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How to Write a Worship Song

From First Thoughts

As an English major I cringed at some of the recommended rhymes, but this advice is definitely right: “One thing in your song should always be on fire, be it our heart, our souls, this generation . . . Something needs to be in flames.” (h/t Colin Gormley ) We were reminded of this . . . . Continue Reading »

Parents, Let Your Teens Be Adults

From First Thoughts

Your teenage “kids” are probably a lot more competent than they seem, according to psychologist Robert Epstein. But a raft of laws and regulations (compulsory education, labor restrictions, a separate juvenile justice system) and an ever-growing consumer sector have needlessly delayed . . . . Continue Reading »

Syphilis and the Sexual Revolution

From First Thoughts

It may have been penicillin, not the Pill, that triggered the sexual revolution, a new study indicates . Hypothesizing that “a decrease in the cost of syphilis due to penicillin [which, in 1943, was found to treat syphilis effectively] spurred an increase in risky non-traditional . . . . Continue Reading »

How to Expand Your Vocabulary

From First Thoughts

Quick: Define nugatory, macerate, and ferrous, and use each in a sentence. A bit rusty on your vocabulary? You may want to brush up—-and make sure your kids do, too. As E. D. Hirsch Jr. writes in City Journal: There’s no better index to accumulated knowledge and general competence than the size . . . . Continue Reading »

Our Unmet Friends

From First Thoughts

The March for Life, which is now underway in Washington, D.C., tends to be a festive affair—-which is unsurprising, given that it’s dominated by young people (with up to 80 percent of attendees under the age of twenty, according to event director Jeanne Monahan). High schoolers and . . . . Continue Reading »

Women and the Pro-Life Movement

From First Thoughts

The pro-life movement has always been accused of opposing the progress of women, trying to expel them from the workplace and entrap them in the home to do nothing but prepare food and bear children. Now that women lead the pro-life movement (a development that not even the Washington Post and the . . . . Continue Reading »

Faith and Family (After Divorce)

From First Thoughts

A new report from the Institute for American Values explores the complicated ways in which a child’s family structure, particularly the experience of parents’ divorce, can affect his or her religious practices as an adult. Coauthors Elizabeth Marquardt, Amy Ziettlow, and Charles E. . . . . Continue Reading »

Lecture on Health Care Ethics

From First Thoughts

New York City—area readers may wish to attend this lecture  on health care ethics by Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P., Ph.D., R.N. on Saturday, February 2. “The Dehumanization of the Clinician and the Demise of the Healing Relationship” is the inaugural lecture of the . . . . Continue Reading »