Ruth Institute Blog

By Jennifer Thieme

This article was first published at clashdaily.com on February 7, 2013.

Christian ignorance on the gay marriage issue frustrates me, a lot. Here’s why.

So many times on comment threads or blogs relating to the gay marriage issue, I see Christians saying things like this:

– God hates gays and that’s why gay marriage is wrong.
– God is against homosexuality and that’s why gay marriage is wrong.
– Marriage was defined by God in the Bible and that’s all I need to know.

… and the like. These kinds of comments frustrate me to no end! Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

The religious lives of young people are being damaged by family breakdown, a new report shows. How will churches respond?

Christians throughout the West are dismayed at plummeting church attendance figures. They blame video games, or left-wing teachers, or Richard Dawkins. But perhaps the real answer is closer to home — their own families. Read more…

by Patrick Fagan

February 6th, 2013 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/02/7821/

Family, church, and school are the three basic people-forming institutions, and it is no wonder that they produce the best results–including economic and political ones–when they cooperate.

Even if all the market reforms of the Washington think tanks, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes Magazine were enacted, we’d still need to kiss the Great American Economy goodbye. Below the level of economic policy lies a society that is producing fewer people capable of hard work, especially married men with children. As the retreat from marriage continues apace, there are fewer and fewer of these men, resulting in a slowly, permanently decelerating economy. Read more…

by Allan Carlson

Luther regarded contraception as among the most wicked of sins. So why had nearly all Protestant denominations embraced the practice by the 1970s?

Video: In Focus 02/17/12- Matt Trewhella with Dr. Allan C. Carlson; Godly Seed from VCY America TV on Vimeo.

The Protestant Reformation was in significant part a protest against the perceived antinatalism of the late Medieval Christian Church. It was a celebration of procreation that also saw contraception and abortion as among the most wicked of human sins, as direct affronts to the ordinances of God. This background makes the Protestant “sellout” on contraception in the mid 20th Century all the more surprising, and disturbing. Read more…

Rev. Dale S. Kuehne, Ph.D., the Richard L. Bready Chair of Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good at Saint Anselm College

How the world has changed (. . . and there’s no going back)

Christianity has always been counter-cultural; the daily challenge for followers of Christ is to be in and not of the culture. At no time is this more challenging than at the moment of cultural transformation. Now is such a time. Read more…

by Sheila Liaugminas

Can science prove or disprove the existence of God? Has the origin of creation without a creator come to be settled science? Are these questions knowable, even by the brightest minds in the world? Yes, sort of, is the basic answer… Read more…

by Mariette Ulrich

Beleaguered adherents to most religious creeds are accustomed to having their beliefs and lifestyles mocked and derided in our post-modern, God-is-dead society. So it’s rather refreshing, if not vindicating, to read an article like this one by Andrew Whitehouse, Associate Professor, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia. Read more…

by Christopher O. Tollefsen

A new book by a leading philosopher argues that there is a deep compatibility between science and religion and a hidden incompatibility between science and naturalism. Read more…

Rev. Dale S. Kuehne, Ph.D.

The Richard L. Bready Chair in Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good

Saint Anselm College

I often wish I could summon our founding fathers from the grave to engage our society in a discussion on liberty, but I am afraid they would have difficulty making themselves understood.  Not because of a language barrier, but because a pervasive contemporary misconception of the nature of freedom.  “Liberty” and “rights” are among the most misunderstood words in the English language.  It is commonly believed that freedom is the mere absence of restraint, and that so long as we don’t hurt anyone and have the consent of others for our actions we should be permitted to do as we please.  By itself, however, the absence of restraint is no gift.  Some choices enhance a free society, other choices, freely made, can undermine freedom.  Freedom is ultimately based on what a citizen chooses to do when restraint is absent.  Read more…

By Benjamin Mann

Blogger Leah Libresco, known for writing about ethics and religion from her perspective as an atheist, announced June 18 that she now believes in God and intends to enter the Catholic Church.

“For several years, a lot of my friends have been telling me I had an inconsistent and unsustainable philosophy,” the Washington, D.C.-based author of the “Unequally Yoked” blog wrote in a post announcing her intention to convert. Read more…