The Magna Carta and Religious Liberty

Current Events, History, , ,

Today is the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta–considered by many to be the founding document of the concept of the rule of law. But an important aspect of the document’s history is being overlooked: The role the church played in its drafting.

Writing at Breakpoint, Eric Metaxas says,

“With the disagreement threatening to turn into a civil war, the Archbishop of Canterbury, working as an intermediary between the King [of England] and the barons, helped to draft a proposed charter that would settle the dispute. . . .

“Since then, virtually every opponent of despotism and tyranny in the English-speaking world has drawn inspiration from the Magna Carta, which declared, ‘To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.’ When the Founding Fathers complained about ‘taxation without representation,’ they were appealing to the Magna Carta.”

Listen to Metaxas’ full commentary below to learn more about this document and what it has to do with liberty today.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/061515_BP.mp3]

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Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Policy to “Serve All Girls”

2 CommentsCurrent Events, ,

The following blog post is by Deborah Beuerman.

Articles published recently announced that boys who would rather live as girls can now be included as members of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

A transgender girl—a boy who acts like a girl—who is treated as a girl by his family will be accepted as a “girl” by Girl Scouts. This is really not new news.  A 7-year old boy who had been living as a girl since he was 2 was allowed to join a troop in 2012.

Sadly, a policy of inclusion has been in place for many years, with the Girl Scout membership policy simply stating that Girl Scouts is open to all girls.  On the face this sounds good, but such a simple statement without more definition can be broadly interpreted, and can be the basis for removing guiding principles for the organization.  Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low did want diversity in scouting, but the definition of her day was quite different from the “diversity and tolerance” of our day.  While she did not want to exclude any girl because of race, socioeconomic class, or disability, today’s idea of including generally is focused on sexuality.

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Renown Scientists Skeptical of Scientific Research

Current Events,

In a recent Breakpoint commentary, Eric Metaxas writes that renown scientists are beginning to question much of the scientific research being published.

Metaxas writes,

“In late April, researchers published the results of their efforts to replicate 100 of ‘psychology’s biggest experiments.’ They were only able get the same results in 39 of them.

“Commenting on the failure, Daniele Fanelli of Stanford told the prestigious journal ‘Nature’ that ‘reproducibility rates in cancer biology and drug discovery could be even lower.’ She added, ‘From my expectations, these are not bad at all.'”

According to scientists, researchers are increasingly plagued by problems ranging from small sample sizes to conflicts of interest in conducting scientific research.

Metaxas concludes by saying,

“[I]f a lot of the stuff being published is ‘incorrect’ or ‘untrue,’ please refrain from comparing people who question the scientific consensus to Holocaust deniers and flat-earthers.

“A little bit of humility would not be bad at all.”

You can read Metaxas’ entire commentary here or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/060115_BP.mp3]

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