, or email nicole@profam.org