Chaplain's Activities

2004-05
 


October 24-26:  ACURA Meeting, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD

October 20-21  Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Board of Directors Meeting, Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington D.C. (Steffen Vice-Chair of Board)


October 8-9:  First Annual Gandhian Nonviolence Conference, Memphis Tennessee, topic:  "Teaching to Practice Gandhian Nonviolence:  Perspectives from Academics and Activists:   Steffen to deliver paper.

October 1:  Religion and Cash Performance, Banana Factory, Bethlehem

September 7, 8:  DPI/NGO Conference, United Nations, New York:  Steffen representing RCRC


2003-04 (Archive)

Baccalaureate, May 31:  Baccalaureate Speaker:  Mark Juergensmeyer
Commencement, June 1:  Commencement Speaker:  Kurt Vonnegut


Wednesday, March 17, 2004:
Lloyd Steffen will offer a presentation "Abortion and Religious Thought" to the Allentown Planned Parenthood Clergy Advisory Group

Wednesday, March 17, 2004:
Lloyd Steffen will serve as a panelist at the Kenner Theatere, Ulrich Student Center for a discussion of  "The DaVinci Code"
sponsored by the Newman Center

Thursday, March 18, 2004:
Lloyd Steffen will serve as a panelist at the Hillel Center for a discussion of Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ.

March 22nd - April 1, 2004:
Lloyd Steffen will serve as a Ford Foundation Consultant to the South African Religious Summit to be held March 27th at Cape Town, South Africa

On October 22, 2003:
Lloyd Steffen joined Rev. Robert Tiller, Legislative Coordinator of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, on Capitol Hill to express concern and opposition to the proposed "Unborn Victim of Violence Act," the aim of which is to redefine fetal life in terms of personhood, which is a right-bearing category with enormous legal and moral implications. Passage of this act, which does not once metion woemen, would severely curtail the ability of women to exercise reproductive choice in the United States.   Steffen joined Tiller and others to meet with aides in the offices of Senator Blanche Lincoln, (D-AK) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA).


Monday, 8 September 2003:  United Nations Event

Lloyd Steffen, University Chaplain and Professor of Religion Studies,
recently moderated a workshop in the official program of the 56th Annual
DPI/NGO Conference of the United Nations, which was organized around the
theme "Human Security and Dignity:  Fulfilling the Promise of the United
Nations."  The workshop session, entitled "Faith-Based Education
Programmes to Prevent HIV/AIDS," was organized by the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice and dealt with  the positive role
religious communities can play in AIDS education and prevention.  The
session focused on one initiative in South Africa, a program called
"Keeping it Real!", which has proven successful in its pilot phase and
may prove to be a model for other education efforts in sub-Saharan
Africa, where 29 million of the world's 42 million HIV/AIDS infected
persons live.  The session will be available in October as an audio file
through the United Nations "DPI/NGO" web site.


In March, Lloyd Steffen was invited to brief the domestic issues staffer of presidential candidate, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on the abortion issue.  Steffen is pictured with Kucinich below:
 


 
 


 Steffen Book out in October, 2003.
 


 

320 PP — 6” x 9”
Religion/Ethics/Theology
ISBN 0-8298-1563-5
Paper
$20.00 USA/$32.00 CAN
October
World Rights

ALSO BY LLOYD STEFFEN:
Abortion: A Reader
Pilgrim Library of Ethics
ISBN 0-8298-1117-6
$25.00 USA/$40.00 CAN
Executing Justice
The Moral Meaning of
the Death Penalty
ISBN 0-8298-1219-9
$18.00 USA/$29.00 CAN
Lloyd Steffen
Religion is powerful and religion can be dangerous. It can serve different masters.
Lloyd Steffen follows that insight as he explores the demonic dynamic in the monotheistic traditions of the West: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
“The events of September 11 provoked serious moral questions about religion.. and in these pages Iwill argue that people are religious the way they are because of the choices they make about how to be religious.. .people are religious in particular ways, and how they construct and practice religion rests, finally, on afundamental moral turn to be religious either in a l way or demonically.”
—from the Introduction

Exploring the differences between concepts of God related to ultimacy and absolutism, Steffen names absolutism as the source of destructive, life-defying religion. “Absolutism,” he says, “is the central reason and the main cause for religion becoming dangerous and turning demonic.”
Part I explores the power and danger of religion and the two options for being religious: the life-affirming option with its vision of goodness and the demonic option with its destructiveness in the context of ultimacy, its negation of freedom and its self-deception and denial of goodness.
Part II explores religion and the restraint of violence as it looks at: the pacifist option, the case of holy war, and the case of just war.
 

LLOYD STEFFEN is professor and chair of the religion studies department as well as university chaplain at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is editor of Abortion: A Reader (Pilgrim Library of Ethics) (The Pilgrim Press, 1996) and ExecutingJustice: The Moral Meaning of the Death Penalty (The Pilgrim Press, 1998), which received the first “Church and Society Award” from The Pilgrim Press in 2001. He lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Fall 2002 (Lloyd Steffen Speaking Engagements)
    Society for Values in Higher Education, Plenary Address (with Justin Brooks, Director of the California Innocence Project),
            University of SanDiego, August 9, 2002
    Frederick Wood Lecture, Cornell University. October 21, 2002
            Guest Preacher, Sage Chapel, Cornell University, October 20, 2002
    Family Weekend Service, November 10, 2002
    "The War in Iraq:  The Moral Issues,"  The Humanities Center, Lehigh University, October 31, 2002
    "Take Back the Night" March (opening), Lehigh University, November 20, 2002
    "The Moral Meaning of Demonic Religion," talk on current writing and research, Humanities Center, December 5, 2002.
    "Speak Out!"  Response to Westboro Baptist Church protest of Lehigh, Packer Memorial Church, December 7, 2002
    Lehigh University Vespers, December 8, 2002

Other activites
    NGO representative to U.N for Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, September   9, 10, 11
    Executive Committee Meeting, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, October 15, Washington, D.C.
    The United Church of Christ Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Board Meeting, Cleveland, OH  November 15-18
    American Academy of Religion Meeting, NOvember 22-25, Toronto, Ontario

  Lloyd Steffen Speaking Engagements  (Fall Semester, 2001)
        October 14, Hope United Church of Christ, Allentown  ("Faith and the Use of Force')
          October 22, Indiana University of Pennsylvania:  Description follows:

            On Monday evening, October 22, Dr. Lloyd Steffen, chairperson of the Religious Studies Department of Lehigh University
            will give a public lecture entitled, "On Holy and Unholy Wars: Religious Resources for the Justifiable Use of Force and
            Restraint of Violence."  In this presentation, he will speak about some of the religious resources  available that are meant
            to restrain violence and the use of force.  He will focus on such notions as Jihad, holy war, non-violent resistance, and
            non-resistance, This will lead to a discussion of just war theory, not only as it applies to the use of force in military engagements,
           but as a model for evaluating the morality of other uses of force, such as the state execution power.  Dr. Steffen will close by
           applying the model he has formulated to the current hunt for Bin Laden and other terrorists.

            This lecture will take place in Sprawls Auditorium at 7:00 pm on Monday, October 22.  All are invited to attend.
            Furthermore, Dr. Steffen will be available to attend one or two classes during Monday.  If anyone is teaching a
            course in which it would be appropriate to have a discussion of the ethics of capital punishment or other lethal uses of
            force, please contact Stuart Chandler (assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy of Religion)
            at 7-5612 or chandler@grove.iup.edu

        October 28, Family Weekend, Chapel Service, led by Rev. Dr. Lloyd Steffen
        November 4, "Pilgrim Peace Lecturer," The Peace Forum, Duluth, Minnesota
          December 2, Setauket United Church of Christ, Long Island:  Program on the Death Penalty  Title TBA
          December 9, Vespers Service, Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University
          December 12, Rise and Shine Breakfast, Lehigh University:  "Religion and the Restraint of Violence."

Other Activities

          October 25, Board of Directors Meeting, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Washington D.C.
          November 15-19, American Academy of Religion Meeting, Denver CO