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Dear Friend of The Witherspoon Institute,
Welcome to the second issue of our seasonal newsletter. We have been quite busy, and very soon we will begin the busy summer period, taken up by the William A. Schreyer Summer Seminars.
Thank you to all who attended our recent Open House on May 28th during the Princeton University Reunions. About thirty-five people visited our offices to meet our staff and Herbert W. Vaughan Senior Fellow Robert P. George; read about or watch a slide show of our recent activities; or take home copies of our short monographs on marriage and other topics. Special thanks to anyone who was able to make a contribution to support the Institute at that time.
If you do not wish to receive this letter, you may unsubscribe at the bottom of this email, though we encourage you to read on.
The Institute sends best wishes to all university students and faculty for a safe and productive summer.
Faithfully,
Luis E. Tellez
President
The Witherspoon Institute
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 Highlight articles from Public Discourse
(Publishing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
The Lazy Slander of the Pro-Life Cause
Helen Alvaré, Greg Pfundstein, Matthew Schmitz, and Ryan T. Anderson (1/17/2011)
A catalog of the many initiatives undertaken by pro-lifers to serve mothers and infants. A response to the charge that pro-life groups care only for the unborn.
Bernard Nathanson: A Life Transformed by Truth
Robert P. George (2/27/2011)
A tribute to the recently deceased co-founder of the American abortion advocacy movement who became a convert to the pro-life cause.
Obama, DOMA, and Constitutional Responsibility
Matthew J. Franck (3/1/2011)
On the incoherence of the current stance of the executive branch of the government toward the Defense of Marriage Act, and what it suggests about that branch's leadership more generally.
Suffer the Little Children: Cohabitation and the Abuse of America's Children
W. Bradford Wilcox (4/22/2011)
A review of the wealth of sociological evidence that strongly suggests that children living in homes of cohabiting couples are at much greater risk for abuse, neglect, and other ills than are children in the intact homes of their married mother and father.
Same-Sex Marriage and the Assault on Institutional Integrity
Matthew J. Franck (4/29/2011)
On the growing intimidation in elite institutions against those who are opposed to same-sex marriage, and how such tactics are now threatening the fundamental integrity of those institutions and of the rule of law.
God and Political Science
Timothy Shah, Daniel Philpott, and Monica Toft (5/16/2011)
On how religion, in diametric contradiction of the decades-old secularist predictions of American political scientists, and despite the militant secularism of the twentieth century, is rapidly becoming most important in the international relations of the twenty-first century.
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Byron Johnson, More God, Less Crime
Templeton Press has recently published More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More by Byron R. Johnson, a renowned criminologist and Senior Fellow of The Witherspoon Institute. Dr. Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences, Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion, and Director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior, all at Baylor University. The book describes how faith communities, congregations, and faith-based organizations are essential in forming partnerships necessary to provide the human and spiritual capital to address effectively crime, offender rehabilitation, and the substantial aftercare problems facing former prisoners. In More God, Less Crime, Johnson proves that religion can be a powerful antidote to crime. For more on the book, including information on where to order copies, please visit this web page. Back to Table of Contents
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Steven Justice Made Senior Fellow
The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Steven Justice as a Senior Fellow. Justice is a Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches on a variety of topics in medieval literary history. Justice was a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, and a University of California President's Research Fellow in the Humanities. In addition, he was a Council of the Humanities Fellow at Princeton University and a Humanities Research Fellow at U. C. Berkeley. Justice received his BA in English from Yale College and his PhD in English from Princeton University. For more on Professor Justice, please visit his personal web page.
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Meeting of Conscience Protection Task Force
On June 3rd and 4th, the Witherspoon Institute hosted, on the Princeton University Campus, a meeting of the Task Force on Conscience Protection (of the Center on Religion and the Constitution), examining "The Protection of Institutional Religious Conscience." With scholars from the fields of law, medicine, political science, theology, and philosophy, and including the contributions of practitioners in health care and public policy as well as academics, the two-day meeting was an extraordinarily fruitful one for thinking through the vexing questions surrounding the principle of religious conscience as it manifests itself in an institutional context. The Task Force is chaired by Senior Fellow Helen Alvaré (George Mason University Law School). In the coming months, the Task Force will prepare a monograph on institutional religious conscience. The papers may be collected into a published anthology as well. For more details on the consultation, visit this web page.
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Meeting of International Religious Freedom Task Force
"The Case for Religious Freedom" was the theme of the two-day consultation of the Center on Religion and the Constitution's Task Force on International Religious Freedom on May 6th and 7th at Princeton Theological Seminary. This meeting was the brainchild of Senior Fellow Gerard Bradley (Notre Dame Law School) and Senior Fellow Thomas Farr (Georgetown University). The Task Force is planning to publish a monograph several months from now, tentatively titled "Religious Freedom: A Principled and Prudential Defense." Sessions looked at religious liberty from the perspectives of philosophy, theology, law, psychology, political science, sociology, and international relations. After dinner at the conclusion of the first day of the meeting, the consultation was especially honored to hear remarks from Michael Novak, which were so stimulating as to generate, effectively, an unplanned panel session. For more details on the consultation, please visit this web page.
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Second Neuhaus Colloquium: Abortion and Marriage
The Neuhaus Colloquium held its second meeting in Princeton on March 24th. Two issues were the subjects of discussion: "Abortion and the Moral Obligations of Voters: Myths, Misconceptions, and Conscientious Policy Choices," and "The Challenge to Marriage: Law, the Family, and the Moral Foundations of Republicanism." Full statements on both topics are now in preparation, following the thread of the March 24th conversations. Details on attendees at the Colloquium can be found at this web page.
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Institute for Theological Inquiry Meeting
The Witherspoon Institute co-sponsored an international conference in Jerusalem on February 6-7 spearheaded by the Institute for Theological Inquiry (ITI) and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The conference explored the recent research of the ITI scholars in its 2008-2010 project, also co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute. Questions focused on modern relations between Judaism and Christianity. For more details, please visit this web page.
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Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism Website
On January 17th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Witherspoon Institute launched an educational website dedicated to natural law and the American tradition: Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism (www.nlnrac.org). The project is made possible through the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities through its We the People initiative and with direction from scholars associated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Each section of the site provides instruction and new scholarly essays on topics in the history of the natural law tradition, along with copies of that tradition's original works. If you have any comments or queries about the site, please contact our editorial staff at nlnrac@winst.org.
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Doing the Right Thing DVD Series
Almost everyone agrees that the financial crisis that broke out in 2008 was the result of bad decisions by leaders in business, finance, and government; but public discussion of the roots of those decisions has rarely gone beyond general denunciations of greed. According to more thoughtful minds, the current moral breakdown is the consequence of decades of neglect of our moral education, a neglect originating in various forms of moral relativism.
This analysis is precisely what is presented in the recently published, six-part DVD series Doing the Right Thing, a joint production of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview and The Witherspoon Institute. Each part consists of a thirty-minute panel discussion session hosted by Chuck Colson and Princeton Professor Robert P. George (Herbert W. Vaughan Senior Fellow of The Witherspoon Institute). Also included are separate interviews with American leaders of business, academia, culture, and religion. The DVD set and its accompanying literature are intended to help schoolteachers, church groups, businesses, and families explore both the foundations of the moral law that can be understood without appeals to special revelation, and how that law is essential to the proper functioning of even the most quotidian interpersonal interactions. More information, including how to purchase copies, can be found online at http://www.doingtherightthing.com.
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Support the Institute
The Witherspoon Institute makes no profit on its activities and relies on the freewill generosity of donors to fund its projects and daily operations. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and as such any donations to it are tax-deductible. Donations of any amount are always welcome and can be made by mail-in check, or online by credit card or PayPal. For instructions, please click here.
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