This week, we have a special episode. One near and dear to my heart and my own intellectual history. It is a conversation with professor Marc O. DeGirolami on his piece published in the Oxford Journal of Law & Religion covering the life and death of law and religion. Read it here . In it, he takes us into the first wave of this movement and its advent forces with those like Harold Berman and John Witte, Jr., who took on the critical mantle of reacting to “the deconstruction of the American C...
Jun 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min
The Foundations Series is a new web content venture from CLS aimed at helping Christian law students transition from 3Ls to first-year associates. It features Christian practitioners skilled in the integration of faith and practice, offering guidance in conversation with students at the early stages of their legal development. My guests today are James A. Boatman & Stephen Schahrer, collectively from the Florida law firm Boatman Ricci. James is a commercial litigator with extensive experienc...
Jun 11, 2025•58 min
With the release of U.S. News Rankings last month , renewed interest has surfaced regarding the parameters and impact of placement. Where law schools fall speaks to not only the quality of their percieved education, but also success regarding student employment and faculty publication. On this episode, I speak with Michael Conklin, a scholar who’s been measuring bias within the Rankings system, this time focusing his attention on religious law schools. His paper, soon to be published in the Flor...
May 28, 2025•51 min
It is no secret that law students and attorneys exist in a stressful environment. As Amy Levin recently wrote, "[l]aw student mental health is at an all-time low." The American Bar Association (ABA) has conducted a study that shows how this environment tends to contribute to high rates of mental health disorders and substance abuse. In an effort to face this challenge, LSM has launched the Wellness Program—focused on providing students resources and discussions to face this issue, together. In t...
May 14, 2025•54 min
For most of the second half of 20th century, the Supreme Court has wrestled with finding a balance between the Free Exercise of religion and the Establishment Clause, offering several tests to test the limits of permissible accommodation without the undue appearance of government endorsement. Among those tests has been a little-thing called the “play in the joints,” famously introduced in Walz v. Tax Commissioner of New York (1970). In this episode, I explore this concept with Falco Anthony Musc...
May 08, 2025•28 min
The Foundations Series is a new web content venture from CLS aimed at helping Christian law students transition from 3Ls to first-year associates. It features Christian practitioners skilled in the integration of faith and practice, offering guidance in conversation with students at the early stages of their legal development. My guests today are Joe Ruta and Stephen Lyon. Joe is a Partner of Ruta, Soulios, & Stratis LLP. He is outside general counsel to over 30 corporations ranging from sta...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr
The recent publication of Melissa Moschella’s Ethics, Politics, and Natural Law has renewed interest in the application of natural law to human flourishing. A topic that has undergone a resurgence among not only Catholics, but also Protestants with seminal publications from those like David VanDrunen , Micah Watson , and Andrew T. Walker . Seeing students engaging in this tradition has been rewarding and today I speak to one of those students, Josiah Wolfe, and his article in the Campbell Law Ob...
Apr 16, 2025•41 min
A popular refrain from both the left and the right in American society is one concerning the importance of liberty for the flourishment of their respective communities. But what does true freedom look like and, perhaps more importantly, how does one come to attain it and then keep it in a world like our own. This week, I am joined by Brad Littlejohn to talk about his new book, Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License . In our conversation, we discuss the journey of wr...
Apr 02, 2025•46 min
The John Witte, Jr. Lecture Series on Christianity & Law is back! A new venture from Christian Legal Society aimed at advancing the conversation surrounding the integration of Christianity & law. In our second lecture inspired by the American 19th century painters, we go international and ask what contributions Christianity made to advancing human rights. Our keynote is Kristina Arriaga, who digs deep into her Cuban heritage to bring us a fascinating lecture on the Christian jurists who ...
Mar 19, 2025•32 min
Today, a sharply divided Supreme Court reinstated a lower-court order for the Trump administration to release frozen foreign aid. In this episode, I talk with Matthew Soerens of World Relief about some of the recent executive orders and how marginalized voices can help restore the American church in its places of prominence. Matt began his World Relief journey in 2005 as an intern in Nicaragua. Since then he served as a Department of Justice-accredited legal counselor in Chicagoland before assum...
Mar 05, 2025•47 min
Today we delve into the world of Title VII by looking at the pending case in Carter v. Transp. Workers Union of Am. Local 556. The focus of our discussion will be on the paper from Blaine Hutchison in the Texas Review of Law & Politics, entitled Title VII’s Religious Liberty Rules in Carter ( here ) . Blaine is joined by one of the premier experts in the field of employment law and also my old professor, Bruce Cameron. As part of this conversation, we lay out some history for Religious Accom...
Feb 19, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Many people hate the tax system. It is perhaps the one universal solvent that can bring people together. In this episode, I discuss the income tax system and whether it can actually produce a more equitable society. My guest is Andrew Hayashi, whose paper we discuss is entitled Christianity and the Liberal(ish) Income Tax and was printed in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, & Public Policy. We discuss some basics of income tax, the Christian critics of liberalism, whether the tax system...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 16 min
It is no secret that law students and attorneys exist in a stressful environment. As Amy Levin recently wrote , "[l]aw student mental health is at an all-time low." The American Bar Association (ABA) has conducted a study that shows how this environment tends to contribute to high rates of mental health disorders and substance abuse. In an effort to face this challenge, LSM has launched the Wellness Program—focused on providing students resources and discussions to face this issue, together. Our...
Jan 28, 2025•53 min
Many people use the language of "calling" without considering the scope and duration of that word and what it really means to align one’s gifts with community need. In this episode, I get to explore some of these issues with Steven Zhou, a postdoc researcher on the meaning of calling and the author of a Christianity Today piece entitled Calling Is More Than Your Job . Steven and I delve deep into the sociological understanding of calling, what it means to align skills with need, to what extent p...
Jan 15, 2025•47 min
Happy New Years! To start off the year right, I wanted to go back to basics: faith through lawyering. My guest is Randy Lee, a veteran in the field, writing on the topic of the Christian lawyer for over three decades. His insights can be found within a body of work (see links here ), but the paper we mostly focused on ( here ) was a book review he did on Joseph G. Allegretti's The Lawyer's Calling: Christian Faith and Legal Practice . Randy teaches constitutional law, professional responsibility...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 7 min
In the last few weeks, there has been two excellent podcasts that showcase the depths of what legal learning could provide. In the first, a conversation ( here ) about the history and framework for the federal constitution, taught largely from an incredible five volume work entitled The Founders’ Constitution . The second comes from our friends at the Mattone Center for Law and Religion ( here ), featuring two Fordham law professors who have launched a forum for law students looking to discuss C...
Dec 25, 2024•38 min
In this special end of the semester episode, I get to talk to two amazing black Christian women about their experiences in law school. And not just in law school, but also the entire process surrounding getting in and getting out. The book at the heart of this discussion is from Jeanelle Angus entitled Unveiling Strength and Faith: The Diary of a Black Christian Female Law Student . As part of this conversation, we talk about the path of “most” resistance in getting to law school, what it was li...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 16 min
This week, we continue our conversation on mental health and the various reasons why law students don’t get the help they need. My guest is Amy Levin—someone who not only understands the legal profession but has also spent much time studying mental health. Amy has written a new paper entitled The Kids Aren’t Alright , in which she discusses the decline in law student mental health and encourages law schools to take steps to normalize mental well-being and to support students in seeking help. In ...
Dec 04, 2024•46 min
It is no secret that law students and attorneys exist in a stressful environment. As Amy Levin recently wrote , "[l]aw student mental health is at an all-time low." The American Bar Association (ABA) has conducted a study that shows how this environment tends to contribute to high rates of mental health disorders and substance abuse. In an effort to face this challenge, LSM has launched the Wellness Program—focused on providing students resources and discussions to face this issue, together. Our...
Nov 27, 2024•54 min
This week, I talk to Lael Weinberger about the doctrine of church autonomy—what it is and, more importantly, where it came from. Lael has written an excellent paper on the origins of church autonomy ( here ), as well as put to practice his musings in a recent amicus brief he filed in the D.C. Circuit in the case of O’Connell v. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ( here ). After we spent some time digging into Lael’s past, we got to business discussing his paper and brief. Some of the t...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 7 min
This week, we are joined once more by our friend and comparative constitutional law expert from the mean streets of Padua—Andrea Pin. We discuss his brand new book from Brill entitled, Religious Freedom without the Rule of Law: The Constitutional Odysseys of Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iraq and the Fate of the Middle East ( here ). Whereby last time we spoke about the development of religious freedom jurisprudence in Europe ( listen here ), this time we venture into the Islamic world by considering ...
Nov 13, 2024•52 min
This week, we have a special guest from the University of Florida Levin College of Law—Christopher D. Hampson. Our topic is a good one: the cancellation of debt. To that end, Chris and I discussed his forthcoming article tentatively entitled Law and the Jubilee Tradition. Some of the things we spoke about was the jubilee tradition in the Old Testament text, the many ways that tradition connects with the history of American society, his approach based on a Rawlsian ideal of practical reason, prin...
Oct 24, 2024•45 min
This week, we have a special episode with a return guest of mine—Nicholas Aroney, who recently delivered the Sir John Graham Lecture in New Zealand. You can listen to that here or read it here . Nick and I talk about this lecture, entitled The Compass of Character, delving into questions relating to the definition of good character, the role that catastrophes play in bringing out an individual's true self, the limits of law and education for the inculcation of good character, and the role of rel...
Oct 09, 2024•49 min
In this episode, I talk about a new book that models the ten habits that any peacemaker should adopt. The author is Steven T. Collis and the book is Ten Habits of a Peacemake r. For those wondering how this book compares to the work of Ken Sande’s The Peacemaker , the two are excellent companions. While Ken’s is more theological ( LISTEN ), Steven’s project looks at the process and psychological challenges of creating a space for constructive dialogue and common life. To that end, him and I spok...
Oct 02, 2024•54 min
This week, I discuss a recent piece ( here ) in Touchstone Magazine with Adam J. MacLeod entitled “How Law Lost Its Way: An Abandoned Ruling Principle & How to Get It Back.” In it, Adam discusses the role of practical reason in the development of law and the change that took place after the Enlightenment toward a positivistic conception of law rooted in power and force. We discuss his move to Texas, the meaning of the rule of law and how it was developed throughout history, the role of delib...
Sep 18, 2024•42 min
This week, we enter the world of labor law theory — more specifically, the question of faith as it relates to the rights of workers. In this episode, I am joined by law professor Alvin Velazquez to talk about a paper ( here ) he presented at the St. Louis University School of Law Symposium focused on the question of workplace justice. We talk about his transition from serving with a major American trade union to becoming a law professor at IU-Maurer, the role of faith in advancing workplace just...
Sep 11, 2024•52 min
This week, we talk about an all too familiar topic for law students: contracts. In this episode, I am joined by law professor C. Scott Pryor to talk about his soon to be published paper in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy: Person-Centered Pluralism About Contract Law ( download here ). Scott and I talk about the fundamentals of contract law, the moral obligation of promise, the significance of binding obligations, and much more. Scott holds a B.A. from Dordt College and a...
Sep 04, 2024•56 min
This week, we begin a new chapter in the life of the Cross & Gavel podcast, with a renewed effort to explore the interaction of Christianity and law. This new focus will be exclusive to the work being done by practitioners and academics in their field of knowledge, offering their small contributions to the great intellectual tradition that has made the “ cathedral of the law ” such a formative discipline to shape society and culture. We begin our journey thinking about what happens when a Ch...
Aug 21, 2024•34 min
Joining me this week to talk about his brand new autobiographical work on prison ministry is Joe Ingles, who spent over 40 years ministering to prisoners on death row. His powerful book is called Too Close to the Flame: With the Condemned inside the Southern Killing Machine . RELATED CONTENT God's Law & Order - Aaron Griffith ( Episode # 164 ) Second Chance Month - Heather Rice-Minus ( Episode # 163 ) Break Every Yoke - Vincent Lloyd and Joshua Dubler ( Episode # 138 ) A note to the audience...
Aug 08, 2024•42 min
Joining me today to talk about her new book on extermisn is a former homeland security official, Elizabeth Neumann . Her book is called Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace , which looks at how we develop habits of extremism and how we can break the cycle. RELATED CONTENT Agents of Grace - Dan Darling ( Episode # 168 ) Learning to Disagree - John Inazu ( Episode # 162 )...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 2 min
