Joe Carter

Recent social science research suggest that kids drain their parents’ happiness. But Tony Woodlief wonders if a parent’s happiness isn’t overrated: Any parent will tell you children are difficult, and they wear you out, and they likely will just break your heart in the end. And . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Sex, Dancing, and the Conventions of Youth It’s common to think of polka as very silly and old-fashioned music for very silly and old-fashioned dancing; but obviously nobody thought Polka was old-fashioned when it first came out, and nobody thought it silly, either. Polka is dance music, . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is father in television and movies. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.] Father’s Day was last Sunday, but it’s never too late to . . . . Continue Reading »

“Are fathers necessary?” asks Pamela Paul in the latest issue of The Atlantic. That she considers the question worth asking is a clue to how the article will conclude: “there’s nothing objectively essential about his contribution.” Published just before Father’s Day, it would be easy to dismiss such cheap contrarianism as an attention-getting stunt… . Continue Reading »

Several years ago the Washington Post stirred up controversy for describing evangelicals as “poor, undereducated and easily led.” It’s not that they didn’t believe it to be true, they just knew they shouldn’t have got caught saying it in public. I suspect Nicole . . . . Continue Reading »

Several years ago the Washington Post stirred up controversy for describing evangelicals as “poor, undereducated and easily led.” It’s not that they didn’t believe it to be true, they just knew they shouldn’t have got caught saying it in public.I suspect Nicole . . . . Continue Reading »

All Sorts is a clever website that provides a “collection of collective nouns that may or may not have found their way into the Oxford English Dictionary. If you think that a charismatic collective is far superior to a dullard ‘bunch’ or ‘flock’ then this is the place for . . . . Continue Reading »

In a post yesterday I wondered whether MoveOn.org, which took out a full-page ad in the New York Times titled “ General Petraeus or General Betray Us ”, felt betrayed by the news that the man they endorsed as a candidate has appointed a man they say was “cooking the books for the . . . . Continue Reading »

If you’re the church-going type you may have been subjected to a special Father’s Day sermon this past Sunday. You might have noticed, as Jon Acuff of Stuff Christians Like notes, that there is a slight difference between the sermons for dads and the one for Mother’s Day : On . . . . Continue Reading »

Maureen Mullarkey is a painter who writes on art and culture (she recently wrote the OTS feature ” The Popular Myth of  Convivencia “). Earlier this week she received an offer to teach an MFA class, accepted it, and resigned— all in the same day : Yesterday, I opened my . . . . Continue Reading »