Sara Krulwich/NYT
The American Philosophical Association has announced that John’s New York Times Op-Ed, “Drawing a Line in the ‘Gay Wedding Cake’ Case,” is one of four winners of the 2018 APA Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest. The prize honors “standout pieces that successfully blend philosophical argumentation with an op-ed writing style.”
Read the full APA announcement here.
On October 11, John joined Prof. Robin Fretwell Wilson and moderator Dr. John Jackson, the President of William Jessup University, at the Fifth Annual Court/Clergy Conference in Sacramento, for a panel on “Building Bridges in Polarizing Times.” The Conference brought together people from across the political spectrum to discuss religious liberty and related issues.
John has just released his new “Better Argument” series on YouTube, a baker’s dozen of very short videos on identifying fallacies and promoting more productive dialogue. The project was filmed at Wayne State University by James Wright and Mayabeth Jagosz and supported by a grant from the American Philosophical Association. This is a pilot series; there are plans for future installments.
You can watch the full series here.
On October 5 at UNAM in Mexico City, John joined fellow scholars to talk about Linda McClain’s forthcoming book on The Rhetoric of Bigotry and Conscience.
At the online Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Nicholas Bamforth provides a thoughtful review of Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination. His takeaway:
Overall, this book is a thought-provoking endeavour, and it is commendable that the authors have tried to challenge one another and to find areas of agreement. Their willingness to reach out and engage in reasoned debate is valuable in and of itself. However, they have not succeeded in reaching any real consensus, sometimes even about reference-points for the debate. Perhaps, though, their willingness to engage may be all that can reasonably be hoped for when so many components of the debate involve dispute.
Read the full review here.
On Sunday May 20, John joined Professor Martha Nussbaum at the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre following a performance of The Originalist–John Strand’s play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia–to discuss law, religion, and LGBT rights. The Windy City Times wrote about their dialogue here.
On May 9 at Princeton, John joined his DRLD counterpoint authors Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis, along with moderator Robert P. George and respondents Christopher Tollefsen and Kevin Vallier, to talk about their book and about the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Here’s The Daily Princetonian‘s story on the event; a video should be forthcoming soon.
On CNN, John discussed the U.S. Supreme Court “wedding-cake case” with host Michael Smerconish. Watch the full video here.
Sara Krulwich/NYT
At The New York Times, John explains how to draw a line between some of the cake cases in the news. From the article:
Therein lies the crucial difference between the cases: Silva’s objection was about what she sold; a design-based objection. Phillips’s objection was about to whom it was sold; a user-based objection. The gay couple never even had the opportunity to discuss designs with Phillips, because the baker made it immediately clear that he would not sell them any wedding cake at all.
Read the full article here.
Which seems as good a reason as any to share this video again…