Matthew J. Franck

Here in New Jersey where I live and work, the state legislature, controlled by Democrats, has put same-sex marriage at the top of its agenda.  We already have same-sex civil unions, thanks to a legislative response to an activist state supreme court ruling several years ago.  Governor . . . . Continue Reading »

With exquisite timing—two days before the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade , and three days before the March for Life descends on Washington—the Obama administration’s secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has released a long-awaited statement confirming her . . . . Continue Reading »

If, like me, you read Theodore Boutrous’s defense, yesterday in the Wall Street Journal , of the proposition that the FCC should cease and desist from enforcing any notions of decency in broadcast television, and you wondered what exactly could compel a person to make such vacuous arguments, . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday’s unanimous Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, upholding a small Lutheran school’s right to control its employment of “commissioned ministers” on its teaching staff, is very good news indeed for religious freedom. Congratulations are due to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, to Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia (who teamed up with Becket in representing the school), and to writers of supportive amicus briefs… . Continue Reading »

In his latest Washington Post column , E.J. Dionne considers the newly surging candidacy of Rick Santorum.  It is not a particularly memorable or insightful column—in other words, par for the course—but there is one paragraph that makes one’s hair stand on end: Santorum is a . . . . Continue Reading »

I thank R.R. Reno for pointing us to Leon Wieseltier’s essay on Alex Rosenberg’s exercise in reductionism, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality .  (And yes, Edward Feser’s review was a real pleasure as well.)  Reviews like this do us a double service: while they . . . . Continue Reading »

The two best things I have read on the question of Newt Gingrich’s admitted past adulteries, the forgiveness of his sins upon entering into the Catholic Church, and the relevance of these facts for voters considering his presidential candidacy, are by Frank Beckwith at The Catholic Thing and . . . . Continue Reading »

At 3:00 p.m. EST, I will be on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” program, along with Charles Blow of the New York Times, to discuss this report of the Pew Research Center suggesting that belief in American “exceptionalism” is subsiding.  If you look at the full report . . . . Continue Reading »

Over at Public Discourse today, I review Naomi Schaefer Riley’s book The Faculty Lounges , which R.R. Reno discussed here at FT last week .  A sample of my take: Why are so many academic departments so ideologically homogeneous? Why are assistant professors so hard at work producing so . . . . Continue Reading »

The other day Joe Carter linked to a BBC item about a debate that was held in Philadelphia, on the question whether the Declaration of Independence was “illegal.”  Evidently there were legal scholars on both sides, the British arguing that the Declaration (hence the American . . . . Continue Reading »