David Mills

Can Animals Be Gay? asks the New York Times , in a long and rather interesting article, which treds carefully on the question of whether such terms as “gay” can be used of animals and whether their behavior provides any insight into or guidance for human behavior. Conservative activists . . . . Continue Reading »

“Red Sox rally past Yankees 9-7 on Opening Night” read the very cheering headline on one of the sports magazines’ websites. It was cheering to see the team that has held onto its traditions, notably continuing to play in its  old-fashioned stadium and resisting the appeal of . . . . Continue Reading »

Something you should know about: the weblog Old Life: Reformed Faith and Practice and the sporadically published quarterly newsletter the Nicotine Theological Journal edited by my friend D. G. (Darryl) Hart and John Muether ( subscription information here and archives here ). Both the weblog and . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times is a fascinating newspaper for the study of bias. Yes, of course we all have our biases and blind spots, and every publication has a point of view, but there is something about the Times ’ style and tone that suggest a loftier than usual view of their own objectivity and . . . . Continue Reading »

Of interest to some of you: the Patterson Triennial Conference for the Orthodox-Roman Catholic Dialogue, titled Orthodox Constructions of the West . It is being held at Fordham University in the Bronx from June 28th to 30th. The first conference was held in 2007, and the papers are being published . . . . Continue Reading »

Readers who enjoyed Matthew Hanley’s Should Catholic Charities Settle for Harm Reduction? , today’s On the Square article, may also want to read his new book Affirming Love, Avoiding AIDS: What Africa Can Teach the West , soon to be published by the National Catholic Bioethics Center. . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the respondents to yesterday’s There May be a Reason for Atheist Pastors quoted the Dennett report’s conclusion. Part of it says that: Perhaps the best thing their congregations can do to help them is to respect their unspoken vows of secrecy, and allow them to carry on . . . . Continue Reading »

From the National Catholic Register (not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter , which is not nearly so fond of the pope and the Catechism as the Register ) comes the link to a series of panoramic views of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It was produced by a Turkish . . . . Continue Reading »

Preachers Who Are Not Believers , the new study by the “new atheist” Daniel Dennett and a colleague, has inevitably gotten a lot of attention—and I think rightly, because the problem it exposes is a real one, whether or not the problem of disbelieving pastors is widespread. From my . . . . Continue Reading »

Having attended last Friday a forum on the ethics of food animal product hosted by the National Catholic Bioethics Center , I was particularly interested in the Times Literary Supplement ‘s review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals . It is an uncritical and even fawning review and . . . . Continue Reading »