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The Cross & Gavel Podcast

A production of Christian Legal Society — focusing on the interaction between law, religion, and public policy, with an emphasis on building-up Christian students and attorneys to intelligently engage in public life and better love their neighbors. Hosted by Anton Sorkin (Director of Law Student Ministries)
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Now displaying: Category: Cultural Engagement
Aug 24, 2022

Joining me today talk about the ministry of presence and the role of chaplaincy on university campuses is Dr. Winnifred Sullivan – professor of religious studies and co-director of the Center for Religion and the Human at Indiana University. And, Pete Williamson, staff members with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and a chaplain at Harvard University.

Check out Winnifred's fauclty page here and Pete's article in Christianity Today — "Why I Voted For the Atheist President of Harvard's Chaplain Group." 

RELATED CONTENT

1. Steve Collis talks heroic chaplains durnig WWII (#105).

2. Doing religion in Silicon Valley (#120).

Episode produced by Josh Deng, with music from Vexento. A Special Thanks to Nick and Ashley Barnett for their contribution in making this podcast possible.

Aug 24, 2020

Join Drew Nelson and Mike Schutt as they discuss the insights and admonitions of Rod Dreher‘s 2017 The Benedict Option. The book has been widely discussed, and rightly so, in Christian circles since its publication, and, as Drew and Mike discuss, Dreher’s challenge to the Church to be the Church is a welcome one, regardless of the relative dangers of secular culture. Yet the book’s insights on that score are helpful, too, and Drew and Mike highlight Dreher's key insights on politics, education, and technology as they relate to his main thesis.

Andrew Nelson is preacher at Southside Church of Christ in Mount Pleasant Texas, and Mike Schutt is the host of Cross and gavel audio, the director of Christian Legal Society’s Law Student Ministries, and Clinical Associate Professor at Trinity Law School.

May 28, 2020

Dr. Drew Trotter, executive director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, is a film critic who understands the role that movies play in shaping us as a society. His lecture, The Movies and America: What the Nominees for Best Picture Tell Us About Ourselves, is an annual favorite around the country. 

In this episode, Dr. Trotter sits down with host Mike Schutt to discuss the nominees for best picture. They discuss how we love our neighbors through watching movies, how to better understand what we watch, and the issue of difficult or graphic content in today's movies. They also consider what these nominees might tell us about ourselves. 

Drew Trotter is the Executive Director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. He was for twenty-two years the Executive Director and President of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, VA. Drew has written on film and popular culture for over thirty years in such publications as Books & CultureChristianity Today and Critique, and in the field of Biblical studies. For over twenty years, he has presented a seminar entitled Show and Tell: How to View a Movie Responsibly, helping laypeople and students in churches, Christian college and secular university environments understand this powerful medium and how to think about its influence both on the individual and the society. He has taught seminars on popular culture, university education in America today, a Biblical model of discipleship and how to interpret the Scriptures. Drew has three sons, two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren and lives with his wife of forty-five years, Marie, in Charlottesville, VA. 

Mike Schutt is host of the Cross & Gavel Podcast. He is Clinical Associate Professor at Trinity Law School, Director of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, and director of Law Student Ministries at Christian Legal Society. He is the editor in chief of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought and director of the CLS Law School Fellows program. 

Apr 24, 2020

Greg Rummel, President and CEO of Rummel Agency in Frankenmuth, Michigan, has a word of encouragement for us in this global pandemic: God's got this, too.

Listen in as Greg shares with host Mike Schutt how battling cancer helped hm to think well about living in difficult times-- and to focus on what is really important. You'll be encouraged!

Cross & Gavel podcast is a project of Christian Legal Society and Trinity Law School

   

Apr 14, 2020

"The efficiency brought by new forms of technology has just made us demand more of one another," says Myron Steeves, dean of Trinity Law School. "Our important innovations sometimes give us the opposite of what we desire."

In this episode, Dean Steeves and Mike Schutt explore the topic of technology and the tyranny of time. If advances in technology and greater efficiency in our lives don't make us better people all by themselves, why do we keep chasing them as ends in and of themselves? Is too much of a good thing still good? Join the conversation as they ask these questions and others! 

Cross & Gavel is a project of Trinity Law School and Christian Legal Society

Jun 20, 2018

On the 80th episode of Cross & Gavel, August Huckabee, economics professor at Worldview at the Abbey in Colorado, returns ("Feel the Bern," Ep. 52) to discuss cultural trends and countermeasures in these strange times.

August teaches students at the Abbey, directs TeenPact programs around the country, and lectures at Worldview Academy. Host Mike Schutt asks him about trends he is seeing in this generation and what educators and parents might do to cultivate both courage and grace in the face of the challenges facing people of faith as they both engage and create culture.

Join the conversation and pass it on to friends! You'll be encouraged and edified by the conversation. 

If you'd like to learn more about Worldview Academy or Worldview at the Abbey, follow the links. 

Here are some of the books Huck and Mike discuss on this episode. Visit our friends at Hearts & Minds Books to order:

  • F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
  • Burton W. Folsom, The Myth of the Robber Barons
  • Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Cross & Gavel is a project of Regent University School of Law and Christian Legal Society

Jan 10, 2018

In our first episode of 2018, Trinity Law School Professor Myron Steeves draws on the work of Charles Taylor (A Secular Age) and Rod Dreher (The Benedict Option) to inform our understanding of the
cultural moment confronting the Church. Lately, it seems, the Church has found herself in a fully confrontational mode with the surrounding society, having moved from a period of general domination (after the Emperor Constantine) and then cultural accommodation. Professor Steeves contrasts these eras, suggesting that Christians of every age have faced challenges to faithful culture making and cultural renewal. 

 

During this fascination conversation, host Mike Schutt and Professor Steeves discuss the importance of faithfulness, the difficulties of cultural confrontation in light of the temptation to be seen as "normal," and our call to courage and love.

Listen in on this interesting conversation!

Myron Steeves is Professor of Law at Trinity Law School, where he has served since 1992. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Professor Steeves has practiced law in the nonprofit area, particularly advising churches. Professor Steeves frequently speaks on issues including the integration of faith and law, legal careers as tools for Christian ministry, law and public policy, and law and theology.

Mike Schutt is host of Cross & Gavel and is Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law and director of Law Student Ministries for the Christian Legal Society. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. 

 

Oct 19, 2017

Mark Bertrand says that the world he "had been led to fear growing up in the Church is not actually the world we live in." It turns out that the moral relativism that we feared would turn the world to anarchy and chaos never materialized. Much of what we feared actually came to pass, just not in the way we thought it would.

The new world has turned out to be a world that loves "the social gospel, but without the gospel," to paraphrase Joseph Bottum

Mark talks with host Mike Schutt about this strange turn of events. We now live in the midst of "an irreligious culture" that still "behaves in fundamentally religious ways." As Mark says, "The moralist of today is the irreligious offspring of the mainline Protestants who dominated the society of yesteryear."

How did we get here, and what are thoughtful Christians to make of this state of affairs? It seems the best way to respond to the New Moralism is likely not to return to the Old Moralism. But what role does the Church have to play in all of this?  

J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor living in South Dakota. His crime noir works are Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide. His book [Re]Thinking Worldview:Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in this World (Crossway 2007) is a great primer on Christian thought and action, and he serves on the faculty of Worldview Academy. He blogs at the world-renowned Bible Design Blog, sharing thoughts and photos on a multitude of design issues. His initial claim to fame was that he was interviewed by Ken Myers on Mars Hill Audio Journal, volume 90, which also features Mike Schutt talking about Redeeming Law. 

Mark was also a guest on Episode 46 of Cross & Gavel, the most downloaded episode in the podcast's history. 

Cross and Gavel is a project of Regent University School of Law and Christian Legal Society. We value your comments. And if you enjoy the show, please rate us on iTunes. 

Jul 28, 2016
55. John Inazu on

John Inazu's book, Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (Univ Chicago 2016), "is an argument for mutual respect and coexistence" as we live, work, and speak in the world. In Inazu's words, "shared existence is not only possible, but also necessary." 

Right now, our country seems to be more polarized than ever. Whether in debates over homosexual rights, in challenges to religious liberty, or in recent tensions between law enforcement and minority communities, we live in deep disagreement on fundamental issues. Confident Pluralism, in Inazu's words, "suggests a modest possibility: that we can live together in our 'many-ness.'"

Join host Mike Schutt and Dr. Inazu as they discuss Confident Pluralism and its two-fold prescription for a robust and hopeful shared existence. The book is divided into two main parts: Constitutional Commitments (the "legal dimension") and Civic Practices (the "personal dimesion").

First, the "legal dimension" of Confident Pluralism focuses on: (1) protecting the voluntary groups of civil society through the rights of assembly and association; (2) facilitating dissent and disagreement in public forums; and (3) ensuring that generally available government funding is not limited by government orthodoxy.

Second, the "personal dimension" of Confident Pluralism aspires toward tolerance, humility, and patience in three civic practices: (1) our speech; (2) our collective action (including protests, strikes, and boycotts); and (3) our relationships across difference.

Listen in for some conversation around these issues and a taste of Professor Inazu's hopeful vision. 

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He teaches courses in criminal law, law and religion, and the First Amendment. His scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related issues of political and legal theory. John’s first book is Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale 2012). He has written broadly for mainstream audiences in publications including USA TodayCNNThe Hedgehog ReviewThe Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He received his academic training at Duke (BSE and JD) and UNC-Chapel Hill (PhD), but he remains an avid Duke fan. 

Watch Dr. Inazu's Q Talk here.

Browse of list of his shorter pieces on pluralism here.

Visit JohnInazu.com for more information and links to his scholarly work. 

Pick up a copy of Confident Pluralism from Hearts & Minds Books.

Mike Schutt is the host of Cross & Gavel audio, and an Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law, where he has taught Professional Responsibility and Torts, among other things. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. He currently teaches American Legal Thought in the Regent MA program and directs Attorney Ministries for the Christian Legal Society. Contact him at mschutt@clsnet.org.

 

Oct 29, 2015

Trinity Law School Dean Myron Steeves has a vision for lawyers in ministry across the country. He says we ought to be looking for attorneys in the mold of the great reformer John Knox, who famously said, "Give me Scotland or I die," to gather and encourage lawyers in their mission in every city and every county. In this episode, Dean Steeves articulates this broad mission: addressing injustice, pursuing law reform, engaging in prayer ministry at the courthouse, encouraging church-centered mediation, and heeding the vocational call to minister to the client as a "whole person," among other things.

The conversation begins with host Mike Schutt asking how Christian attorneys might encourage their pastors, who have some anxiety in the wake of the Obergefell decision. Dean Steeves, who also advises non-profits, has some wisdom on the question of what Obergefell does and does not do, and why he is optimistic, at least in the very long term. 

As the discussion moves to discuss the calling of Christian lawyers, generally, the topics range from the beauty of contract law ("it goes directly to the heart of what it means to be human") to the limits of litigation ("litigation is good for only one thing") and beyond. Schutt and Steeves touch on how groups of lawyers meeting in various places might better encourage one another to be "ministers to the whole person" and why "talking amongst ourselves" as attorneys is a pretty good idea. 

You can find out more about Trinity Law School here and the Dean here. If you are interested in downloading early episodes (i.e., before iTunes) of Cross & Gavel Audio, they are available at the Christian Legal Society website, here.

Jul 22, 2015

Bill Jack thinks Christians suffer from swimming in the waters of secularism and that we're hooked on being popular. After Colorado baker Jack Phillips was punished for declining to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding, Bill asked an LBGT-friendly bakery to bake some cakes with Bible verses on them. Yet he doesn't believe cakes are the issue.

Listen in as Bill talks with host Mike Schutt about the Obergefell decision, the Colorado cake capers, and the Church's challenge of proclaiming truth to those who don't wish to hear. Careful: He might step on your toes . . . and we sure wouldn't want to offend anyone, whould we?

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