Peter J. Leithart on messages at the movies:

Like many Christian filmmakers, the Erwins can’t resist “preaching” moments. Sure, non-Christian films can be plenty preachy, but preachiness is a disease to which evangelical filmmakers are especially susceptible. The nurse’s scene is more subdued than many preaching scenes, but it is still a preaching scene. Other Christian filmmakers are even less resistant to the temptation. I am impressed with the chutzpah and drive of the group at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, that has produced Courageous, Fireproof, and Facing the Giants. But these films don’t respect us enough to let us figure out the point of the film, which is as obvious as all get out. From the first frames, you know that a monologue will eventually sum up the film’s moral, and you half-suspect that the monologue will be followed by a joyous standing ovation. It’s like painting a crucifixion scene and then writing out the Passion narrative of Matthew at the bottom to make sure viewers get the point.

Matthew Cantirino on Sergius Bulgakov’s religious materialism:

Sergius Bulgakov, widely regarded as the greatest Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century (calling him the von Balthasar of the East would not be wide of the mark), was the kind of religious thinker only that century could produce. A blend of martyr, mystic, and missionary, he sought to defend the deposit of faith while upending its traditional modes of expression.

Also today, Clare Coffey on the vocation of motherhood:

Motherhood isn’t a job–it’s a vocation and an identity. Stay at homes are not “full-time moms” any more than women who work outside the home–as if breadwinning fathers were “part-time dads.” Fulltime childcare, especially as it’s usually combined with housekeeping, however, is a job–is hard, demanding, work. And the sooner we stop fetishizing it as the core of what it means to be a mother and a woman, as some sort of sacred, higher, path for the female sex, the sooner we will see it for what it really is: difficult, necessary, and honorable work whose workers deserve dignified and decent working conditions.

George Weigel on Philip II, China, and the great Catholic “what-if”:

History being linear, “What if….?” is an unanswerable question—but always a fascinating one. What if George Washington had failed in New York in the early days of the American revolution and the rebellion had been crushed? What if Lee had heeded Longstreet, won Gettysburg, and then taken Washington, thus ending the Civil War and achieving Confederate independence? What if Charles Lindbergh had been the Republican candidate in 1940 and had defeated FDR? What if Bush vs. Gore had been decided differently in 2000?

Elizabeth Scalia on Ross Douthat’s new book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics:

Douthat’s book is a neatly laid-out dissertation on the people of faith and their place in American society. It is a deft chronicle of where faith communities went right—spanning a heyday of religious commentary and social activism, from John Courtney Murray to Martin Luther King—where they gravely misstepped (through over-accommodation, self-defeating scriptural scholarship, and the inevitable discovery of “the God Within”) and where, through the embrasure of so-called “prosperity gospels” catering to the worst instincts of a post-binge capitalist society, they have simply gone mad.

R.R. Reno reminds us to keep our focus on things above:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” So wrote St. Paul to the Colossians, reminding them that if they have been raised with Christ, then they should direct their minds and their lives toward him.

As I sat in the pew on Easter Sunday and listened to that passage for Colossians, I found myself wondering: Do I set my mind and life too much on things that are on earth?

James R. Rogers on the newest sin tax:

Basically, Altman proposes higher income tax rates as a sort of sin tax on people who earn higher incomes. The irony is that Altman next proposes increased investment in education to help reduce income inequality. While one can argue about the specifics of education policy, Altman’s proposal here at least has the benefit of aiming to reduce inequality by increasing the wages of low-paid workers.

Russell E. Saltzman has decided to stop aging:

I have decided to stop aging. I’ve tried it now for awhile but it simply doesn’t suit me, so I am giving up on it.

Other people have gone through it, I’m aware, but from what I can observe it almost always turns out badly for them. As lifestyles go, there’s just not much to be said for it in the long run. It will be like giving up cigars, I think. I can expect some lapses from time to time but if I keep at it with grit, determination, will power, and cessation pills I’ll be done with it once and for all, finished, all fixed.

Also today, Jordan J. Ballor and Todd Steen on hope and The Hunger Games:

The recent release of the first movie based on The Hunger Games trilogy has renewed attention to the wildly popular franchise from author Suzanne Collins. From a Christian perspective, one of the striking things about the film and the book series is the absence of explicit religion or references to God. As Jeffrey Weiss has observed, “The word ‘god’ does not so much as appear in any of the books. Nobody even says ‘oh my gosh.’ There’s no ritual that isn’t totally grounded in some materialistic purpose. Not a hint of serious superstition. Unless I missed it, there’s not a remotely idiomatic reference to the supernatural.”

George Weigel on Jimmy Carter, Biblical scholar and theologian:

Given the specter of James Buchanan, the question of whether Jimmy Carter was the worst president in the history of the Republic must remain unresolved; yet there is no doubt that Carter is the worst ex-President ever. Having failed to convince his countrymen to re-elect him, he has spent his post-presidency explaining to the world what is wrong with his countrymen, and his country, in a pathetic attempt at self-vindication.

Also today, William J. Tighe on modern-day Marcionism:

Bettany Hughes, an expert in ancient history, was quoted recently in London’s Daily Telegraph as saying that Christianity “was originally a faith where the female of the species held sway. To oppose the ordination of women bishops in the Church of England is to deny the central role women played in the faith’s founding.” She added: “Who knows whether God is a girl, but mankind has turned to the female of the species for good ideas.”

C. Ben Mitchell challenges those who propose to re-engineer the human species:

Here is the argument offered by Matthew Liao, Anders Sandberg, and Rebecca Roache. Climate change is the result of human corruption of the environment—so-called anthropogenic causes. Climate change affects food production, access to water, health, and the environment. Since, in their view, millions could suffer from the consequences of climate change something radical must be done. Recycling, tax-incentives, and large-scale manipulation of the environment are, according to the authors, either too negligible or too grand to be effective. Geoengineering, in particular, is disadvantageous because “in many cases, we lack the necessary scientific knowledge to devise and implement geoengineering without significant risk to ourselves and to future generations” (p. 4). So, in one breathtaking leap, the authors argue that we ought to consider “biomedical modification of humans to make them better at mitigating climate change.”

Steven M. Perry on how charity begins with God, not government:

As government and other political institutions continue to fail us, people of faith remain the only consistent safety net for those in need. Take, for example, the State of Illinois, which recently passed the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act. The Act requires state-funded adoption agencies to place adoptive children with same-sex couples when they are available. Pursuant to this law, Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois will no longer provide adoption services. This is just one example of what is happening throughout the country: Ideology is beginning to trump the common good.

Peter J. Leithart on crucifixion and beauty on a Friday afternoon:

Roman crucifixion was gruesome. There was no rulebook, so full rein was given, as Martin Hengel has written, to “the caprice and sadism of the executioners.” Some Romans denounced its cruelty. “That plague” was Cicero’s description. Most were horrified, averted their eyes, and kept their tongues. We know Caesar crucified slaves, but he never refers to crosses or crucifixions in any of his writings, and Hengel tells us that “no ancient writer wanted to dwell too long on this cruel procedure.” The gospels provide the most detailed account we have of a Roman crucifixion.

Also today, Samuel Kaldas on a Coptic Good Friday:

A group of elderly Egyptian men in white robes crowds around a lectern, upon which sits a dusty tome. The eldest moves his finger slowly across the open page as they chant, crawling from letter to letter of the Coptic script. One of them is holding a pair of cymbals, another, a triangle. At certain points in the tune, they begin to play, completing their piece with a few dramatic strikes, after which the chant settles back into a gentler, more solemn tone, unaccompanied by the instruments’ metallic voices. With the occasional exception of a microphone or projector screen, this scene has not changed much in more than a thousand years.

James K. Fitzpatrick on a compromise that would have cost President Obama nothing:

Obama’s accommodation proposes that Church authorities who run hospitals, schools, and other facilities will be entitled to tell their employees that the health care insurance provided by the Church does not cover contraceptives, the “morning after pill,” or sterilization, but that the health insurance company that covers the Catholic institution will be free to contact the employees of that institution and inform them that they are entitled to “free” coverage of these things from the insurance company in question. It is this “cut-out” of the Catholic institution that Sr. Keehan contends protects “religious liberty.”

George Weigel on how Easter changes everything:

Christmas occupies such a large part of the Christian imagination that the absolute supremacy of Easter as the greatest of Christian feasts may get obscured at times. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, an Italian biblical scholar, suggests that we might begin to appreciate how Easter changed everything—and gave the birth of Jesus at Christmas its significance—by reflecting on the story of Jesus purifying the Jerusalem Temple, at the beginning of John’s Gospel.

Elizabeth Scalia on a great challenge to Christian understanding:

Ecce homo: Christ enjoying ecstatic welcome as he enters Jerusalem, only to be rejected, scorned, debased, and destroyed just a week later. Ecce all of us, for all of our triumphs contain the threat of annihilation, particularly if we cling to them too dearly, or believe that they will somehow exempt us from the great challenges and crucibles stationed along all of our roads, like so many sinkholes. Grasping too tightly to illusions of our own specialness can render us ill-equipped to withstand a sudden reversal of fortune, but then—if we can find the strength to consent to the unfathomable will of God—ecce homo, again: there is glory beyond our imaginings.

Dale Steinacker on Constitutional babble:

The original Star Trek series, with William Shatner as Captain Kirk, would not be the first place one would look for a treatise on Constitutional law. But one episode has an interesting lesson for the Supreme Court to consider as it rules on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Nathaniel Peters on the virtues of the speakeasy:

If you go down St. Mark’s Place, between First and Avenue A, you’ll find a hotdog place–Crif Dogs, to be exact. If you go into Crif, you’ll see a counter at the end serving hotdogs. Two old arcade machines sit on the right. On your left there’s a phone booth, unremarkable since payphones were last used when those arcade machines were brand new. But if you go inside the booth, you’ll notice that there isn’t a payphone, but a normal one with a note saying to dial 1. Dial 1, tell the man how many people you have, and the wall of the phone booth will open to your left. You walk into a low-ceilinged, small oak-panel and brick room. A few stray taxidermied animals hang on the walls, including a genuine jackalope (a jackrabbit with deer horns) and a bear wearing a bowler hat. Welcome to PDT.

Russell E. Saltzman on chickens coming home to roost:

Ms. Hansen, a farm kid from Iowa and now a lecturer and artist in residence at the University of Kansas, had the idea to display chickens in their coops at various spots around Lawrence. She planned to recruit volunteers to tend them and at the end of a month, publicly slaughter them. This was to “reconnect” people to their food sources.

Also today, Erik Bootsma and Eric Wind on the problems with Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial:

Over the past year, “starchitect” Frank Gehry’s design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial on the National Mall, has been the subject of immense and growing criticism and controversy. Objections to the proposed design, more of an anti-memorial than a memorial, have come from all quarters including the entire Eisenhower family, the National Civic Art Society (on which we serve as Board members), numerous other civic organizations, journalists, politicians, and architects. The House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands even had a hearing to discuss the controversy on March 20.

George Weigel on the differences the Pill has made:

As the talismanic year 2000 approached, and like virtually every other talking head and scribe in the world, I was asked what I thought the history-changing scientific discoveries of the 20th-century had been. And like the rest of the commentariat, I answered, “splitting the atom (which unleashed atomic energy for good or ill) and unraveling the DNA double-helix (which launched the new genetics and the new biotechnology).” Today, after a decade of pondering why the West is committing slow-motion demographic suicide through self-induced infertility, I would add a third answer: the invention of the oral contraceptive, “the Pill.”

Also today, Betsy VanDenBerghe on why when it comes to family size, bigger might be easier:

So an enforced humility should not be underestimated as a benefit of multiple children. You find yourself eminently able to cope with public humiliation without losing sleep. In fact, you view the embarrassment as a normal component of child-rearing since you gave up on raising trophy children after the first two kids and, over the years, gradually accepted the fact that your children aren’t here to make you look good.

Elizabeth Scalia on utilitarian calculations and publicly funded healthcare:

Here, within the neat columns of taxes, fines and policies received versus benefits paid out, hide the little demons of our spiritual destruction; they encourage the appointing of some flawed and imperfect humans to gauge the worthiness of other flawed and imperfect humans and then relentlessly advise for or against a life based on ever more relativistic (but called “practical”) lines. Giving public voice to their relentless prompting, pundits who recently declared that “60 is the new 40” will suddenly be opining that 71 is too old for a heart. 75 will be considered too old for a new knee—news that will stun active, fully engaged and vital people like my 80 year-old father-in-law.

Also today, William Doino Jr. considers whether the Catholic Church has gone soft on communism:

The Church’s controversial response has been to adopt a diplomatic, rather than confrontational, stance, and to look toward a post-Communist future—even though Communism remains very much alive on the island. The debate came to a boil recently when Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, frustrated by a standoff with dissidents occupying one of his church’s, asked the authorities to remove them (after winning assurance the group would not be prosecuted). The Vatican has also announced that the pontiff has no plans to meet with dissidents or their relatives during his trip (perhaps fearing it would do no good and/or lead to even more reprisals).

Matthew Hennessey wonders why so many environmentalists are pro-choice:

After all, abortion is not organic. That may sound glib, and I should maybe be better at just living in the moment and enjoying quality time with my kids, but I think it’s a useful way of looking at an issue that is almost always viewed through a political lens. Abortion is unnatural. Interrupting a pregnancy is literally an act against nature. Usually, if left alone, the little seed that is planted in a woman’s womb when she becomes pregnant will grow, thrive, and blossom into a beautiful, organic human child.

Peter J. Leithart on Evangelicals and the Eucharist:

I was recently asked to identify the biggest cultural challenge facing American Evangelicals. In my judgment, the biggest cultural challenge is not “out there” in “the culture” but internal–I almost said, “inherent”–to Evangelicalism: the persistent marginalization of the Eucharist in Evangelical church life, piety, and political engagement. Evangelicals will be incapable of responding to the specific challenges of our time with any steadiness or effect until the Eucharist becomes the criterion of all Christian cultural thinking and the source from which all genuinely Christian cultural engagement springs.

Howard P. Kainz on Mormons, Christianity, and asking the right questions:

Evidently, the more we know about Mormonism, the more we can see that we have been asking the wrong question. From the Mormon point of view, the question to be asked is not, “Are Mormons Christian?” but, in view of the alleged apostasy in early Christianity after the death of the Apostles, a more appropriate question would be: “Are any non-Mormons Christian?”

George Weigel on Cardinal Dolan and the new evangelization:

The irrepressibly effervescent personality of Cardinal Timothy Dolan may tempt some to think of the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as the latest in a line of glad-handing Irish-American prelates, long on blarney and short on depth. Succumbing to that temptation would be a very serious mistake. For Cardinal Dolan is a man of formidable intelligence, a historian trained in the school of the late John Tracy Ellis, dean of the classic historians of Catholicism in the United States.

Elizabeth Scalia wonders if “good faith” can still be assumed:

t is now nearly unwatchable in its partisan hackery, but there was a time when I rarely missed Hardball with Chris Matthews. From the late 1990s to the early-aughts, the program regularly brought together a diverse and energetic panel of pundits who, while rarely in full agreement, could be counted on to offer thoughtful analysis with wit and a surprising amount of civility and good humor. That began to change during the 2004 election; one noticed some strained exchanges and fewer smiles.

Ben Stevens on how the LGBT movement ignores the the fundamental realities of modernity:

If you have paid any attention at all to the current and ever-livelier dialogue between the LGBT movement and the Christian community, you have no doubt heard the question being asked of Christians everywhere: Do you realize how bigoted your views are? This is of course a trick question, and Christians are not doing themselves any favors by trying so hard to answer it.