Joe Carter

Anne Rice, author of the a series of best-selling vampire novels and, most recently, fictional accounts of the life of Christ, has taken to Facebook to announce she is no longer a Christian : For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I . . . . Continue Reading »

River Jordan Baptismal Site Closes Over Pollution Scare Thousands of Christian pilgrims immerse themselves in the river’s sluggish water each year in faithful recreation of the biblical story of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. But officials closed the site this week to test the . . . . Continue Reading »

Shi’ite Muslims believe that “sigheh,” a fixed-term marriage that is automatically dissolved upon completion of its term, is an institution established by Allah through Muhammad in the Qur’an. So to aid pious pilgrims who are looking for a little short-term matrimony, the Iran . . . . Continue Reading »

On visiting San Francisco in 1968, Tom Wolfe stumbled across what he describes as a “curious footnote to the hippie movement.” Doctors at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic were treating diseases, Wolfe claims, that no living doctor had ever encountered before: “diseases that had disappeared so long ago they had never even picked up Latin names, diseases such as the mange, the grunge, the itch, the twitch, the thrush, the scroff, the rot.” … Continue Reading »

In the Fall of 2010, for the first time ever, First Things will release its own college rankings and guide. As many of you will know from experience, picking the right college is a difficult and trying process, especially for parents and students concerned not only with academic quality . . . . Continue Reading »

Stanley Fish considers whether religion should be given special status in a liberal society : There’s the dilemma, and it is shared both by the liberal state and by religious organizations. Religious organizations face a choice between altering their core beliefs or forfeiting privileges . . . . Continue Reading »

For the Catholics: Our loyal advertiser Ignatius Press has dozens of titles on sale , including books by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Arinze, Russell Shaw, Thomas Howard, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, George Marlin, Joseph Pearce, Josef Pieper, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, . . . . Continue Reading »

During his presidential claim Barack Obama asserted that future generations would say that “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal . . . ” At the time I thought the claim was hubristic. But he was right! The oil slick in the Gulf . . . . Continue Reading »

Lawsuit claims school bias on Christian views Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund have sued Augusta State University in Georgia on behalf of a counseling student who claims the university told her to deny her Christian beliefs in order to graduate. Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a . . . . Continue Reading »

What should I make of the Tea Party movement? For the past year I’ve pondered that question without ever arriving at a definitive answer. As a conservative I’m leery of populism—even right-wing populism—and fads—especially right-wing fads. I remember how Ross Perot and the . . . . Continue Reading »