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Secular Fundamentalists

“We will appeal. We’re fighting it. This is not dead. This is a place where religion destroyed American lives.” -American Atheists’ President Dave Silverman protesting a ruling allowing the display of the “9/11 cross” via @yair_rosenberg . . . . Continue Reading »

Happy Easter

1. There’s a dispute on another FIRST THINGS blog on where the word “Easter” came from. No matter who’s right, I have to admit that, unlike “Christmas,” it has no distinctively Christian connotation. Still, “He is risen . . . ,” and let’s hope . . . . Continue Reading »

The Machiavellian Genius Of Rand Paul?

Just follow me here. On immigration, Rand Paul says: The main part of my plan is trust but verify that says we have to have border security. The Wall Street Journal reported about Rand Paul’s proposal for a huge new guest worker program: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul recently made a splash when . . . . Continue Reading »

Edmund Spenser on Easter

In many Christian churches, Easter begins tonight with the Easter Vigil. And so I thought it would be appropriate to share one of the greatest Easter poems, written five hundred years ago by Edmund Spenser to his wife. To all who celebrate, a very joyous Easter. Christ is Risen. Most glorious Lord . . . . Continue Reading »

What Counts as Plagiarism?

The American Copy Editors Society is organizing a National Summit on Plagiarism and Fabrication , which will take place on April 5, and this has led a number of people to start thinking about plagiarism issues in advance of the event. One of the more interesting contributions to the discussion has . . . . Continue Reading »

On the Square Today

Tania M. Geist on Pope Benedict’s theology of Holy Saturday : On Holy Saturday, God incarnate entered “the absolute and extreme solitude of mankind.” Here Benedict pointed out that we have all experienced that terrifying feeling of abandonment, which is why we fear . . . . Continue Reading »

The Agony of a Steadily Trusting Faith

In his book  The Crucified God , Jürgen Moltmann famously suggested that Mark’s Gospel, with its recording of Jesus’ cry of dereliction—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—provides us with the only theology that can speak to “protest . . . . Continue Reading »

Easter Stories

Felices Pascuas ,  Joyeuses Pâques ,  Buona Pasqua ,  Glad Påsk . . . Around the world, Christians use very similar words to wish each other a  happy Easter , and with a couple of glaring exceptions, they call the feast by a variant of  pascha , Passover. Even . . . . Continue Reading »

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