Science on Trial

Author(s):  
Edward Caudill

This chapter examines the resurrection of William Jennings Bryan's rhetoric in the twenty-first century, one in Kansas and the other in a small town in Pennsylvania, as creationists continued to appeal to individual rights and democratic principles. One side fumed for science and against theocracy. The other side railed about the assault on religion and bemoaned the abandonment of sacred traditions. In both cases, two worldviews are evidently in conflict. This chapter begins with an overview of the controversy involving the State Board of Education in Kansas, which adopted science standards in 2005 that treated evolution as a flawed theory. It then considers the case in Dover involving the American Civil Liberties Union and how it brought intelligent design to “the center of legislative debates in more than a dozen states.” It shows that the Dover trial was proof that, over the years since Scopes, creationism had moved from a faith-based argument to one that claimed to be empirically grounded and an argument not about religion in schools but about individual rights and fairness.

Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow

This chapter examines the emergence of the Religious Right in Kansas. On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was murdered at the Reformation Lutheran Church in suburban Wichita. As one of the region's few providers of legal late-term abortions, Tiller had earned the ire of antiabortion activists. No issue brought churches as directly into the political arena during the late 1980s and 1990s as abortion. The Religious Right in Kansas gained national attention because of its role in encouraging the Kansas State Board of Education to approve science standards that downplayed the teaching of evolution. The decision raised questions such as: why Kansas was such a hotbed of religious conservatism; or why it mattered that independent evangelical Protestant churches were now on the same side of many issues as conservative Roman Catholics. The chapter explores the implications of the debate over evolution for Kansas religion and politics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-27
Author(s):  
Monica Y. E. Chi

Non-faith-based social work educators and researchers have a poor understanding of what might motivate Christians in social work and whether Christian motivations have any place in social work. On the other hand, Christians have difficulty articulating actions inspired by their faith in ways that others can comprehend despite feeling misunderstood. The focus of this article is to present the framework of faith-inspired praxis of love and lay the groundwork for intergroup dialogue. The framework draws from the works of Jane Addams, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jean Vanier, and Mary Jo Leddy, five notable leaders in Christian spirituality and public initiatives, to discuss their conceptualization of faith, love, and praxis. Practice and research implications of this framework for social work are discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Luisa Frick

Against the background of the trend of Islamizing human rights on the one hand, as well as increasing skepticism about the compatibility of Islam and human rights on the other, I intend to analyze the potential of Islamic ethics to meet the requirements for vitalizing the idea of human rights. I will argue that the compatibility of Islam and human rights cannot be determined merely on the basis of comparing the specific content of the Islamic moral code(s) with the rights stipulated in the International Bill of Rights, but by scanning (different conceptions of) Islamic ethics for the two indispensable formal prerequisites of any human rights conception: the principle of universalism (i.e., normative equality) and individualism (i.e., the individual enjoyment of rights). In contrast to many contemporary (political) attempts to reconcile Islam and human rights due to urgent (global) societal needs, this contribution is solely committed to philosophical reasoning. Its guiding questions are “What are the conditions for deriving both universalism and individualism from Islamic ethics?” and “What axiological axioms have to be faded out or reorganized hierarchically in return?”


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
John R Phillips

The author, a recent graduate of the Doctor in Public Administration program, shares his thoughts about what it means to study public administration in the twenty-first century. He hopes his insights, born out of more than a forty year-long career in the field—decades of work in colleges and universities as a faculty member, dean, provost, vicepresident, and acting president, as well as his extensive experience in teaching public administration at the graduate and undergraduate levels—will help doctoral students in their academic pursuits. More specifically, he hopes that his remarks will make Ph.D. students think more deeply about the promise of their endeavors and, on the other hand, give them advance warning about perils of the process and ways to avoid them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii138-ii138
Author(s):  
Iyad Alnahhas ◽  
Appaji Rayi ◽  
Yasmeen Rauf ◽  
Shirley Ong ◽  
Pierre Giglio ◽  
...  

Abstract INTRODUCTION While advocacy for inmates with cancer has recently gained momentum, little is known about management of brain tumors in inmates. Delays in acknowledging or recognizing nonspecific initial symptoms can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Inmates with cancer are reported to either be ignored or receive substandard care due in part to cost or logistics (American Civil Liberties Union; ASCO Post 2018). METHODS In this retrospective study, we identified inmates with gliomas seen in the Ohio State University Neuro-oncology Center between 1/1/2010-4/20/2019. RESULTS Twelve patients were identified. Median age at presentation was 39.5 years (range 28-62). Eleven patients were Caucasian and one was African American. Diagnoses included glioblastoma (GBM) (n=6), anaplastic astrocytoma (n=1), anaplastic oligodendroglioma (n=1), low-grade astrocytoma (n=3) and anaplastic pleomorphic xanthroastrocytoma (n=1). Patients were more likely to present early after seizures or focal neurologic deficits (9/12) than after headaches alone. Patients with GBM started RT 12-71 days after surgery (median 34.5). One patient’s post-RT MRI was delayed by a month and another with GBM had treatment held after 4 cycles of adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) due to “incarceration issues”. For one patient who received adjuvant TMZ, the facility failed to communicate with the primary team throughout treatment. Two patients suffered significant nausea while on chemotherapy due to inability to obtain ondansetron in prison, or due to wrong timing. 7/12 (58%) patients were lost to follow-up for periods of 3-15 months during treatment. Three patients refused adjuvant treatment. CONCLUSIONS Although this is a small series, our results highlight the inequities and challenges faced by inmates with gliomas who are more likely to forego treatments or whose incarceration prevents them from keeping appropriate treatment and follow-up schedules. Additional studies are needed to define and address these deficiencies in the care of inmates with brain tumors and other cancers.


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