Is Critical Theory Practical? You’re in a conversation and someone says, “Critical theory helps identify and end oppression, so…
Is Critical Theory Biblical? You’re in a conversation and someone says, “Since God cares about the oppressed, Christians should embrace…
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© 2019 The Colson Center for Christian Worldview
Speaker
Life Training Institute
Megan Almon, a former University of Georgia gymnast, was a part of UGA’s 2002 SEC Championship team. She worked as an award-winning journalist until 2008 when she decided to pursue a career speaking and teaching about Christian apologetics — especially in the area of bioethics. She joined Life Training Institute in 2009 and was awarded an M.A. in Christian apologetics from Biola University in 2011. Megan and her husband, Tripp — Director of Programs and Summit Semester for Summit Ministries — have been married since 2003 and have two children, Neely and Rogan. Megan enjoys spending time with her family at home in Manitou Springs, Colorado, and is still known to practice handstands in her kitchen. She has spoken to high school-and-college assemblies and classrooms, youth organizations, women’s groups, pregnancy resource centers, congregations, and legislators across the nation on multiple topics.
President
Life Training Institute
Scott Klusendorf is President of Life Training Institute where he equips pro-life advocates to make a persuasive case for life. He has taught pro-life apologetics at the graduate level at Biola University and Trinity Law School, and lectured at over 80 colleges and universities including Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Johns Hopkins, MIT, and the U.S. Air Force Academy — to name a few. Scott’s debate opponents have included Nadine Strossen (former President of the ACLU), attorney Edward Tabash (of the Council for Secular Humanism), attorney Kathryn Kolbert (who argued for abortion rights at the Supreme Court), and Katherine Kneer (President of Planned Parenthood California). Nationally, he’s been featured on syndicated shows such as Focus on the Family, Truths that Transform, Issues Etc, and Faith Under Fire. He is the host of the television series, “Life is Best.” Scott is the author of The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture (Crossway, 2009). Scott is a graduate of UCLA and holds a Master’s degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. At the practical level, Scott helps non-profit organizations raise money to assist women facing unplanned pregnancies. He and his wife Stephanie have been married since 1985 and have four children.
Professor
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Paul Copan (Ph.D. Philosophy, Marquette University) is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida. He has served as president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and speaks on university campuses and conferences. He is author and editor of over thirty books. These include Did God Really Command Genocide?, True for You, But Not for Me, When God Goes to Starbucks, The Gospel in the Marketplace of Ideas, An Introduction to Biblical Ethics, A Little Book for New Philosophers, and The Zondervan Dictionary of Christianity and Science.
Paul and his wife, Jacqueline, have six children, and they reside in West Palm Beach, Florida. His website is www.paulcopan.com.
Senior Research Fellow
The Heritage Foundation
Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., is the William E. Simon senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and the founder and editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, and he received his doctoral degree in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment and Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom, and he is the co-author of What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense and Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination. Anderson has made appearances on ABC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox News. His work has been published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Harvard Health Policy Review, the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Weekly Standard, and National Review. He is the John Paul II Teaching Fellow in Social Thought at the University of Dallas, an adjunct professor of philosophy and political science at Christendom College, a member of the James Madison Society at Princeton University, a Fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America, and a Visiting Fellow at the Veritas Center at Franciscan University.
Follow him on Twitter at @RyanTAnd and for his latest essays and videos you can follow his public Facebook page.
Founder
Maven
Brett Kunkle is the founder and president of MAVEN (www.maventruth.com), a movement to equip the next generation to know truth, pursue goodness and create beauty for the cause of Christ. He has more than 25 years of experience working with youth and parents. Brett has developed a groundbreaking approach to mission trips, creating a one-of-a-kind experience that immerses participants in real-life engagement in apologetics and evangelism in Berkeley, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Brett was an associate editor for the Apologetics Study Bible for Students and co-authored A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World and A Student’s Guide to Culture. He received his Master’s degree in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Talbot School of Theology. Brett lives with his wife and five kids in Southern California.
Assistant Professor
Biola University
Dr. Sean McDowell is a gifted communicator with a passion for equipping the church, and in particular young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. Sean is an Assistant Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University. He has a double Master’s degree in Theology and Philosophy from Talbot Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Apologetics and Worldview Studies from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Traveling throughout the United States and abroad, Sean speaks at camps, churches, schools, universities, and conferences. He has spoken for organizations including Focus on the Family, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Cru, Youth Specialties, Hume Lake Christian Camps, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Association of Christian Schools International.
Sean is the author, co-author, or editor of over seventeen books including Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God’s Design for Marriage, with John Stonestreet, Is God Just a Human Invention? with Jonathan Morrow, and Understanding Intelligent Design along with William A. Dembski. Sean has also written multiple books with his father, Josh McDowell, including The Beauty of Intolerance, The Unshakable Truth, and More Than A Carpenter. Sean is the General Editor for Apologetics for a New Generation and The Apologetics Study Bible for Students. He has also written for YouthWorker Journal, Decision Magazine, and the Christian Research Journal. Follow the dialogue with Sean as he blogs regularly at seanmcdowell.org.
Professor of History
Central Connecticut State University
Glenn Sunshine is Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University and a Senior Faculty Member of the Colson Fellows. An award-winning author, Glenn has published books, articles and book chapters on history, theology, and culture, online and on both sides of the Atlantic. His book Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home (Zondervan, 2009) received the 2006 Acton Institute Book Grant.
Assistant Research Professor
Catholic University of America
Jay W. Richards, Ph.D., is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Business and Economics at The Catholic University of America, Executive Editor of The Stream and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute.
Richards is author of many books including the New York Times bestsellers Infiltrated (2013) and Indivisible (2012). He is also the author of Money, Greed, and God, winner of a 2010 Templeton Enterprise Award; and co-author of The Privileged Planet with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez. His most recent book, co-authored with Jonathan Witt, is The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom that J.R.R. Tolkien Got and the West Forgot.
Richards’ articles and essays have been published in The Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Washington Post, Forbes, Fox News, National Review Online, Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Huffington Post, The Federalist, The American Spectator, The Daily Caller, The Imaginative Conservative, and many other publications. His topics range from culture, economics, and public policy to natural science, technology, and the environment.
Teacher
Moody Bible Institute
Dr. Christopher Yuan has taught the Bible at Moody Bible Institute for over ten years and his speaking ministry on faith and sexuality has reached five continents. He speaks at conferences, on college campuses, and in churches. He has co-authored with his mother their memoir, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God, A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope (100,000 copies sold and now in seven languages). He is also the author of Giving a Voice to the Voiceless. Christopher graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 2005, Wheaton College Graduate School in 2007 with a Master of Arts in Biblical Exegesis and received his doctorate of ministry in 2014 from Bethel Seminary. Dr. Yuan’s newest book is Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.
Founder
Them Before Us
Katy Faust is the Founder of Them Before Us, the only organization solely devoted to defending children’s rights in family structure. She did her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College and then received a Fulbright scholarship to Taiwan. Her fluency in Mandarin assisted her when she worked with the largest Chinese adoption agency in the world. In 2012 Katy began blogging about why marriage is a matter of social justice for kids. Her articles have appeared in USA Today, Public Discourse, LifeSite News, and The Federalist and The Daily Signal. She has filed three amicus briefs supporting children’s rights and advocated for the rights of children with lawmakers in the US and abroad as well as at the United Nations. She currently appears in a video series called Dear Katy which offers advice on how to live sexual integrity in the midst of morally permissive cultures. She is married and the mother of four children, the youngest of whom is adopted from China.
ThemBeforeUs.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katyfaustblogger/
Twitter: @Advo_Katy
Joseph Backholm is legal counsel and Director of What Would You Say? at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview where he helps Christians understand and navigate the intersection of faith and culture. He joined the Colson Center after a decade as the President and General Counsel of the Family Policy Institute of Washington in Washington State where he managed educational, legislative, and electoral operations on behalf of life, marriage, religious freedom, and parental rights. He led three ballot initiatives in Washington State on issues related to marriage and gender privacy. He is passionate about helping Christians be less afraid by helping them see that what God has said about the world is both true and good. He is a Washington native and Texas resident who loves travel, sports, and whatever his kids are into. Joseph received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and his law degree from Seattle University. He and his wife Brook, live with their four children in Bedford, TX.
Founder
Love Unleashes Life
Stephanie Gray is an international speaker and Founder of Love Unleashes Life. She has given over 900 pro-life presentations across North America as well as in Scotland, England, Ireland, Austria, Latvia, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. In 2017, Stephanie was a presenter for the series “Talks at Google,” speaking on abortion at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Stephanie has debated abortion advocates such as physicians who do abortions, which includes debating late-term abortionist Dr. Fraser Fellows in front of medical students at the University of Western Ontario’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. She has also debated Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, Dr. Jan Narveson, Philosophy professor and recipient of the Order of Canada, Elizabeth Cavendish, legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Dr. Malcolm Potts, the first medical director for International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Stephanie is author of Love Unleashes Life: Abortion & the Art of Communicating Truth as well as A Physician’s Guide to Discussing Abortion. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UBC in Vancouver, and a Certification, with Distinction, in Health Care Ethics, from the NCBC in Philadelphia. She resides in Vancouver, Canada.
LoveUnleashesLife.com
YouTube.com/StephanieGrayLoveUnleashesLife
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