Union University Center for Politics and Religion

Recently, the Center co-sponsored a lecture with Union's School of Theology and Missions by Jonathan Leeman on "Why Your Christianity is a Political Threat." You can read more on the four reasons that he believes this here.

Leeman Speaks on Why Your Christianity is a Political Threat | News | Department of Political Science | Union University, a Christian College in Tennessee Leeman Speaks on Why Your Christianity is a Political Threat - News from the Department of Political Science at Union University

Here is a video link to Ryan Anderson's lecture entitled "Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination." Anderson have this lecture for Union University's 2017 Constitution Day Lecture.

Constitution Day Lecture: Ryan T. Anderson from September 2017 | The Union Video Project Constitution Day Lecture: Ryan T. Anderson from September 2017 - Topic: Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination - Sponsored by the Center for Politics and Religion, the Department of Political Science, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the School of Theology and Missions.

The Center was please to help co-sponsor Ryan Anderson's Constitution Day lecture on religious liberty. Here is a summary of his lecture.

Anderson Speaks on Religious Liberty and Discrimination | Department of Political Science at Union University Anderson Speaks on Religious Liberty and Discrimination - News from the Department of Political Science at Union University

Everyone believes in religious liberty and opposes discrimination but how do we reconcile the two rights when they conflict with each other? Union is proud to host Ryan Andeson of the Heritage Foundation to help answer this question when he gives a lecture entitled "Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination" on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 7pm in the Grant Center. We hope everyone will be able to come.

Constitution Day Lecture: Ryan T. Anderson | Calendar of Events Calendar of Events hosted by Union University - Constitution Day Lecture: Ryan T. Anderson

Here is a good article outlining the challenges to religious liberty due to changes in government, s*xual values, and how religion is viewed. Anderson argues that those in favor of religious liberty must defend liberty in general, convince people of the correctness of our ideas, engage in politics to support religious liberty via PACs and other organizations, and support religious liberty for all faiths.

BTW, the author of this article will speak at Union's Constitution Day on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 7pm in the Grant Center.

The Continuing Threat to Religious Liberty Two years to the day after the Supreme Court redefined marriage in Obergefell, the Court announced that it would hear a case about the extent to which private parties may be forced to embrace this new vision of marriage. The case involves Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker who declined to bake a weddin...

Union students had a great opportunity to hear John Mark Reynolds speak on how to avoid cultural decline. He argues that societal decline is marked by a loss of confidence in the system, the failure of intellectuals to address these problems, people of faith on autopilot, the rise of the occult and irrationality, the decline of progressive conservatives, and external pressures challenging the regime. Societies can be successfully rebooted if the middle saves what is worth saving in the culture while reforming those things that need reform.

Reynolds Speaks on Warning Signs of Cultural Collapse and How to Avoid Collapse | Department of Political Science at Union University Reynolds Speaks on Warning Signs of Cultural Collapse and How to Avoid Collapse - News from the Department of Political Science at Union University

Will Western culture survive? What are the signs they will not? Come here John Mark Reynolds explain the five signs that a culture will not snap back from problems and suggests solutions to our own situation. Reynolds will speak Monday, April 3, at 6:30pm in PAC D-3. Reynolds is the founding Dean of the Torrey Honors College at Biola and former Provost at Houston Baptist University.

Interesting article on secularization that shows that there are difference in political attitudes and behaviors based on religious observance in both parties. Both Trump and Sanders did better with more secular voters as the more secular one is, the more one shows despair, has more resentments, and seeks revolutionary change. These voters also move the culture wars away from issues revolving around s*x to issues of race and nation.

America’s Empty-Church Problem The culture war over religious morality has faded; in its place is something much worse.

Gerson makes three points for evangelicals to consider since they overwhelming voted for Trump. First, distance yourself from Trump's extreme behavionr to demonstrate that your support for Trump was for more noble causes. Second, remember that religious liberty is for all religions. Third, when religions identify with a political order, the religion usually suffers the most.

Opinion | Under Trump, Christians may have it easier. They’ll also be in grave spiritual danger. Three missions for my brethren in the age of our new president.

In First Thing’s Erasmus Lecture, Russell Moore speaks of the ways that the Religious Right has become too political and that Evangelical religious conservatism needs to return to a gospel centered message to be effective in the 21st Century. He argues that a major problem for evangelicals in the 2016 election is that evangelicals preach moral formation and family values but supported someone who does not reflect those values and that this may undermine the moral credibility of evangelicals. While acknowledging that many evangelicals voted “held their nose and voted for Trump,” many leaders of the Religious Right publicly defended and normalized Trump and his behavior, even after the Access Hollywood tape. Moreover, some Christian leaders described the unrepentant Trump as a Christian which contradicts the gospel message itself.

Moore argues that there are two religious rights. The political religious right that will do things to maintain political power and a gospel oriented religious right that maintains its orthodoxy, ministers to the disadvantaged, planting churches across the US and world, and protects and promote life and marriage along with racial reconciliation and creation care. Moore argues that we need the latter type religious conservatism that has the evangelical fervor of the past but grounds it more deeply in a bible-centered theology. This new approach does not see “a culture way but the culture as a mission field of the spiritually wounded” which calls us to reach out to others in humility and to serve their spiritual and other needs (e.g., pro-life means caring for needs of women in crisis with emotional support, child care, job training, adoption services and a Gospel that frees us from guilt and shame).

Too often, we have thought that Christians have been spiritually grounded but just need to be politically mobilized. Instead, we need to do a better job of spiritually and theologically grounding members of the Church so that the Bible shapes their political engagement. This approach also means that we need to work with those we may theologically disagree but who have similar convictions. We also need to better police ideas like “wealth and health gospel” that offer cheap grace and undermine the true gospel message. We need to avoid using biblical verses for political purposes when the verse means something other than the political message (e.g., II Chronicles 7:14 refers to God’s people not the US). We need to apply biblical principles free of regional culture because the Bible speaks to all cultures as we realize we are a true multi-ethnic church and act that way. We need intentional communities that shape its people rather than people shaped by the culture (tv, movies, talk radio, etc.).This perspective sees religious liberty not as a defensive move to protect our communities but a means of creating a free society where religious communities are free to serve and persuade and promote their positive vision of the good life.

Saving the religious right means saving the correct religious right. A religious right based in the gospel that offers hope to the world is better than a politically compromised religious right that sees salvation in politics rather than God.

Can the Religious Right be Saved? | Russell D. Moore The religious right turns out to be the people the religious right warned us about. The damage is . . . .

“What has the 2016 election revealed about the state of the Church and its place in American culture, and how ought we (the American Church) move forward from here?" Here is a symposium from Breakpoint.

The Election and the Church BreakPoint