TBA

TBA

TBA

The Five Basic Institutions (Family, Church, School, Marketplace and Government) are fundamental tasks that begin with the act of sexual intercourse, from which man springs. The new baby is shaped by and shapes its parents and thus is set in motion the formation of the capacity to love, to worship, to learn, to work and to govern. Each individual, couple and family must learn to do these tasks well (or suffer from not) and in the process whole neighborhoods, cities, states and nations move forward or lag behind. Though each task and institution is intimately linked with all the others when closely looked at marriage and worship (family and religion) are the foundational set, the basement on which the rest of the building rests.

There are massive consequences for Congress, in its costs and the demands that shape them, in its revenues and the nations capacity to pay them. As in sports so too in the much more important task of statecraft: get the basics right and the rest is easy; get the basics near perfect and real strength is the natural outcome.

Historic orthodox Christian teaching that sexual relations should be confined to a marriage relationship between one man and one woman is good news for everyone. Rev. Kuehne addresses how this thesis became accepted wisdom in the West for centuries, why it is being discarded, and why recovery would be good news for everyone. In short, Kuehne argues that there is a way we can all (regardless of religious disposition and political ideology) apply this to public policy.

TBA

TBA

Richard Weaver, who wrote the landmark book "Ideas Have Consequences," called modern media "the great stereopticon." He said that modern media shape our thought process in negative ways, irrespective of the content. Marshall McLuhan took the idea a step further when he wrote that "the medium is the message." And Neil Postman, in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," said that modern media are turning us into a nation that no longer knows how to grapple with important issues. In this presentation Warren Cole Smith will explore these ideas from a distinctly Christian perspective and discuss how and why modern electronic media are poorly suited for the communication of Christian ideas.

TBA

TBA

As people throughout the world have sought to understand the causes of the recent global economic crisis, many different factors have been named, including irresponsible lending practices by mortgage bankers and the arcane nature of such financial instruments as credit default swaps and greed-as lying as the root of the crisis. Last year Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, basically agreed with a television interviewer's proposal that greed is at the root of the problem, and this actually echoed something Greenspan had said seven years earlier in a widely noted address before a committee of the United States Senate. In light of these diagnoses of a crisis that has caused tremendous suffering to people throughout the world, it is worth seeing that the Christian tradition has taught about the vice of greed or avarice and how adherence to such teaching could help bring about the transformation of our global economy that is so urgently needed today.

The amount that has been written or preached on this topic could easily fill many books. In Father Wiseman's talk, he will briefly highlight the teaching of three preeminent authors from the Christian tradition: fromthe patristic era, St. Basil the Great; from the medieval period, St. Catherine of Siena; and from recent times, Thomas Merton. Wiseman will then conclude with some reflections on his own thoughts about what would be needed to make such teaching more effective today.

TBA