Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Several rhetorical scholars over the past two decades have examined rhetorics that can be classified as premillennial apocalyptic prophecies; that is, a type of prophecy founded on the assumption that a declining world will result in a period of Tribulation followed by Christ’s Second Coming. Less explored is a different sort of prophecy—the postmillennial prophetic that believes that Christians must build the millennium of Christ before His Second Coming. This paper argues that postmillennial prophetic rhetoric’s fundamentally distinct assumptions inspire postmillennial Christians to take on an active role in increasing Christian influence on civil institutions and society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the public-private distinction as it plays out in the realm of “public” charities, especially in the area of restricted gifts. We examine this problem through the lens of the protracted litigation between Princeton University and the Robertson family over a restricted gift made by the Robertsons to Princeton in the early 1960s. At the time the gift was the largest ever made by an individual to a university; it now represents 8% of Princeton’s endowment. Like most restricted gifts, the Robertsons’ gift represented a private view of a public good. The Robertsons claim that Princeton failed to adhere to the terms of the gift. Made in response to President Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you...", the Robertsons’s gift was to endow a program to train students for service in the U.S. government. Shortly thereafter, however, public attitudes changed with the death of Kennedy, Vietnam and Watergate, and students did not want to work for the U.S. government. Like all restricted gifts, the Robertson restriction obtains in perpetuity with relief available to the charity only under the narrow doctrine of cy pres. Cy pres requires a charity demonstrate that a restrictive provision has become impossible to achieve – something Princeton could not do. Given the limited grounds for relief, restricted gifts have a significant effect on the autonomy of recipient organizations by constraining their ability to respond to change within the context of an overall mission. Over time these gift empower the private “dead hand” vis-à-vis the public.