Joe Carter

You know how you’re so proud of yourself because you you can still recite a few lines from Desiderata or a poem by Rod McKuen?  Yeah, well, that’s nothing. John Basinger has memorized all 10,565 lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost : Pounding the treadmill in 1993, John . . . . Continue Reading »

When Christine O’Donnell defeated Mike Castle in the recent GOP primary in Delaware, it sparked an internal fight between Tea Party populists and the establishment elites. I’m not elite enough to be part of the Ruling Class and I have an aversion to populism so I really have no dog in . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Recalling the “Green Book,” a guide for black travelers For almost three decades beginning in 1936, many African-American travelers relied on a booklet to help them decide where they could comfortably eat, sleep, buy gas, find a tailor or beauty parlor, shop on a honeymoon to Niagara . . . . Continue Reading »

Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of popular culture. Unfortunately, I didn’t prepare a topic in time for this week so I’m recycling a previous post. Have a suggestion for a topic? (I need some fresh ideas.) Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com] . . . . Continue Reading »

I was shocked and saddened to see WORLD magazine—where I once served as blog editor—publish a piece of syncretistic drivel by their longtime columnist Andrée Seu:It was obvious to me that [Glenn Beck] was a new creation in Christ. I know he’s Mormon and all that. I also remember . . . . Continue Reading »

Economist Bryan Caplan pushes back against the high-IQ misanthropes : Out of all the reactions I’ve heard to  Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids , the most disturbing are all variations on “Except stupid people.  They shouldn’t have kids.”  I could snark, . . . . Continue Reading »

At Inside Catholic, David Mills explains how the Church can interest believers in confession : Confession ought to be a great selling point for the Catholic Church. Years ago, I saw some young Evangelicals ask an older Catholic convert about confession, with the guarded but lurid interest of . . . . Continue Reading »

MSNBC has a live video feed of the papal mass available here . Update: Here is another feed from the official papal visit website . . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week, Rick Santorum, former Senator of Pennsylvania, gave a rousing speech on faith in the public square : Three pictures hung in the home of my devoutly Catholic immigrant grandparents when I was a boy and I remember them well — Jesus, Pope Paul VI and John F. Kennedy. The . . . . Continue Reading »

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin explains why Jews do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah : From Judaism’s perspective, Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies and therefore is not regarded as the Messiah. The best-known of the prophecies concerning the messianic days is that “Nation shall . . . . Continue Reading »