A Christian Case for Racial Reparations

National healing for the persistent wounds of racism, America’s original sin, can be advanced through a national apology, reparations and forgiveness. The frequent practice of apologies and reparations around the world in the past generation provide precedent for such measures. Christianity’s teaching of reconciliation and accompanying notions of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and atonement provide a strong moral basis for these measures and resonate with the rationales through which the United States’s greatest champions of civil rights and equality have fought against racism and slavery. Because racism and slavery were supported with the sanction of the state, in the name of the collective body, measures of repair may now be performed by the state, in the name of the collective body. Questions of who pays, who receives, and what form reparations take are important ones and can be answered adequately. Through collective apology, reparations, and forgiveness, the United States would enact and renew its national covenant, acting in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Jr

Shirt sponsorship by gambling companies in the English and Scottish Premier Leagues: global reach and public health concerns

While the nature of gambling practices is contested, a strong evidence base demonstrates that gambling can become a serious disorder and have a range of detrimental effects for individuals, communities and societies. Over the last decade, football in the UK has become visibly entwined with gambling marketing. To explore this apparent trend, we tracked shirt sponsors in both the English and Scottish Premier Leagues since 1992 and found a pronounced increase in the presence of sponsorship by gambling companies. This increase occurred at the same time the Gambling Act 2005, which liberalized rules, was introduced. We argue that current levels of gambling sponsorship in UK football, and the global visibility it provides to gambling brands, is a public health concern that needs to be debated and addressed. We recommend that legislators revisit the relationship between football in the UK and the sponsorship it receives from the gambling industry

Perspectives from those involved in healthy stadia

Healthy stadia is a growing agenda across industry and in turn academia. In this era of growth, much of the research literature is primarily sourced from academics with little contribution from applied and industry stakeholders. As such, the editors have sought to offer practitioners a platform to share novel projects, perspectives and preliminary intervention evaluation findings. This applied article intends to share evaluation and insight from applied practice, to encourage closer debate between the academic community and applied industry

The Catholic Church, Human Rights, and Democracy: Convergence and Conflict with the Modern State

This book chapter traces the history of the Catholic Church\u27s relationship to the modern state, focusing on the idea of sovereignty and the development of human rights and democracy. It argues that the Catholic Church\u27s relationship to human rights and democracy in the modern world can only be understood as reflective of both a historical convergence and a persistent tension and ambivalence. The first part argues for this dual theme in the development of Catholic doctrine, where today, as over the past several centuries, the Church\u27s conception of the common good yields both an embrace of human rights and democracy and a critique of certain aspects of their secular espousal. The second part illustrates how this parallel acceptance and tension is manifested in practice, showing that the Church\u27s efforts to advance its teachings on human rights and democracy sometimes succeed and sometimes encounter resistance, both on account of conceptual differences with modern states and international organizations as well as because of obstructing institutional realities

The Catholic Church, Human Rights, and Democracy: Convergence and Conflict with the Modern State

This book chapter traces the history of the Catholic Church\u27s relationship to the modern state, focusing on the idea of sovereignty and the development of human rights and democracy. It argues that the Catholic Church\u27s relationship to human rights and democracy in the modern world can only be understood as reflective of both a historical convergence and a persistent tension and ambivalence. The first part argues for this dual theme in the development of Catholic doctrine, where today, as over the past several centuries, the Church\u27s conception of the common good yields both an embrace of human rights and democracy and a critique of certain aspects of their secular espousal. The second part illustrates how this parallel acceptance and tension is manifested in practice, showing that the Church\u27s efforts to advance its teachings on human rights and democracy sometimes succeed and sometimes encounter resistance, both on account of conceptual differences with modern states and international organizations as well as because of obstructing institutional realities

Rereading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: plurality and contestation, not consensus

In this paper I examine the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My analysis counters conventional narratives of consensus and imposition that characterize the development of the UN human rights regime. The central argument is that within the founding text of the contemporary human rights movement there is an ambiguous account of rights, which exceeds easy categorization of international rights as universal moral principles or merely an ideological imposition by liberal powers. Acknowledging this ambiguous history, I argue, opens the way to an understanding of human rights as an ongoing politics, a contestation over the terms of legitimate political authority and the meaning of “humanity” as a political identity

The genetics of cholesteatoma study. Loss‐of‐function variants in an affected family

The aetiology of cholesteatoma remains elusive. In a recent systematic review, we discussed reports of multiple cases of cholesteatoma within families, which suggests a genetic predisposition in some cases (1). We have established a U.K. database and DNA sample bank that can be used to identify genetic variants that co‐segregate with cholesteatoma in multiply‐affected families. Recruitment to this Genetics of Cholesteatoma (GOC) Study is via the U.K. National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network. This preliminary communication describes the results of whole exome sequencing (WES) of DNA extracted from participants in the first fully sequenced family recruited to the study. Rare variants were filtered for co‐segregation with the cholesteatoma phenotype, and for their putative functional impact. We have identified loss of function variants in the genes EGFL8 and BTNL9 as candidate variants of interest. These are preliminary observations and the variants are of unknown significance to the disease pathology without replication or further investigation

The impact of digital start-up founders’ higher education on reaching equity investment milestones

This paper builds on human capital theory to assess the importance of formal education among graduate entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 4.953 digital start-ups the paper evaluates the impact of start-up founding teams’ higher education on the probability of securing equity investment and subsequent exit for investors. The main findings are: (1), teams with a founder that has a technical education are less likely to remain self-financed and are more likely to secure equity investment and to exit, but the impact of technical education declines with higher level degrees, (2) teams with a founder that has doctoral level business education are less likely to remain self-financed and have a higher probability of securing equity investment, while undergraduate and postgraduate business education have no significant effect, and (3) teams with a founder that has an undergraduate general education (arts and humanities) are less likely to remain self-financed and are more likely to secure equity investment and exit while postgraduate and doctoral general education have no significant effect on securing equity investment and exit. The findings enhance our understanding of factors that influence digital start-ups achieving equity milestones by showing the heterogeneous influence of different types of higher education, and therefore human capital, on new ventures achieving equity milestones. The results suggest that researchers and policy-makers should extend their consideration of universities entrepreneurial activity to include the development of human capital