Christianity has resources of skepticism that would make Nietzsche and Foucault blush. Read a few pages of Augustine or C. S. Lewis, and squirm as they surgically strip away the layers of self-justification and self-deceit and self-righteousness that you didn’t know you had wrapped on. They are true masters of suspicion. … Continue Reading »
There is a movement gaining steam among advocates for the disabled to spread awareness of so-called “people-first language,” that is, usage that puts a little distance between an individual and his or her physical or intellectual challenges. The goal is to train the government, the media, and the medical professions to learn to talk about “kids with cerebral palsy” or “people with autism … Continue Reading »
I know I do it, but not as often as I ought. That might explain why I can’t figure out how to explain it to anyone else: how to forgive someone. Clearly, though, forgiveness”the Christian sort”comes in different shades, because the reasons for its necessity are equally shaded … Continue Reading »
Many Catholic writers insist that the simple identification of one’s sexual orientation is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Catholic writer Marc Barnes has stated this view with particular force and consistency, rejecting not only the use of “homosexual” but also of “heterosexual”: “It is by the urging of the Catholic Church that I refuse, reject, and trample on the label heterosexual.” … Continue Reading »
In the course of preparing The End and the Beginning, the second volume of my biography of John Paul II, I was struck by a historical coincidence that isn’t much remarked these days: The opening of the Second Vatican Council in October 1962 coincided almost precisely with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pope John XXIII solemnly opened the council on October 11 … Continue Reading »
The conditions in Gosnell’s house of horrors clinic, far from being exceptional, are the logical outcome of the fine print in Roe v. Wade. As the growing controversy over similar horrors in Texas reveals, the conclusion of the Gosnell case hardly means the end of grisly headlines”headlines we wouldn’t have without the Supreme Court’s ill-fated decision… . Continue Reading »
Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Since the devastating attacks of 9/11”when the world saw afresh that religion has geo-political consequences, and that Islam is the most volatile religion on the world’s stage”more and more Christians have been asking this question. Yale theologian Miroslav Volf answers the question in a recent book (Allah: A Christian Response) with a nuanced but insistent Yes … Continue Reading »
In her excellent book How the West Really Lost God, Mary Eberstadt argues that the sharp decline in religious belief (and the waning influence of the churches) in the Western world is related directly to the decline of the traditional family. “The Christian story itself is a story told through the prism of the family. Take away the prism, and the story makes less sense … Continue Reading »
Every culture thrills to its favored words or concepts. In The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard Weaver dubbed them “god terms.” They’re the argument-ending, conclusive words that we find intrinsically persuasive because they express our deep prejudices about what’s good and true and beautiful. Weaver wrote The Ethics of Rhetoric after World War II. The god terms in his day were “progressive,” “democratic,” “scientific,” and so forth… . Continue Reading »
On Pentecost Sunday all hell broke loose in Rome. Following Mass that day, the unpredictable Pope Francis laid hands on a demon-possessed man from Mexico and prayed for him. The YouTube video of this encounter was flashed around the world, and the story caught fire: Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The Holy Father’s Vatican handlers were quick to deny such… . Continue Reading »
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