—Part III— Parts I and II of this article surveyed the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ tax proposals, particularly those (like the wealth tax proposals) that seek to reduce economic inequality, and located those proposals in the history of tax philosophy. This Part III places that largely post-Enlightenment philosophy of taxation in dialogue with the longer…
Image from Pixabay —Part II— Part I of this article surveyed the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ tax plans and situated proposals for raising revenue and reducing the wealth gap in broader tax policy concerns. The proposals are revisiting two questions dormant since the early 1980s: (1) how should tax policy balance the dual concerns of…
Image from Pixabay —Part I— Many Christian theologians of the past two thousand years would likely have supported a wealth tax, but not for the reasons given by the current Democratic presidential candidates. Using the tax system to redistribute resources from the wealthy to the poor has been a matter of controversy in American history,…
Director Vlada Knowlton sat down with the Emory University community to talk about her recent film The Most Dangerous Year. You can watch the trailer for the film above and explore video excerpts from the Q&A below. Gender is a matter of perennial concern in legal and religious spheres, and its implications are often profound: a…
Photo by stevepb on Pixabay (CCO) For Dr. Will Cooke, an evangelical Christian physician in rural Indiana, the Sermon on the Mount motivates him to care for his poor and often addicted patients, and to raise his voice to advocate for better access to treatment and medicines. “Just praying for the sick or yielding the responsibility…
Cover Image: U.S. Congressman Mike Pompeo in 2011. Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0 On May 30, 2019, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards—the only Democratic governor of a deep-south state—signed into law a “heartbeat bill” banning abortion after six weeks. In defending his decision, which contravenes the national Democratic Party’s platform plank on securing reproductive health and…
Bladensburg World War I Memorial. Bladensburg, Maryland. Flickr. CC BY 2.0. In its recent decision in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Supreme Court has once again drawn conclusions grounded in a faulty reading of history. Ruling 7-2 that a 40-foot cross located along a highway in Bladensburg, Maryland does not violate First Amendment…
Cover image: Palace of Westminster, London. 2007. Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 2.5). To most Americans, the Brexit phenomenon is a uniquely European enigma. Images of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unruly tuft of blonde hair and Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow’s fuming face while moderating an argumentative Parliament are now ubiquitous on…
Time Lapse Photo of Stars on Night/ Jakub Novacek / Pexels Note: This and other essays in this series were originally delivered as part of the Leadership and Multifaith Program symposium on Law, Religious Identity, and Public Discourse held at Georgia Tech on September 26, 2019. In my work as the curator of the Museum…
Photo by StockSnap on Pixabay (CCO) Note: This and other essays in this series were originally delivered as part of the Leadership and Multifaith Program symposium on Law, Religious Identity, and Public Discourse held at Georgia Tech on September 26, 2019. I agree with much of Judge Dhanidina’s rather dour diagnosis of our current societal ills. We…