Those reading this blog will hardly be surprised to know that I have been a longtime member of the Center for Public Justice and its predecessor organizations for about three decades. For over 20 years the organization has put out the Public Justice Report, which was at one time a monthly newsletter but now comes out on a quarterly basis. The latest development has it becoming an exclusively web-based periodical, something for which I am less than enthusiastic. All the same, I remain an enthusiast for the PJR's approach to political life.

Here is what you will find in the latest issue, as reproduced from its website:

From Re-election to Inauguration. What should we make of George W. Bush’s solid victory last November? Public Justice Report editor, James Skillen, offers his assessment, drawn from a speech he was invited to give in Beijing, China on December 8 at a conference of leading America-watchers. Skillen argues that the so-called "moral values" vote, which includes an attitude toward economic issues and foreign policy, must be understood against the backdrop of the tension between America’s Puritan and Enlightenment traditions, each struggling for dominance in our nationally weak federal system.

Faith-Based Hiring Rights. A brief review introduces a new book, published by the Center for Public Justice, that has been sent to legislators and other public officials throughout the country—at both state and federal levels. The book is The Freedom of Faith-Based Organizations to Staff on a Religious Basis, by Carl Esbeck, Stanley Carlson-Thies, and Ronald Sider. This is one of the most controversial subjects in relations between faith-based social-service organizations and the government. This book is the authority—the most complete and detailed assessment available of the law and politics on this issue.

With or Against the World?. Significant excerpts are presented here from the second chapter of James Skillen’s forthcoming book with this title. The subtitle is America’s Role among the Nations (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, due out at the end of February). This first of two installments from the book focuses on the "forgotten depths" of history that lie behind America’s response to terrorism. Americans know too little of the history of Islam and the rise of Islamic radicalism, but they also know too little about the birth of the United States as a "nation with the soul of a church."

Stars Forever. Stanley Carlson-Thies reviews a book that will surprise those who have little good to say about combative Evangelicals in American politics. The book — Like the Stars, Leading Many to Righteousness — is by an evangelical pastor, Glenn Parkinson, who calls his fellow-believers to a positive role in society rather than to a negative one. The goal of Christians should be to serve their neighbors and bless them with good things, not to try to defeat them in a culture war. Integrity and public forthrightness should go hand in hand with a generous way of life that can lead neighbors to a high regard for their fellow citizens who are Christians.

The Question of a Christian Worldview. This essay introduces and reviews two books: first, and primarily, Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth: The Liberation of Christianity from its Cultural Captivity (Crossway Books, 2004), and second, David K. Naugle’s Worldview: The History of a Concept (Eerdmans, 2002). The first is a best-selling exploration of how Christians have become bogged down by dualistic views of life and what they need to do to become full, free, and productive Christians. Naugle’s book is more academic, but for anyone who wants to know what’s behind all of today’s "worldview talk," this is the book to read.

Education Reform to Empower the Poor. David Van Heemst is the author of Empowering the Poor, Why Justice Requires School Choice (ScarecrowEducation, 2004). Building on the work of Charles L. Glenn and others, Van Heemst makes the case for real pluralism in education, with real choices for parents, and why these reforms will do more than anything else to empower the poor in America.

Editor's Watch: Postmodern President: Second Edition. The Editor’s Watch this quarter hypothesizes that if Bill Clinton was our first postmodern president, as some have argued, then George W. Bush is our second. Bush's "social-constructivist" approach to policy making and his efforts to impose his political will reveal him to be more a man of pragmatic gusto than a man carefully attuned to principles of justice.