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On the Square Today

Peter J. Leithart on Good Friday : At the beginning of his prophecy, Isaiah gives a gruesome word portrait of the condition of Zion. She’s covered from head to toe with “bruises, welts, open wounds,” without bandages or balm. Zion longs for the Lord to bind up her wounds. She . . . . Continue Reading »

Flip-Flopping on FEDERALISM

So liberals are especially good at calling conservatives flip-floppers. It usually works because conservatives aren’t so great at explaining themselves. Jeffrey Rosen , in this great tradition, thinks in THE NEW REPUBLIC that the Court will probably overturn the DOMA on grounds of federalism . . . . Continue Reading »

Pope Francis and the Primacy of Grace

One of the greatest theological diseases we find in contemporary Catholicism is pelagianism, the notion that we’re all basically good people whose moral improvement and salvation is the result of our good actions. In this mindset, God’s grace becomes less consequential because . . . . Continue Reading »

The Day I Helped Crucify Jesus

Our recent discussions around here about the ” Stepping on Jesus ” exercise in some college classrooms reminded me of an occasion when the power of a symbol hit me hard and left a mark. A half dozen years ago, when my wife and I lived in a small town in rural Virginia, our little . . . . Continue Reading »

Stepping on “Jesus” is Stepping on Jesus

The Christian, it should be safe to say, but apparently isn’t, should not stomp on a paper with Jesus’ name on it. He should have a physical reaction at the thought of doing so. Matthew Franck dealt well and at length yesterday with the latest national Christian controversy in his The . . . . Continue Reading »

A Bunny is a Bunny

I guess it was bound to happen. A public elementary school in Alabama has renamed  its annual Easter Egg Hunt  to avoid giving offense to non-Christian children and parents. According to the school’s principal, Lydia Davenport, the hunt will still take place; it will just no longer . . . . Continue Reading »

Educational Update

So I’ve gotten lots and lots comments on my MINDING THE CAMPUS “short take” on cutting higher education costs by scuttling the hotel. Here’s a nice appreciation by a new leftist. It’s more evidence still that, on behalf of genuinely higher education, lefties of a . . . . Continue Reading »

Berry, Berry Quite Contrary

Christopher Roberts, amplifying in a blog post on his fine article on Wendell Berry’s reversal on same-sex marriage, quotes Berry as saying of contemporary Americans that “we are talking about a populace in which nearly everybody is needy, greedy, envious, angry and alone.” This, of . . . . Continue Reading »

Guns and Race

Yesterday, I read Juan Williams in the WSJ, Race and the Gun Debate.    Williams is looking at where the gun problem is in the United States.  He notes, “Gun-related violence and murders are concentrated among blacks and Latinos in big cities. Murders with guns are the No. 1 . . . . Continue Reading »

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