Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Faith
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WSJ Op-Ed: How Solzhenitsyn Found Himself—And God
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: How Solzhenitsyn Found Himself—and God, by Gary Saul Morson (Northwestern): Uncompromising atheism was the fundamental principle of Soviet ideology. It’s thus remarkable that three of the greatest Soviet literary masterpieces—Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago,” Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago”—were avowedly Christian. Woven into Solzhenitsyn’s account…
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NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) To YIGBY (Yes In God’s Back Yard): Affordable Housing On Church Property
Ilya Somin (George Mason; Google Scholar), "Yes in God's Backyard"—A Useful, But Limited Form of Housing Deregulation: America has a serious shortage of housing in many parts of the country, and the main cause of the probem is exclusionary zoning: regulations that severely restrict the amount and types of housing that can be built in many…
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The Book Of Job: Good News For An Unfair World
Christianity Today Op-Ed: The Book of Job Gives Us Good News for an Unfair World, by Ellie Wiener (Ph.D. Student (Dissertation, The Book of Job), Cambridge): Life is unfair, and that is a problem. All humans seem to have an “unfairness radar” that goes off whenever we encounter senseless injustice. From trite examples provoking our…
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WSJ: God Inc.—Church Startups Spread Franchise Model Across U.S.
Wall Street Journal, God Inc.—Church Startups Spread Franchise Model Across U.S.: Aaron Burke launched Radiant Church a decade ago in a rundown movie theater in Tampa, Fla., offering a model of Christianity increasingly popular among America’s faithful. The church leans conservative on matters of gender and sexuality, and its services feature a Pentecostal-style exuberance with high-energy bands and entertaining sermons. Radiant…
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Christian Belmont University Permits Hiring Faculty Of Other Faiths Or No Faith
Inside Higher Ed, Belmont University Permits Hiring Interfaith Faculty: Belmont University has hired only Christian professors for most of its history, but university leaders announced Wednesday that faculty members of all faiths, or no faith at all, are now welcome to apply, representing a major policy shift for the private Christian institution in Nashville. The…
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Baez: The Medical Expense Deduction—Physicians, Medicine Men, And Spirituality
Beau Baez (Ohio Northern; Google Scholar), The Medical Expense Deduction: Physicians, Medicine Men, and Spirituality: Expenses for buckskins, baskets, and Navajo healing ceremonies were allowed as medical deductions in Tso v. Commissioner of Revenue (“Tso”). This case led to an expansion of the medical expense tax deduction to other non-traditional treatments, including energy healers that…
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An Essay In Defense Of Christianity
Rupert Shortt (Cambridge; Author, The Eclipse of Christianity and Why It Matters (2025)), An Essay in Defence of Christianity: Any bid to commend the claims of Christianity in writing should include a critical caveat. This essay defends a way of life, not a scientific theory such as evolution, or an abstract term like liberty. Whatever view…
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Discovery Of Oldest Account Of Jesus As A Boy Provides Added Context To New Testament
Washington Post, An Account of Jesus as a Boy is Decoded From an Ancient Papyrus Scrap: For decades, a clumsily written document sat unnoticed at a university library in Germany, believed to be nothing more than a very old, everyday note, such as a private letter or a shopping list. Now, more than a millennium…
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Inazu: Encouraging And Equipping Christian Faculty At Non-Christian Universities
John Inazu (Washington University; Google Scholar), Encouraging and Equipping Christian Faculty at Non-Christian Universities: In an earlier post, I described the Newbigin Fellows, a partnership between Interfaith America (where I serve as a Senior Fellow) and The Carver Project (an organization I founded five years ago). The Newbigin Fellows convenes cohorts of Christian faculty working at non-Christian colleges and universities. These…
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A New Book Of Job Movie: ‘If God Loves You, Why Does He Let Me Hurt You?’
Christianity Today Movie Review: ‘Have You Considered My Servant Kevin?’, by Rebecca Cusey (Blankingship & Keith, Fairfax, VA): A new film, “The Shift” [available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube], is an entertaining, thoughtful, and cinematically competent retelling of Job. Movies created for a Christian audience by Christian production houses are historically a…
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WaPo Op-Ed: Invisible And Exposed — But Adaptable, As Only The Old Can Be
Washington Post Op-Ed: Invisible and Exposed — But Adaptable, As Only the Old Can Be, by Anne Lamott (Author, Somehow: Thoughts on Love (2024)): Anyone who survived eighth-grade gym class believes that the worst is over, that it will all be downhill from that peak of vulnerability and mortification. And then you get old. For…
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WSJ Op-Ed: God’s Place In D-Day’s Great Crusade
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: God’s Place in D-Day’s Great Crusade, by Michael Snape (Durham University): As the West marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, there is a telling instance of amnesia. The religious significance of Operation Overlord, the Allied forces’ invasion of France on June 6, 1944, is largely ignored. That misses an essential part…
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Morse Tan Steps Down As Liberty Law School Dean After 2 1/2 Years; Tax Prof Tim Todd Named Interim Dean
Liberty University Names Morse Tan Senior Executive Director of Center for Law & Government: The Center for Law & Government in Liberty University’s Helms School of Government was established as a training ground for tomorrow’s leaders to learn how to engage the culture and impact law and policy in America. The center has become an…
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One Year Later . . .
It is one year to the day since we put down our beloved sweet dog, Josie. I am astonished by how much I miss her. So much so that this is my home workstation, where Josie slept at my feet. Now it is adorned with her collar and dog tag, along with the daily reminder…
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Chasing Hope: Courage In A Hurting World
Christianity Today Book Review: After Covering Global Disasters for Decades, Nicholas Kristof Is More Hopeful Than Ever, by Gary Haugen (Founder & CEO, International Justice Mission; Author, Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World (2021)) (reviewing Nicholas Kristof, Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life (2024)): This is a memoir from someone…
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WaPo Op-Ed: The Dressing Room Encounter That Made Me Get Real About Aging
Washington Post Op-Ed: The Dressing-Room Encounter That Made Me Get Real About Aging, by Anne Lamott (Author, Somehow: Thoughts on Love (2024)): The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt. I ache for the world but naturally I’m mostly watching the Me Movie, where balance and strength are beginning…
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The Bible And Same-Sex Marriage
Christianity Today Book Review: What Believers Can and Can’t Affirm in Those Who Affirm Same-Sex Marriage, by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek (Ohio Northern; Google Scholar; Author, Marriage, Scripture, and the Church: Theological Discernment on the Question of Same-Sex Union (2021) (reviewing Rebecca McLaughlin, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and…
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I’m A Jewish Alumna Of Christian Colleges —Where I Found A Safe Home
New York Post Op-Ed: I’m a Jewish Alumna of Christian Colleges —Where I Found a Safe Home, by Sara Garfinkle (B.A. 2020, Hillsdale; M.P.P. 2022, Pepperdine): “But you’re Jewish!” Other than “Why?” this is the most common reaction when I share that I attended a Christian college. Actually, I attended two. Recent events on college…
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Happy Memorial Day From Pepperdine
Tom Knudsen (General Counsel, Pepperdine), A Special Memorial Day Message: While there are competing claims as to the origins of Memorial Day, Congress has declared its birthplace as Waterloo, New York. There, on May 5, 1866, a year after its conclusion, a small ceremony was held to honor local residents who had fought in the…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Harrison Butker’s Very American Catholic Traditionalism
New York Times Op-Ed: Harrison Butker’s Very American Traditionalism, by Ross Douthat: Across almost two weeks of controversy over the commencement speech that Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., one of the most useful pieces of commentary came from Kevin Tierney, writing in Catholic World Report. Tierney neither defended nor attacked Butker’s…
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A Year After Tim Keller’s Death, His Humility And Self-Forgetfulness Are His Biggest Legacy For Us
Following up on my post, The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller: Christianity Today, Would Tim Keller Care If We Weren’t Still Talking About Him? Probably Not.: [Tim Keller had] an indifference to fame and to curating an image—something many of us struggle with in the social media era. This is also part of why, I…
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WSJ Op-Ed: United Methodist Church Abandons Traditional Christian Teaching On Homosexuality And Marriage
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Methodists Keep Up With the Times, by Carl R. Trueman (Grove City College; Author, Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consumed with Individualism and Identity (2024)): The United Methodist Church at its General Conference last week voted by large margins to lift its ban on practicing homosexual…
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Pepperdine Caruso Law Celebrates The Class Of 2024
Commissioning Service: Baccalaureate Service: Commencement: On Friday, May 17, the Pepperdine Caruso Law Class of 2024 gathered at Alumni Park to celebrate their commencement with their families, friends, and classmates. It was a joyous occasion for the 400 graduates who earned their Juris Doctor, Master of Laws, Master of Dispute Resolution, and Master of Legal…
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WaPo Op-Ed: Lifelong Lessons In Coping With Fear And Humiliation
Washington Post Op-Ed: Lifelong Lessons in Coping With Fear and Humiliation, by Anne Lamott (Author, Somehow: Thoughts on Love (2024)): As a woman of faith and cranky optimism, I am usually afraid of only a dozen or so things at any given time, which is a major improvement since childhood. I was the single most…
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Dallas Mavericks: The NBA Basketball Team Created To Represent God
Christianity Today: The Basketball Team Created to Represent God, by Paul Putz (Faith & Sports Institute, Baylor Truett Seminary; Author, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports (2024)): The Dallas Mavericks were intended to be the first Christian team in the NBA. At the time, 1980 did not seem like a great…