What Do the Bible and Christian Tradition Say About Self Defence, Gun Rights, and Liberty? More Christ. 91 minutes. Discussion of Kopel's book The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition. (Praeger, 2017).
See also the section on Israel on the International page.
Self-defense in Jewish Tradition. Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Oct. 24, 2018. 56 minutes. First minute is cut.
Alan Steinweis's bad history. NY Times op-ed denigrating Jewish resistance to the Nazis flubs history. Washington Post. Oct. 16, 2015.
Unarmed Jews defeat mass murder: Revolts at the extermination camps. Washington Post. Oct. 12, 2015.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising: Armed Jews vs. Nazis. Washington Post. Oct. 10, 2015.
Louis Brandeis comments on the right of self-defense. Volokh.com. July 8, 2010.
Commentary on the Talmud and self-defense. Sh'ma (magazine on Jewish ethics). Nov. 2009, page 16.
Is the Best Defense a Good Book? Part II. The Old Testament and Self-defense. America's 1st Freedom. Sept. 2008.
To Your Tents, O Israel! (PDF).The history of ancient kingdom of Israel, and how the people created a strong central government for national security, but then found that their own liberties were endangered by that government. And the lessons that the American colonists and Founders drew from Israel's experience. Liberty, April 2007. HTML.
Armed Resistance to the Holocaust. 19 Journal of Firearms & Public Policy 144 (2007). Final version in PDF. Earlier version in HTML. Earlier version in Polish/Polski.
The Torah and Self-Defense. 109 Penn State Law Review 17 (2004). In PDF. Alternate version in HTML.
Audacious Judith. The Jewish heroine. MSNBC.com, Dec. 8, 2004.
Jewish Boxing, Fencing, and Self-Defense, Volokh.com. Sept. 4, 2006.
A Second Passover. Toasting America on the Fourth of July. National Review Online. July 3, 2002.
Let My People Go: Elián and the Exodus. National Review Online. Apr. 17, 2000.
The Lessons of Purim Are Still Relevant Today. Epoch Times. Mar. 21, 2019.
Purim history, Volokh.com. Mar. 14, 2006.
The Feast of Purim. Volokh.com. Feb. 26, 1994.
The Story of Hanukkah. Epoch Times. Dec. 2, 2018.
Armed Jews Week. The Jews who fought the Nazis embodied the spirit of Hanukkah. MSNBC.com, Dec. 10, 2004.
A Rich Tradition. Jewish war lessons. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2002.
Hanukkah's Freedom Fighters. National Review Online. Dec. 22, 2000.
Hanukkah and Israel, Volokh.com. Dec. 27, 2005.
Israeli Arab Calls for Solidarity with U.S. Hispanics.
Polly Baca Honored for Israel Work. La Voz. Mar. 15, 1989.
Israeli Ambassador Rips Apartheid. Denver Weekly News. Jan. 19, 1989.
The Second Amendment versus anti-Catholicism. Washington Post. Nov. 20, 2015. James Madison expressly rejected anti-Catholic gun control laws; yet modern anti-gun advocates claim that these bigoted laws should be imposed on everyone.
The Catholic Second Amendment, 29 Hamline Law Review 519 (2006).
God, Man, and Tyrants. John of Salisbury and the Bestselling Book of the Twelfth Century. Liberty. May 2004.
Christian Pacifism Before Constantine. Working paper. June 12, 2008. Much recent scholarship on early Christianity has emphasized the diversity of early Christian thought. This Paper presents evidence of diversity on early Christian belief and practice on the issue of pacifism. Notably, the diversity is found within orthodox Christianity itself. The claims of some modern writers that pre-Constantinian orthodox Christians were virtually unanimously pacifist are not correct. In fact, some but not all of the early Patristic writers were pacifists. A significant number of Christians, including saints, served in the Roman army. The Paper discusses the following writers: Justin Martyr, Marcion, Irenaeus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Julius Africanus, Origen, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lactantius, and also examines other sources of information about the early church.
Obama's Other Spiritual Mentor: Rev. Michael Pfleger. The man whom Obama described as one of his three spiritual mentors is a Farrakhan devotee who hates the Second Amendment. Volokh.com. Apr. 8, 2008.
Is the Best Defense a Good Book? Refutes the claim of pacifist-aggressives that the New Testament mandates pacifism. America's 1st Freedom, February 2007.
Does God Believe in Gun Control? Analysis of Biblical texts and other religious authorities about arms and defense of the innocent. In Italiano.
Virtue in Equivocation. Happy Guy Fawkes Day. National Review Online. Nov. 5, 2001.
The Judas Gospel, Volokh.com. Apr. 8, 2006.
The Pope and the President on Freedom, Volokh.com. Mar. 11, 2005.
Zogby's Implausible Analysis of Catholic Voters, National Review Online. Nov. 11, 2004.
Excommunication of Racist Louisiana Politicians in 1962, National Review Online. May 19, 2004.
Excommunication of Communist Voters in Italy, National Review Online. May 16, 2004.
Battle of Lepanto, National Review Online. Mar. 30, 2003. Follow-up.
Cardinal Mindszenty, National Review Online. Feb. 8, 2003.
Attempt to abolish legal privilege of confidentiality for penitential confessions, National Review Online. Jan. 10, 2003.
MaryLinks. The web's best collection of hand-picked, categorized links relating to the Virgin Mary. Plus a daily calendar of Marian feasts and historical events.
Woman of the World. Book review of "The Other Faces of Mary," by Ann Ball. Touchstone, April 2006.
Unity in the Virgin. The cultural, historical, and American significance of the Virgin of Guadalupe. MSNBC.com, Dec. 12, 2004.
Assumption of Mary.
Thomas Aquinas.
Bertilla Boscardin.
Catherine Laboure (and the Miraculous Medal.
Elizabeth Ann Seton.Maria Goretti. In Magyar language (Hungarian).
God's Carpenter. The story of Nicholas Owen. Minorities targeted for ethnic cleansing. Leaders of persecuted religious sects. Escaped slaves. Outlawed guns. Every age has something to hide, and also brave individuals who risk everything to hide it. Nicholas Owen was one of those brave men. Liberty magazine, March 2004.
Perpetua & Felicity (optional course reading for "Women Writers of the Middle Ages," Medieval Studies 3351/Women's Studies 3001, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997)
Christmas for everyone: The Graland Christmas Pageant. Here's a selection of great versions of Christmas carols. And the true story about how Christians, Jews, and atheists celebrated Christmas together, at Graland School in Denver in the 1960s and 1970s. Washington Post. Dec. 24, 2014.
About Christmas. Books that will get you into the Christmas spirit. National Review Online. Dec. 13, 2002. Short review of Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas.
Mayhew, Liberty, and the Resistance to Tyranny. Epoch Times. Jan. 30, 2019.
Origins of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Rutherford's ‘Lex, Rex.' Washington Post. July 2, 2016.
An implausible argument that evangelicals must oppose self-defense. Responding to an article by Rob Schenck, a pacifist minister. Washington Post. Dec. 30, 2015.
We all do extol Thee, Thou leader in Battle. The origins of the Thanksgiving hymn "We Gather Together." Nov. 21, 2012.
The Keystone of the Second Amendment: Quakers, the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the Questionable Scholarship of Nathan Kozuskanich. 19 Widener Law Journal 277 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.
The Religious Roots of the American Revolution and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 17 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 167 (2005).
The Scottish and English Religious Roots of the American Right to Arms: Buchanan, Rutherford, Locke, Sidney, and the Duty to Overthrow Tyranny, 12 Bridges 291 (nos. 3/4, Fall/Winter 2005).
Second Amendment Symposium, George Mason University School of Law, Sept. 24, 2005. The English religious roots of the Second Amendment right to resist tyranny. Windows Media hi low. QuickTime hi low.
The Calvinist Connection. Liberty. October 2008. The roots of liberty go deep. They reach to places where modern libertarians might never expect to find them.
The Catechism of the Revolution. Jonathan Mayhew, the great Congregationalist preacher from Boston who taught America their duty of resisting tyranny. Liberty, November 2006.
Sergeant York. Great Hero of the Great War. America's 1st Freedom, Feb. 2005.
Misusing Jesus for political purposes. Politically Correct Presbyterians make bogus claim that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were illegal and undocumented. Volokh.com. 2/23/06.
Luther and the Christian Duty to Defend Innocents, Volokh.com.11/17/05.
Interviews with a Muslim. One year after the Pope's controversial Regensberg speech, this article explains and analyzes the 14th-century Christian/Muslim debate from which the Pope quoted. Volokh.com. Sept. 12, 2007.
Dhimmitude and Disarmament. 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). PDF.
The Martial Arts are Arts. Washington Post. Jan. 11, 2017.
Self-defense in Asian Religions, 2 Liberty Law Review 79 (2007).
The Dalai Lama's Army. A right to self-defense is recognized by the Dalai Lama -- indeed, his predecessor tried to recruit an army. National Review Online, April 5, 2007.
Buddhists and Moslems arm against terrorists. In Thailand. Volokh.com. September 21, 2009.
The Colorado Constitution's No Aid to Sectarian Institutions Clause and Its Impact on Civil Rights. Colorado Special Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Sept. 2018.
The Moral Right to Self-Defense, and the Right to Bear Arms. Self-defense is a universal human right. Epoch Times. Sept. 27, 2018.
Meyer v. Nebraska: As told by the lawyer who won it Washington Post. Feb. 4, 2016.
Evolving Christian Attitudes Towards Personal and National Self-defense. 45 Connecticut Law Review 1709 (2013). Analyzes changes in Christian thought about the use of force, from the 19th to the 21st century
Obama and the Universal Golden Rule. Volokh.com. December 11, 2009.
Pacifist-Aggressives vs. the Second Amendment: An Analysis of Modern Philosophies of Compulsory Non-violence. 3 Charleston Law Review 1 (2008).
The Human Right of Self-Defense. 22 BYU Journal of Public Law 43 (2008). David Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.
A Moriori Lesson. A brief history of pacifism. National Review Online. Apr. 11, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.
Religious Fright. The Left is appalled by President Bush's faith. National Review Online. Mar. 18, 2003.
Does CHL ban in churches violate the First Amendment? Volokh.com. September 29, 2009.
The Religious Left at work: God hates secret ballots, Volokh.com. 4/7/09.
Isn't "Happy Holidays" a form of suicide bombing too? Volokh.com. 12/29/08.
Samuel Golubchuk euthanasia update, Volokh.com. 2/18/08.
Media-blasting book vanishes. Publisher drops exposé of CU coverage after lawyer's letter. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, July 16, 2005. Plus scientific research on human embryos, and the famine in Niger.
Shameless dailies run deceptive ad. 'Bait-and-switch' in wake of pope's death misleads readers, exploits the faithful. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, April 23, 2005. Plus: undercoverage of Benedict XVI's intellectual record. Over-coverage of failed anti-American demonstration in Baghdad.
Papal coverage here magnificent. But Catholics don't get a 'free ride' as veto of controversial bill runs afoul of Post. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, April 9, 2005.
Archbishop takes his media lumps. Leader of Denver's Catholic community a lightning rod for nation's pundits. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Oct. 23, 2004.
Religious matters get PC treatment. Dailies go with the flow, but each knows which side its bread is buttered on. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Aug. 2, 2003. The media's fawning treatment of three nuns in the Plowshares movement who were recently sentenced to federal prison for vandalizing a defense facility. The column also looks at coverage of the Catholic sex abuse scandals, and at coverage of St. Juan Diego, the Mexican Indian who saw the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.
Deconstructing Rowling. National Review Online. June 20, 2003. Review of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, which convincingly explicates the work as a series of Christian fiction, in the tradition of Tolkien and Lewis.
'Peace activist' or 'war activist'? Media should take greater care in their labeling of participants in conflicts. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. April 12, 2003.
Islamic extremists in U.S. overlooked. Domestic Muslims who sympathize with al-Qaida, other terror groups little noticed. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. Sept. 15, 2002.
Bill Moyers and the Politics of Delusion. Volokh.com. 1/31/05.
