Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Faith
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NY Times Op-Ed: Why America Desperately Needed Ted Lasso
Following up on last month's post, Ted Lasso, Holy Fool: New York Times Op-Ed: Why America Desperately Needed Ted Lasso, by Margaret Renkl: “Ted Lasso” never claimed to be a healing salve for national fury. It is simply the story of a heartbroken but optimistic American football coach who accepts a job as manager of…
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Notre Dame Symposium: Liberalism, Christianity, And Constitutionalism
Notre Dame Law Review Symposium, Liberalism, Christianity, and Constitutionalism: Steven Smith (San Diego), Christians and/as Liberals?, 98 Notre Dame L. Rev. ___ (2023): Recently, as part of a more general examination and criticism of liberalism, the relation between Christianity and liberalism has been much discussed. Some critics, sometimes associated with the label “integralism,” argue that…
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WSJ: Rigorous Recent Research Confirms Religion Is Good for Your Health
Wall Street Journal Essay, Is Religion Good for Your Health?:, by David DeSteno (Northeastern; Host, How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality): Is religion a medicine for what ails us? If we’re talking about physical and mental health, the answer has been difficult to come by. Large-scale studies have consistently shown a strong association between…
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One Week Later . . .
It is exactly one week ago to the hour that we put down our beloved sweet dog Josie. I am astonished by how much I miss her. She had been a daily presence in our lives during our entire time at Pepperdine (10 1/2 years). My days would begin with her bounding out of our…
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Josie Shands Caron (2007-2023)
Update: One Week Later . . . We put down our beloved dog Josie on Friday and are filled with grief and gratitude. Grief because our home and our lives are emptier now without her. Gratitude because she was everything one could want in a dog. Josie joined our family in November 2009 when we…
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NY Times Op-Eds: The Role Of Technology In Our Lives
Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)) has published three New York Times op-eds on the role of technology in our lives: How do we help kids navigate a technological world? How do we discern what technology to adopt?…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Tim Keller Showed Me What A Christian Leader Should Be
Following up on my previous posts (links below): New York Times Op-Ed: Tim Keller Showed Me What a Christian Leader Should Be, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)): In my early 20s, I attended an event where Tim…
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More On The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller
Following up on last Sunday's post, The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller: New York Times Op-Ed: Tim Keller Taught Me About Joy, by David Brooks: American evangelicalism suffers from an intellectual inferiority complex that sometimes turns into straight anti-intellectualism. But Tim could draw on a vast array of intellectual sources to argue for the…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Pro-Trump Christians, Never-Trump Christians, And Tim Keller
Following up on last Sunday's post, The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller: New York Times Op-Ed: What Has Trump Cost American Christianity?, by Ross Douthat: When religious conservatism made its peace with Donald Trump in 2016, the fundamental calculation was that the benefits of political power — or, alternatively, of keeping cultural liberalism out of full…
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NY Times: A Christian University Fired Two Employees For Including Pronouns In Their Email Signatures
New York Times, A University Fired 2 Employees for Including Their Pronouns in Emails: When Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot decided to include their pronouns at the end of their work emails, they thought they were doing a good thing: following what they viewed as an emerging professional standard, and also sending a message of…
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The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller
Update: Pro-Trump Christians, Never-Trump Christians, And Tim Keller (May 28, 2023) More On The Life, Death, And Legacy Of Tim Keller (May 28, 2023) The Atlantic, Tim Keller’s Critique of Liberal Secularism Christianity Today, Died: Tim Keller, New York City Pastor Who Modeled Winsome Witness Christianity Today, Tim Keller Practiced the Grace He Preached Digital Liturgies, He…
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WSJ Book Review: Martin Luther King, Christian Radical
Wall Street Journal, Martin Luther King, Christian Radical, by Jonathan Eig (Author, King: A Life (2023)): Today, almost 1,000 cities and towns in the U.S. have streets named in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and more than 100 public schools bear his name. In Washington, D.C., a 30-foot-tall MLK memorial stands within sight of the Lincoln…
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Catholic Legal Education And The Formation Of Conscience
Daniel T. Judge (Notre Dame), Catholic Education and the Formation of Conscience, 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. Reflection 248 (2021): Before all else, Catholic schools are “a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth. This relationship elicits a desire to grow in the knowledge and understanding…
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NY Times Op-Ed: An Apology for Saying ‘Sorry’
New York Times Op-Ed: An Apology for Saying ‘Sorry,’ by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)): I have a fraught relationship with the words “I’m sorry.” I say it constantly, habitually, even when I don’t mean to. I was…
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Abortion And Religious Liberty
Following up on my previous posts: Does Religious Freedom Protect A Right To An Abortion? One Rabbi’s Mission To Find Out. (July 10, 2022) Jews, Muslims And Others Say Roe vs. Wade Reversal Threatens Their Religious Freedom (July 31, 2022) Josh Blackman (South Texas; Google Scholar), Some Less-Tentative Thoughts On Abortion And Religious Liberty, One…
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The IRS Just Hiked Taxes On Private Jet Flights. Pastors Are Not Excluded.
Washington Post, The IRS Just Hiked Taxes on Private Jet Flights. Pastors Are Not Excluded.: In 2017, Texas-based televangelist Kenneth Copeland told his followers he received a very specific message from the Holy Spirit: The Lord had set aside a luxury Gulfstream V jet for his ministry’s use. Copeland purchased the jet — in cash —…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Ted Lasso, Holy Fool
New York Times Op-Ed: Ted Lasso, Holy Fool, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)): Each Wednesday night my husband and I tune in to watch “Ted Lasso,” the Emmy award-winning Apple TV+ comedy series. The show’s protagonist…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Politics Can’t Fix What Ails Us; But Micah 6:4 Can
Following up on my previous post, Faith, Not Politics, Can Heal Lonely Hearts And A Nation: New York Times Op-Ed: Politics Can’t Fix What Ails Us, by David French (Author, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (2020)): One of the most important and interesting articles you should read this week…
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A Sermon On The Law: The Jurisprudence Of Love
Jeffrey R. Baker (Pepperdine), A Sermon on the Law: The Jurisprudence of Love, 15 Wash. U. Juris. Rev. 109 (2023): This essay, in the form of a sermon to lawyers and lawmakers, articulates a liberating, progressive, theological jurisprudence of love. This jurisprudence seeks the empowerment of all people and advances a strong policy preference for…
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Standing Back To See Suffering More Clearly
American Greatness Op-Ed: Standing Back to See More Clearly, by Mike Kerrigan (Hunton Andrews Kurth, Charlotte, NC): I had occasion recently to reflect on the nature of suffering while consoling a friend grieving the loss of his beautiful young daughter. Like gazing at “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” Georges Seurat’s most famous painting in pointillist style,…
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The Entangled Histories Of Science And Religion
Christianity Today Book Review: Conflict Between Science and Religion Is Always Possible but Never Inevitable, by Edward J. Larson (Pepperdine; Pulitizer-Prize Winning Author, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (Basic Books 2006)) (reviewing Nicholas Spencer, Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion (Oneworld Publications 2023)):…
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Pepperdine Caruso Law’s New Religious Clinic Engages Its First Direct Representation Of Clients: Two New Jersey Churches Denied County Historic Preservation Funds
Pepperdine Caruso Law’s new religious liberty clinic has engaged its first direct representation of clients: Pepperdine Caruso Law’s Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Religious Liberty Clinic, in collaboration with the First Liberty Institute and Jones Day, has filed a federal lawsuit against Morris County, New Jersey on behalf of The Mendham Methodist Church and The…
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NY Times Op-Ed: Praying With Our Eyes Open To See God And The Glory Of His Creation
New York Times Op-Ed: How to Pray With Our Eyes Open, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year)): The church is now in the season of Easter, which is a 50-day period of joy and celebration. During this…
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WSJ Op-Ed: Biden Boils The Religious-Liberty Frog
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Biden Boils the Religious-Liberty Frog, by Nicole Stelle Garnett (Notre Dame) & Meredith Holland Kessler (Notre Dame): Cease and desist. That’s what Walter Reed National Military Medical Center wrote last week to Holy Name College, a community of Franciscan priests that has provided pastoral care to hospitalized service members for nearly…
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Pepperdine Caruso Law 3L Commissioning Service
We hosted our 12th annual 3L Commissioning Service at Pepperdine Caruso Law last week. Like many of the best things at our school, this was the brainchild of a student. In 2012, 2L Raija Churchill proposed that the last Wednesday night Dean’s Bible study of the year model the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) as a…