Religion

Live Discussion with David French: What Do Evangelical Christians Want, Liberty or Authority?

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 19:12:50 +0000

Live Discussion with David French: What Do Evangelical Christians Want, Liberty or Authority? Andrew J Schappert Mon, 10/14/2024 - 15:12

In the 1970s and ’80s, David French said, the idea of the separation between church and state began to fray due to “some of the constitutional overreach that occurred. Governments became way too vigorous in suppressing religious expression in public places, up to and including private religious expression.

“Now we’ve moved into a world where a number of Christians are saying, ‘liberty isn’t enough—we also want authority.’”

New York Times columnist David French. Photo provided.

That apparent evolution in contemporary religious thinking is the theme of French’s talk on Monday, October 21, at 7 p.m., when the New York Times columnist addresses “Liberty or Authority? Christian Political Engagement at the Crossroads” in Merten Hall, Room 1201, on ��AV’s Fairfax Campus. The event is free, and no registration is required.

The appearance is cosponsored by the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The talk will appeal to “members of the George Mason community who want to understand the vicissitudes of contemporary evangelical Christianity,” said Professor John Turner, who is the chair of the Department of Religious Studies and will introduce French. “David French understands the fervency and anguish that characterize contemporary Christian engagement with politics.”

A Times conservative columnist who has been critical of Donald Trump, French is a former Harvard Law School-trained constitutional lawyer and an Army Reserve veteran of the Iraq War. His military service and legal expertise often inform his perspectives on issues related to national security, military ethics, and foreign policy.

“French has been a fearless advocate for free speech, religious liberty, and a principled politics in which character and virtue matter more than partisan victories,” Turner said. “Almost all Americans admit that we need to make more of an effort to talk with people across partisan and ideological boundaries. Few journalists and activists do that better than David French.”

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Remembering Joseph V. Montville (1937-2022)

Paul Snodgrass — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 16:37:24 +0000

Remembering Joseph V. Montville (1937-2022) Paul Snodgrass Wed, 06/15/2022 - 12:37

In This Story

Marc Gopin

Richard Rubenstein

Kevin Avruch

We at the Carter School were saddened to learn of the passing of our friend and colleague, Joseph V. Montville. Joe died peacefully surrounded by family, a well-deserved blessing.

Professor Emeritus Kevin Avruch has this to say about Joe:

Joe led a full and consequential life as a foreign service officer, educator, author, and committed activist in the service of peace. Among his many accomplishments, he is recognized as having termed the concept of Track Two diplomacy, giving a name to and thereby formally recognizing the contributions citizens – “non-professionals” -- could make in mitigating violence and working to achieve peace. He was a longtime supporter of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the Carter School when I was dean of S-CAR (2013-2019). As we worked to name the school in honor of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Joe was my closest and most trusted advisor. He reached out to his own large network to engage the necessary support. Not a few of my letters and memoranda (in the inimitable style of the foreign service, but with a lot more “heart” than one would find in a diplomatic cable) were first drafted by Joe. He believed deeply in what became the Carter School and its mission. Joe was a loving, generous, and empathetic man.

Professor Richard Rubenstein elaborates further on the intellectual foundations of Joe’s work and his pioneering practices of diplomacy:

Joe Montville had many talents and interests in the field of conflict resolution, but his great passion was to develop an understanding of the methods by which religion might become a source of sustainable peace. During the time that I was writing and teaching about conflict and religion, Joe often lectured in my classes or appeared in symposia that I organized. He had a broad understanding of religion both in terms of its more orthodox institutional expressions and as a key element in the “civil religion” that often determines how groups relate to each either cooperatively or with hostility. He also was in close contact with religious leaders in the U.S. abroad whom he thought should work with each other towards the goal of positive peace.

An outstanding illustration of this was Joe’s key role in bringing Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, to give a lecture at National Cathedral. The trip was almost called off half a dozen times because of its political sensitivity at a time of continuing hostility between the US and Iran. I was present on January 6, 2006, when Khatami stood in the pulpit and declared (as Washington Post reporter Robin Wright reported) that “the United States is a ‘great’ country ‘with great people, great capacities, and potential’ -- language that stood in stark contrast to more than a quarter-century of Iran calling the United States ‘the Great Satan.’”

Wright’s article continued: “But he also condemned its unilateral foreign policy, and he cautioned at a news conference before last night's speech that Washington would be more effective if it worked alongside other nations.”

The second strong connection I had with Joe related to his deep friendship with Dr. Vamik Volkan, whose work he consistently advocated and publicized for years. He supported Volkan’s Center for Mind and Human Interaction at the University of Virginia and connected him with government officials to further his own practice in places like the Baltic nations. This made Joe more than the usual “social psychologist” – it allied him with an outstanding depth psychologist whose work deepened his understanding of the relationship of violent political conflicts to deep mental processes.

The person at the Carter School who knew Joe best, and whose relationship to Joe through the School’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, was the longest, is Professor Marc Gopin. Marc reflects on Joe in the following words:

There were key events in Joe’s life that led him to his pioneering and most lasting contribution to world peace and conflict resolution theory. The first was his profound reaction, along with key friends that he had made across the world, to the paralyzing standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was then that they swung into action in 1980 with behind-the-scenes unofficial diplomacy at a far deeper level of relationship between select Americans and Soviets who were in a better position to communicate and build trust.

Joe realized then that practitioners of peacemaking and their unofficial diplomacy were essential to the future of the world. But he knew that he needed to spend a lifetime building the theories as to why and how those relationships could make a difference. Joe would spend the rest of his career supporting, in highly innovative and strategic ways, any and all institutions and practitioners who deepened the work of Track Two unofficial diplomacy.

The second seminal moment that led to a lifetime dedication to Track Two diplomacy was when he himself witnessed the terrible limits of official diplomacy during the Iran/Iraq war. He bore witness to the moral compromises and human rights violations that come with nations making despicable friends against common enemies, instead of healing the roots of conflict. These were stunning moments of revelation for Joe. Joe courageously struck out on his own after ending his official diplomatic work. He singlehandedly built a community of Washington and global influentials to embrace alternative forms of diplomacy. Thus, he continued his work at Esalen in California with his colleagues there, but he also embraced several other tributaries of research and practice that fed into Track Two Diplomacy. He championed research into the psychodynamics of conflict, into the wounds of war and incomplete mourning. He called for the need to innovate healing at a deep level that must accompany peace processes and peace treaties.

Joe built and expanded conflict resolution theory and practice by highlighting the important work of many others. He did this selflessly and generously, placing many other careers above his own when the needs of the world outweighed his own needs as he saw it. He also pioneered the field of memory and history as critical to conflict analysis. Influenced by positive psychology and other luminaries such as Elise Boulding, Joe promoted positive memories of shared civilizations versus the obsessive traditional emphasis on warring civilizations. He did this, for example, through promoting shared memories of the Golden Age of Moorish Spain and its unparalleled examples of Abrahamic family coexistence, a favorite theme of his decades-long writing and practice.

Finally, this direction of research and practice evolved into an intellectual embrace of the central importance of religion and religious actors for the future of inclusive peacebuilding and diplomacy. He did so decades before K street and everyone else scrambled to understand religion and violence after 9/11, which in reality was not a serious interest in religion but a thinly veiled fear of Islam. Joe by contrast embraced all religions in their capacity to promote peace and daringly established beachheads of research and practice right on K Street at CSIS, and at ��AV’s then Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Joe was singularly responsible for the writing and publication of every Oxford book on religion and peacebuilding that established a new field of religion and peacebuilding. Naturally he became chair of the board of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution in 2003 from its inception, a Center that still exists today at the Carter School.

None of these initiatives would have secured platforms for research and practice without the quiet, selfless, visionary and generous helping hand of Joe Montville. He gave and gave for what he believed to be the single most important path to global peace. His students and colleagues have gone on to assert the vital importance to lasting peace of including numerous stakeholders in every corner of the globe who would never have been included in official diplomacy. The United States Department of State, his former employer, established entire departments that began to invest in programming for religion and peacebuilding and the inclusion of many stakeholders in peacebuilding. It is difficult as I look back to imagine any of these important innovations coming about without Joe’s dogged determination and quiet hand behind the scenes.

Joe claimed to have been not religious personally, and yet the zeal with which he pursued world peace, his dogged determination, and his tireless optimism combined with savvy strategy, all spoke to Joe Montville being a man on a mission – a man of vision, hope, and abiding faith in the future of humanity.

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Retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman to speak about ethical dilemmas in public service

John Hollis — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 19:13:27 +0000

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman to speak about ethical dilemmas in public service John Hollis Mon, 04/26/2021 - 15:13

Former Army officer Alexander Vindman to speak to Mason students about ethical dilemmas in public service. Photo provided

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, but Alexander Vindman said the strong moral convictions on which he’s lived his entire life wouldn’t have allowed him to have done otherwise.

The retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel has no regrets about the damning congressional testimony he gave in 2019 as part of the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump. A career officer who served America with great distinction, Vindman was working with the National Security Council when he testified that Trump tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a 2019 phone call to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, who was running for president.

Vindman, who had spent more than 21 years in the military, was aware that there would be immediate retaliation from the president and his supporters, but he knew what had to be done.

“I don’t think I would change a thing,” he said recently. “To me, it was a relatively simple decision to do my duty and fulfill my obligations. I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Vindman will speak with Mason students about the decision that ultimately led to his dismissal from the NSC and retirement from the Army, as well as about ethical dilemmas, professional values and his own personal faith during a virtual evening of reflection at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28, on Zoom. Those who wish to attend “Doing the Right Thing: Facing Ethical Dilemmas in Public Service” may register on Zoom. The virtual discussion is organized by Mason’s Judaic Studies Council.

Vindman will be introduced by Mason President Gregory Washington, and the discussion will be moderated by Charles Chavis, the director of the John Mitchell Jr. Program, and Ann Ardis, the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Ardis welcomed the opportunity for students to hear from Vindman.

“[This event] features the important role the humanities play in helping our students deepen their understanding of complex moral and ethical questions, so they can make extraordinary contributions to their communities as engaged citizens," she said.

Born in Kiev to a Jewish family, Vindman came to the United States with his two brothers, his father and his maternal grandmother following his mother’s death. He burst onto the national spotlight in 2019 when he testified during the first impeachment trial.

He joined the National Security Council in 2018, where he helped implement the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy. In this role, he was one of a number of people on the controversial July 25, 2019, phone call in which Trump is alleged to have asked a foreign government to investigate an American citizen for personal political gain.

His testimony during the impeachment trial resulted in retaliation from Trump, who fired him from the NSC and also ousted his twin brother, who was also an Army officer serving at the NSC but not involved in the impeachment proceedings.

But compromising his values was never a thought for Vindman.

“It’s really important to recognize that over a lifetime of public service, you’re exposed to and internalize a set of values,” he said. “They become very important to you. It’s something you try to emulate and train your subordinates to and to live those values.”

He was warned of the consequences if he testified before Congress, but went through with it.

“I could have been intimidated and cowed into retracting my perspective or I could have followed through on my convictions,” Vindman said. “It was pretty straight forward.”

The virtual event will closely examine the many ethical decisions Vindman faced, said Na’ama Gold, the director of Mason Hillel and one of the event’s organizers.

The role that faith can play in commitment to ethical public service will also be a topic of discussion at the event.

“This event showcases Mason’s commitment to the ideal of public service,” said John Turner, a professor of Religious Studies at Mason who also helped organize the event.

Among the event’s sponsors are the Department of Religious Studies, the John Mitchell Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race, the Honors College, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), University Life, Mason Hillel, Chabad of GMU, the Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter at GMU, the Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.

During the event, the role of Jewish values and philosophy in particular will be expanded upon by Susannah Heschel, who is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.

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Anthony Dyer Hoefer

rstaffo2 — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 19:11:54 +0000

Anthony Dyer Hoefer rstaffo2 Thu, 02/11/2021 - 14:11

Associate Dean, Honors College

Associate Professor, English

Contact Information

Email: ahoefer@gmu.edu Phone: 703.993.2918 Mail Stop: 1F4 Campus: Fairfax Office: Buchanan Hall D205A

Biography

Anthony Dyer Hoefer currently serves as the Assistant Dean of the Honors College. Among other HNRS courses, he often teaches experiential learning courses, like the Honors College Connects section of HNRS 261 and the Industry Challenges section of HNRS 361. He also advises Honors College students pursuing degrees in Business and Economics.

In addition, Dr. Hoefer is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, where he teaches courses on modern and contemporary US literature. His research is in the field U.S. southern studies, but his published work engages graphic novels, detective fiction, Hurricane Katrina, and The Big Lebowski. He is the author of Apocalypse South: Judgment, Cataclysm, and Resistance in the Regional Imaginary (The Ohio State University Press, 2012).

Education

PhD, English, Louisiana State University, 2008
MA, American Studies, University of Alabama, 2003
BA, Government and English, Wofford College, 2000

Publications

Authored books
Apocalypse South: Judgment, Cataclysm, and Resistance in the Regional Imaginary. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2012.

Chapters in edited collections
“A Revision of the Record: The Demands of Reading Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.” Comics and the American South, Brannon Costello and Qiana Whitted, editors. University Press of Mississippi. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.

Refereed journals
“Violence, Spectacular and Slow: Murder, Ecology, and Genre in Biguenet’s Oyster and Rash’s One Foot in Eden.” Mississippi Quarterly. Forthcoming.

“Quarantining Blackness, Writing Whiteness: The Literary and Memorial Geographies of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina.” South Atlantic Review. 82.2 (2017): 36-58.

“‘They’re Trying to Wash Us Away’: Revisiting Faulkner’s If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem [The Wild Palms] and Wright’s ‘Down by the Riverside’ After the Flood.” Mississippi Quarterly. 63.3-4 (2010): 537-554.

“‘The Slaves That They Are’ and the Slaves That They Might Become: Bondage and Liberty in Simms’ The Yemassee.” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. 34.3-4 (2009): 115-132.

“‘Like Tumbleweeds Blowing Across a Vacant Lot’: Landscape, Myth, and Subjectivity in Chandler’s The Big Sleep and the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski.” CLUES: A Journal of Detection. 26:3 (2008): 42-55

“The McDonaldization of Macbeth: Shakespeare and Pop Culture in Scotland, PA.” Literature/Film Quarterly. 34:2 (2006): 154-160

Invited non-refereed publications
“A Qualitative Consideration of Current Quantitative Souths.” Society for the Study of Southern Literature Newsletter. 49:1 (2015). Web.

Using public funds for religious schools is permissible under law, but it would have consequences, Mason expert says

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Using public funds for religious schools is permissible under law, but it would have consequences, Mason expert says Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 01/28/2020 - 00:00