The Editors

Readers whose minds have not been numbed by all the media-generated sensations since then may be able to recall that back in the first part of November the nation was reportedly held in thrall by Magic Johnson’s announcement that he had the AIDS virus. More than one television anchor solemnly . . . . Continue Reading »

We are a month late in noting an anniversary that should not pass unnoted. 1981 witnessed the launching of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), a venture that was to profoundly shake and partially reshape the social postures of mainline/oldline Protestantism.One might argue that IRD . . . . Continue Reading »

At year’s end the eyes of the world turn again to an infant who is, so Christians believe, the revelation of God to man and of man to himself. In the words of John’s gospel, “In him was life, and the life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome . . . . Continue Reading »

Democracy is still very much a minority phenomenon among the nations of the world, but it is hard to deny that there appears to be something like a democratic revolution afoot. According to Samuel Huntington of Harvard University (writing in The National Interest ), there have been three discernible . . . . Continue Reading »

A number of important questions touching on religion and public life were raised early on in connection with the nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. One set of questions has to do with his Catholic background, the other with some public statements he has made regarding the role . . . . Continue Reading »

Many of our readers have been intensely and rightly concerned about threatening turns in the Supreme Court’s already monumentally confused rulings on religious freedom. Things came to a head with the April 1990 decision in the case of Employment Division v. Smith, otherwise known as “the peyote . . . . Continue Reading »

We do not ordinarily publish official church statements. In fact, we never have before. This issue, however, includes a condensed version of John Paul II’s ninth encyclical, Centesimus Annus (“The Hundredth Year”), issued on the centenary of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (“New Things”).Any . . . . Continue Reading »

Only a few years ago it seemed that religious and other civic leaders could be counted on for vigorous opposition to government promotion of gambling. No longer State after state has now succumbed to the temptation to pick up “easy money” by exploiting the weaknesses of its citizens, and . . . . Continue Reading »

The good news is that more people are paying attention to the bad news. In the past year there has been an encouragingly widespread discussion of the role played by Politically Correct (PC) opinion on American campuses. Sundry “speech codes” aimed at limiting free expression and adopted in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Christianity is an inherently missionary faith. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the last word of the resurrected Lord to his disciples was this: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to . . . . Continue Reading »