The Passive Voice is used badly when the writer tucks the real item of interest into a prepositional phrase, obscuring the agent of the verb and deflecting the emphasis. Consider these sentences: The slider was hammered by Colavito into the left field bleachers. Colavito hammered the slider . . . . Continue Reading »
A Nation Addicted to Crisis Zachary Karabell, The Atlantic Shakers: The Elegant Errors of a Failed Sect C. R. Wiley, Imaginative Conservative Catholics and the Bourgeois Mind Thomas Storck, Distributist Review Piper Denounces Prosperity Gospel, Playful Worship in Last (Official) Sermon Lillian . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s an update to last week’s post about a movement to curtail Sunday shopping in Europe. In that post, I speculated that allowing stores to open Sundays might create pressure for observant Christian employees: skip church and report to work, or lose your job. It turns out . . . . Continue Reading »
“If,” as Catholic blogger Marc Barnes wrote , “in the course of human events, a cringe-inducing karaoke of an already over-played pop song is your primary response to the philosophical tradition of the Holy Catholic Church, you’ve negated yourself long, long . . . . Continue Reading »
Among the many things worth studying, one of the most interesting is what I call ‘philosophical folklore’. Folklore, of course, consists of micro-traditions passed down within communities as part of the ordinary ways of life of the people in those communities. We usually think of these . . . . Continue Reading »
Thanks to some comments on an earlier post, I have learned that as many as twenty-eight states require insurance providers to include contraceptive coverage in the packages they offer. Twenty states offer some form of conscientious exemption from the requirement; eight—including . . . . Continue Reading »
This week’s issue of Time says that Roe v. Wade hobbled the pro-abortion movement. It’s a point that will be familiar to readers of our January issue, in which Jon Shields makes a similar argument: Roe v. Wade did far more than create a constitutional right to abortion—it . . . . Continue Reading »
Russell E. Saltzman asks what has Jesus done? What would Jesus do? That’s pretty hard to say, but it doesn’t prevent people from speculating about it. The what-would-Jesus-do fad seems to have faded somewhat, but only after raking in multi-million dollar sales in WWJD bracelets, . . . . Continue Reading »
Reason has a commendably subtle feature essay on the emerging relationship between Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Orthodox Church. The author, Cathy Young, refreshingly concedes that the present situation “is a far cry from theocracy” while still acknowledging the . . . . Continue Reading »
Nestled in the small chapel of the Heart’s Home in Brooklyn, on the floor below the altar, sat a small statue of Mary. As she was on the floor, I hadn’t noticed her until I knelt down below the tabernacle. She was kneeling with her hands resting on her knees, palms facing upward, gazing . . . . Continue Reading »
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