Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Faith
-
Brunson: Between The Temple And The Tax Collector — The Intersection Of Mormonism And The State
Sam Brunson (Loyola-Chicago; Google Scholar), Between the Temple and the Tax Collector: The Intersection of Mormonism and the State (University of Illinois Press 2025): The founding and development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints run parallel to the rise of the modern tax system and administrative state. Samuel D. Brunson looks at…
-
TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts NY Times: IRS To Lay Off Thousands Of Employees Appeals Court Again Blocks Order Requiring LSU To Reinstate Law Prof Who Used F-Bomb In Criticising Gov. Landry And President Trump Loyola Law Review Symposium Today: Gender Bias In The Income Tax Sunday: NY Times: The Best…
-
NY Times: The Best Argument Against Having Faith In God
New York Times Op-Ed: The Best Argument Against Having Faith in God, by Ross Douthat (Author, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious (2025): Since last week’s newsletter offered a favorite argument for the existence of God, it’s only fair to balance the scales by considering a strong argument against religious faith, against the existence of some…
-
NY Times: Seeking God, Or Peter Thiel, In Silicon Valley
New York Times, Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley: When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen. Everything clicked when Peter Thiel gave the speech about God. The occasion was a 40th birthday party for Trae Stephens, who is Mr. Thiel’s venture capital partner as well as one of the founders…
-
Wikipedia Co-Founder: How A Skeptical Philosopher Becomes A Christian
Larry Sanger, How a Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian (Feb. 5, 2025): It is finally time for me to confess and explain, fully and publicly, that I am a Christian. Followers of this blog have probably guessed this, but it is past time to share my testimony properly. I am called to “Go ye into…
-
This Week’s Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
Legal Education: Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Aaron Taylor, AccessLex), The Supreme Court's SFFA Decision Has Caused An Unprecedented Shift In Law School Admissions Inside Higher Ed, As Trump's DEI Crackdown Escalates, Law Faculty Choose Between Silence And Resistance Rob Willey, Melanie Knapp & Ashley Matthews (George Mason), The Top 100 Legal Scholars Of 2024…
-
TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts As Trump's DEI Crackdown Escalates, Law Faculty Choose Between Silence And Resistance More Rich Taxpayers Learn Their Data Was Stolen in Huge IRS Leak Sunday: NY Times Op-Ed: My Favorite Argument For The Existence Of God Super Bowl LIX: Football's Lessons For America (Vince Lombardi) Most…
-
NY Times Op-Ed: My Favorite Argument For The Existence Of God
New York Times Op-Ed: My Favorite Argument for the Existence of God, by Ross Douthat (Author, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious (2025): I think that the most compelling case for being religious — for a default view, before you get to the specifics of creeds and doctrines, that the universe was made for a…
-
Super Bowl LIX: Football’s Lessons For America (Vince Lombardi)
The Free Press: Things Worth Remembering, by Charles Lane: “I sometimes wonder whether those of us who love football fully appreciate its great lessons,” said Vince Lombardi, in what friends and family called “the speech.” [What It Takes to Be #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership] [Football] is a great game, a game of great lessons,…
-
Most Super Bowl Fans Want Players To Talk About Their Faith
Christianity Today: Super Bowl Fans Don’t Want Faith Sidelined, by Paul Putz (Baylor Truett Seminary; Author, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports (2024)):: A new survey shows that many of today’s viewers see sports and Christianity in collaboration rather than in competition. [F]or Christians who bring their faith onto the field, the…
-
NY Times: Can I Go To Church When I Don’t Believe?
New York Times, Can I Go to Church When I Don’t Believe?: I grew up in the Catholic tradition, but after obtaining several university degrees — including one in religion — it became clear to me that Jesus wasn’t divine and that the cobbling together of the Bible in the fourth century was a consummate…
-
NY Times: Trump Signs Order To Fight ‘Anti-Christian Bias’
New York Times, Trump Signs Order to Fight ‘Anti-Christian Bias’: President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism. Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer…
-
This Week’s Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
Legal Education: MPR News, Minnesota Law School Cancels Search For Assistant Dean Of DEI Due To Trump's Executive Order Honolulu Civil Beat, FIRE Blasts University Of Hawaii For Censoring Law Prof's PowerPoint Presentation New Orleans Times-Picayune, Appeals Court Blocks Order Requiring LSU To Reinstate Law Prof Who ‘Used Vulgar Language To Criticize Gov. Landry And…
-
TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts Lawless: The Miseducation Of America's Elites Brian Galle Awarded Named Professorship At Georgetown Sunday: Men Flocking To Orthodox Christianity: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly NY Times Op-Ed: Even Religious People Don’t Trust Religious Institutions Bob Jones University In The 21st Century: Religious Colleges That…
-
Men Flocking To Orthodox Christianity: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Dispatch Faith: Men Flocking to Orthodoxy: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The media have it wrong. OK, maybe not just the media. I’m not sure if Orthodox Christians and the broader Christian community have thought through the implications of the reported uptick in young people (primarily men) becoming Orthodox. There are three questions we need to ask to…
-
NY Times Op-Ed: Even Religious People Don’t Trust Religious Institutions
New York Times Op-Ed: Even Religious People Don’t Trust Religious Institutions, by Jessica Grose: While the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals have been widely publicized, other major denominations have had sex abuse scandals of their own. In 2019, The Houston Chronicle published a blockbuster investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, finding that 263 church officials and volunteers were convicted of sex abuse…
-
Bob Jones University In The 21st Century: Religious Colleges That Discriminate Against LGBTQ+ Students
Sydney Smith (J.D. 2024, USC), Note, Bob Jones University in the 21st Century: An Examination of Charitable Tax-Exempt Status and Religious Exemption from Title IX for Religious Colleges That Discriminate against LGBTQ+ Students, 97 S. Cal. L. Rev. 737 (2024): On March 30, 2021, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (“REAP”) filed a historic class action…
-
This Week’s Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
Legal Education: Chronicle of Higher Education, Trump Targets 131 Colleges (74 With Law Schools) With Endowments Over $1 Billion For Possible DEI Investigations WAFB, Tenured Law Prof Sues LSU For Removing Him From Teaching After Allegedly Saying ‘F*** Trump’ In Class Reuters, Trump’s Hiring Freeze Leaves Thousands Of Law Students (And Some Law Schools’ Employment…
-
TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup
Saturday: This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts WaPo: A Tenured Columbia Law Prof Criticized Israeli Students. It Put Her Job At Risk. Mr. Musk: Cut A Trillion Dollars Of Government Fat Out Of Tax Expenditures Sunday: It’s Time For A New Era Of Christian Civility NY Times: SMU Wants To Separate From The…
-
It’s Time For A New Era Of Christian Civility
Following on last Sunday's post, New York Times Op-Ed (David French): Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel?: Christianity Today Op-Ed: It’s Time for a New Era of Christian Civility, by Alexandra Hudson (Author, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves (2023)): Over the past few years, our society has continued…
-
NY Times: SMU Wants To Separate From The Church But Keep ‘Methodist’ In Its Name
New York Times, Southern Methodist University Wants to Sever Ties to Its Church. Can the Church Stop It?: The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a battle over whether Southern Methodist University can separate from the United Methodist Church. The university, founded in Dallas by Methodists in the early 20th century, has…
-
Does Faith Have An Answer For Our Biggest Divides?
Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Commons, Does Faith Have an Answer For Our Biggest Divides?: Every Sunday, Jacquetta Carter sets off on an unusual religious journey. Leaving her home in a middle-class neighborhood of Joliet, Ill., Carter and her husband, Keith, drive 45 minutes north, through other western Chicago suburbs and into this relatively affluent community.…
-
This Week’s Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
Legal Education: ABA Journal, Stanford Law Prof Fires Meta As Client, Citing Platform's ‘Descent Into Toxic Masculinity’ Louisiana Illuminator, LSU Law Prof Removed From Classes Amid Investigation Into Political Comments Wall Street Journal, 23% Of Harvard MBAs Are Struggling To Land Jobs Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Steven Lubet, Northwestern), No, Columbia Did Not Fire…
-
TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup
Saturday: This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts Stanford Law Prof Fires Meta As Client, Citing Platform's ‘Descent Into Toxic Masculinity’ NY Times: What Did The Trump Tax Cuts Do? Nobody Really Knows. Sunday: 2025 Religious Law School Rankings NY Times Op-Ed: Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel? God Redeems Even As Wildfires…