Are Reparations Key to Racial Reconciliation?: A Debate

Matthew Walther is editor of The Lamp, a new bimonthly Catholic magazine. He was previously a national correspondent for The Week, where he wrote a daily column on American life for four years. He has contributed essays, articles, and reviews to a wide number of publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, The New York Post, The Spectator, Prospect, First Things, The Catholic Herald, The Critic, National Review, and many others. He has discussed his writing on Fox News, All Things Considered, and numerous other radio programs and podcasts. His work has also been featured many times on The Drudge Report, Real Clear Politics, and Arts and Letters Daily. He lives with his wife, Lydia, and their four children, Thisbe, Violet, John, and Sylvia, in rural Southwest, Michigan. He is currently researching a biography of St. John Henry Newman.

​Jason D. Hill is a professor of philosophy at DePaul University and the author of five books: These include, What Do White Americans Owe Black People: Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression,  and the bestselling, We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to the American People​. Other books include: Becoming a Cosmopolitan: What It Means to Be a Human Being in the New Millennium, Civil Disobedience and the Politics of Identity: When We Should Not Get Along, and Beyond Blood Identities: Post-humanity in the Twenty First Century. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and has been a professional writer and book author for over thirty years. He is a specialist in ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, American politics, and foreign policy. He has been published in major magazines including The Federalist, The American Mind, The American Thinker, Commentary Magazine, Spiked Magazine, and Salon. He is also a contributor to The Hill. His poetry has been published in several journals.

Mikayle Scheffel graduated with her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she was president of the Christian Legal Society and the Federalist Society. While at DU Law, she focused her studies on criminal law, employment law, and family law. During law school, her internships included working for the Honorable Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich fo the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Honorable Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington of the 1st Judicial District, the Denver District Attorney’s Office, and she also worked as a research assistant for Professor Nancy Leong. 

While attending CCU, Scheffel competed in speech and debate, earning three national championships and numerous other awards. She was hired as the student coach and later as assistant director of Forensics. Scheffel has been passionate about speech and debate since her junior year of high school, and that passion led her to CCU, having one of the best programs in the nation. In addition, she also has a particular fondness for CCU Forensics, as she met her husband, Stephen, when he was one of her teammates. 

Scheffel’s passion for advocacy led her to earn her juris doctor, and she is now an associate attorney for TNS Associates as a general practice attorney. Mikayle is passionately pro-life and is currently serving on the Board of Directors at Alternatives Pregnancy Center. In her free time, Mikayle enjoys skiing, reading, and taking evening walks with her husband.