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25 results

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  • Introduction

  • Edited by Jeffrey B. Hammond, Helen M. Alvare, George Mason University, Virginia
  • Book:
    Christianity and the Laws of Conscience
    Published online:
    12 June 2021
    Print publication:
    24 June 2021, pp 1-20

  • Summary

    Christians have wrestled with conscience from Christianity’s beginning to the present. Does it exist? Do religious and nonreligious people have it? Is conscience a subjective or objective reality? Christians have asked if it is God’s voice, human beings’ own voice, or the voice of the community. Is conscience found in natural law? Is it a combination of the mind, will, heart, and/or the soul? Is it a divine judgment or a self-evaluation? What are the consequences of following an erroneous conscience? Lately, questions have arisen about conscience in a pluralistic society. What ought to be the relationship between conscience and law? Commentators also struggle with questions about accommodating institutions’ conscience claims. Which institutions might qualify and why? Lawmakers also contend over conscience claims made by individuals concerning military service, or over state laws about family matters increasingly at odds with Christian commitments. This book explores sources having lasting influence upon questions about conscience, including the New Testament, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Roger Williams, US federal and state constitutions, and Pope Benedict XVI, among many others.

  • 18 - Christian Conscience and Sexual Expression Rights

  • from Part III - Applied Topics in Law and Conscience
  • Edited by Jeffrey B. Hammond, Helen M. Alvare, George Mason University, Virginia
  • Book:
    Christianity and the Laws of Conscience
    Published online:
    12 June 2021
    Print publication:
    24 June 2021, pp 354-374

  • Summary

    Helen Alvaré chronicles tension between Christian individuals and institutions, and laws promoting sexual expression rights. Church and state used to share outlooks on these matters. Today, laws often mandate cooperation with behaviors opposed to Christian teachings on abortion, contraception, or same-sex relationships. State and certain private groups claim that new laws are necessary to secure interests such as dignity, equality, privacy, and personal identity. These laws are reinforced by cultural movements pressing individual autonomy and sexual freedom. Corporations and media have favored sexual expression protections and have discouraged exemptions for religious conscience. Christians, though, link religious teachings about sexual expression to core articles of faith on matters such as the nature of God, God’s relationship to humans, and how humans are to treat one another. Christians judge, then, that they should not cooperate with laws against these commitments. They also point to the close ties between impaired family relationships and increasing divides between racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States. The stakes for both sides of the controversy are high.

Christianity and the Laws of Conscience
  • An Introduction
  • Edited by Jeffrey B. Hammond, Helen M. Alvare
  • Published online:
    12 June 2021
    Print publication:
    24 June 2021
  • Conscience has long been a foundational theme in Christian ethics, but it is a notoriously slippery and contested term. This volume works to define conscience and reveal the similarities and differences between different Christian traditions' thinking on the subject. In a thorough and scholarly manner, the authors explore Christian theological, legal, constitutional, historical, and philosophical meanings of conscience. Covering a range of historical periods, major figures in the development of conscience, and contemporary applications, this book is a vital source for scholars from a wide variety of disciplines seeking to understand conscience from a range of perspectives.

Putting Children's Interests First in US Family Law and Policy
  • With Power Comes Responsibility
  • Helen M. Alvaré
  • Published online:
    28 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 December 2017
  • The well-being of children should be a social priority, and should consider the family circumstances into which children are born. Putting Children's Interests First in US Family Law and Policy: With Power Comes Responsibility details the rise of a federal policy of 'sexual expressionism', which prioritizes adults' interests over children's welfare. It describes the costs to children in the areas of family structure and stability, and the federal programs attempting to ameliorate the situation of non-marital children. Offering a detailed empirical and ethical critique both of 'sexual expressionism' and of the related federal programs, this study will be of interest to scholars and activists supporting children, women and the poor.

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