The John Adams Center

The Constitution vs. the Utopians

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:53:24 +0000

The following is a review of Mark Levin’s ‘Ameritopia.’ By Bryan Benson NOPLACIA (Utopia) was once my name, That is, a place where no one goes. Plato’s Republic now I claim To match, or beat at its own game; For that was just a myth in prose . . . So runs, in [...]

Duck Beach 2012

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:30:19 +0000

On behalf of The John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Directors Ralph Hancock and Brant Bishop are pleased to announce another Memorial Weekend mini-conference in connection with the spontaneous gathering of LDS near Duck, NC.

512 Brown Pelican Ct
Corolla, NC

Click Read more below for information on our guest speakers and an itinerary.

Confronting Challenges to Faith: A Way to be Smart and Mormon

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:10:14 +0000

John Adams Center’s Managing Editor, Brandon Dabling, has co-authored a series of articles with his fellow Claremont Graduate University doctoral student and JAC Contributor Jacob Rennaker. You can read part 1 and part 2 here.

Mormonism and Liberal Authenticity: A Reply to Critics

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:39:08 +0000

By Ralph C. Hancock, with Julie Higginson Hancock When I chose recently, in articles posted at Meridian Magazine (part 1, part 2), to engage critically what I called “Mormonism Lite,” I knew I was likely to stir up considerable heat, but I was hoping the light might be worth it. To judge from all [...]

Obamacare’s Assault on Religious Liberty

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:10:39 +0000

Interested in the nature of Obamacare and its implications for Religious Liberty in America? One of our Directors, Paul A. Rahe, has recently released a video on YouTube of his speech at the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center detailing the assault of Obamacare on the very things we hold dear.

The Bulwark April Blog Review

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:18:06 +0000

Morals of Life and Death Rosalynde Welch regularly writes thoughtful articles at Patheos on Mormon and general cultural issues. In the wake of presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s criticisms of government-funded prenatal testing, Welch used Emily Rapp’s defense of prenatal testing and targeted abortions to artfully show the shallowness of contemporary liberalism’s discussion of moral questions. Rapp tells a [...]

Confessions of Joanna Pt. 2

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:33:58 +0000

In case you missed it, Meridian Magazine has now posted the second half of JAC President Ralph Hancock’s review of Joanna Brooks’ The Book of Mormon Girl. From the review: Joanna Brooks’ conflicted confession is important precisely because it clarifies for us a choice we all must face, and a choice that is becoming starker and more [...]

Confessions of Joanna or Towards a Mormonism Lite

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:12:22 +0000

President of the John Adams Center, Ralph C. Hancock, has a review of Joanna Brooks’ the book of mormon girl featured at Meridian Magazine. He writes: Like St. Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the great models of the intimate personal confession as a genre for communicating an understanding of life’s meaning, Joanna Brooks seeks to indicate a [...]

the book of mormon girl: Coke from a Root Beer Bottle

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:53:47 +0000

By Kristen Robinson Doe Joanna Brooks’ memoir, The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith, relates a lifelong relationship with the LDS Church. Brooks conveys this relationship through a variety of childhood and adult experiences that influenced her self-identification as an “unorthodox Mormon woman” (168). This unorthodoxy, unrecognized as a variation of [...]

The Bulwark March Blog Review

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:58:16 +0000

Oh say, what is truth? ‘Tis the fairest gem That the riches of worlds can produce, And priceless the value of truth will be when The proud monarch’s costliest diadem Is counted but dross and refuse. Yes, say, what is truth? ‘Tis the brightest prize To which mortals or Gods can aspire; Go search in the depths [...]

JAC’s Paul Rahe on “American Catholicism’s Pact With the Devil”

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:55:24 +0000

In light of Obama administration’s HHS controversy with American Catholic Bishops, JAC Director Paul Rahe writes, “At every turn in American politics since that time, you will find the [Catholic Church] hierarchy assisting the Democratic Party and promoting the growth of the administrative entitlements state. At no point have its members evidenced any concern for [...]

The Lumbering Bully Strikes Again

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:16:52 +0000

By William C. Duncan Director, Marriage Law Foundation I would argue that what is at the center of Tuesday’s Ninth Circuit panel decision that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional is not really its contempt for the voters of California (as troubling as that element is) or its intellectual obtuseness (evidenced in the majority’s inability to [...]

The Bulwark’s February Blog Review

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:01:50 +0000

Warding off Caesar

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:56:12 +0000

By Guy Burnett The Obama Administration has been handed one of the most striking defeats against its recently invigorated EEOC. On January 11, at the hands of the Supreme Court (including both of President Obama’s own appointees), the EEOC was struck down in its attempt to put further controls on religious rights. In Hosanna-Tabor [...]

Liberty in Action

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:15:00 +0000

This post is part 2 of a 2-part series devoted to reviewing Connor Boyack’s Latter-day Liberty: A Gospel Approach to Government and Politics. By Brandon Dabling JAC Editorial Board It is not enough to understand what liberty is in the abstract or know why it is important. Liberty-loving Latter-day Saints must also “correctly [...]