Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Uncluttering the House of the Mind

From Web Exclusives

thank Headmaster Crowe for that gracious introduction. And I thank Professor Owen Anderson of Arizona State University for introducing me to the headmaster, and to the wonderful venture of the Great Hearts Academies, which are doing such good in the world, one teacher, one student, one person at a time. One person at a time, I think, is really the only way to do any good in the world, for human beings are individual persons in communities, not statistics in a collective or parts in a machine. So on this happy day, as the students of the class of 2014 celebrate a milestone achievement with their families, their friends, and their teachers, I come to congratulate you, to wish you well, and to address each of you as a person who has received the good turn of a fine education, and who should feel a responsibility to repay the debt of that education by living well as a person, mindful of the personhood, the individuality, and the good of others around you, in the various communities through which your life will take you. Continue Reading »

Rabbi Lord Sacks, Canterbury Medalist

From First Thoughts

On May 15 in New York City, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty awarded its Canterbury Medal to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who will be familiar to First Things readers thanks to his marvelous Erasmus Lecture, given last autumn and published in the January 2014 issues under the title “On . . . . Continue Reading »

When Our Side Wins, Everyone Wins!

From First Thoughts

Readers may recall the World Vision flap from last month. One day the evangelical charity announced that it was changing its employment practices, to permit persons in same-sex relationships to work for it as long as they were “married” under some legal jurisdiction, and with all the . . . . Continue Reading »

Georgetown Religious Freedom Event

From First Thoughts

Next Monday, March 24–the day before oral arguments in the Hobby Lobby andConestoga Wood Products cases–the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center will host an event, “Everybody’s Business: The Legal, Economic, and Political Implications of . . . . Continue Reading »

Identity or Temptation?

From First Thoughts

I have been trying to think of whether to say something about the “gay Christian” debate that has sputtered rather intermittently into life around here. One does not want to give gratuitous offense. I have found myself strongly drawn to the arguments of Austin Ruse (who has written . . . . Continue Reading »