The lecturer was setting forth a biblical perspective on the role of government, with special attention to the Pauline text in Romans 13. At one point he introduced a rhetorical flourish with a passing negative reference to John Locke. The Bible sees the authority to govern as coming from God—“and not,” the lecturer said, “from a human contract, as John Locke insisted.” Continue Reading »
Rome is the foundation of the University of Notre Dame architecture and urban design curriculum, and properly so. Nevertheless, every year for the past ten years I have traveled from Notre Dame to meet a new class of graduate urban design students (themselves up from Rome on spring break) for a week in the small historic city of Bruges. Where is Bruges? It’s in Belgium. Continue Reading »
It’s amazing the difference a name makes. On one day this past week, nearly a hundred endangered elephants were killed and around 3,000 abortions were performed in the United States alone, and we were unfazed, but the killing of Cecil the lion broke our hearts. He wasn’t just any random lion. He was Cecil. Mere lions (along with chickens, cows, lambs, and pigs) are killed, but Cecil was murdered. We love the lion that was named Cecil. We feel as if we knew him. Continue Reading »
Last month, David Brooks published a column titled “The Next Culture War.” In it, he offers public-relations advice for Christians in the post-Obergefell era—an era when fewer people identify as Christians, and when laws and mores are moving farther away from basic Christian values. Continue Reading »
On Memorial Day weekend, I returned for the first time in years to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in Barrytown, New York. I travelled there with my family to attend the 39th convocation ceremony, as well as an alumni conference which followed. Though I am no . . . . Continue Reading »
Say what you will about Donald Trump. He has pushed immigration to the forefront of the 2016 Republican primary, and his crude bravado in speaking to this issue is one of the major reasons he’s still riding high.No one denies that US immigration policy is a mess. One poll found that 63 . . . . Continue Reading »
Vacation this year took us to Fredericksburg, Virginia just to see a ridge known as Marye’s Heights. It was there, December, 13, 1862, that a Union brigade of II Corps attacked the Confederate left, two thousand entrenched Rebels positioned behind a four-foot high stone wall bordering a narrow lane. Enhanced here and there by field fortifications, the wall was a perfect defense. Originally known as Telegraph Road, the lane was forever after called the Sunken Road. Continue Reading »
This past spring, the renowned sociologist Robert Putnam made waves with a claim that American churches had dedicated “all their resources”to fighting about abortion, gay marriage, and other matters of sexual morality, when they should have been addressing poverty and social inequality.
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The following is an official response from the Pew Research Center to Robert Wuthnow's article, “In Polls We Trust,” from the August/September issue of First Things. Read Wuthnow's response to Pew here. —Ed. In his essay in your August issue, “In Polls We Trust,” Robert Wuthnow . . . . Continue Reading »
The following is a reply by Robert Wuthnow to the Pew Research Center's official response to his article, “In Polls We Trust,” from the August/September issue of First Things. —Ed. I appreciate Alan Cooperman and Greg Smith taking the time to respond to “In Polls We . . . . Continue Reading »
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