Matthew Schmitz

Many writers don’t understand the significant differences between Modern Orthodox Jews and their Ultra-Orthodox cousins, explains Yair Rosenberg at  Tablet . It is the latter community, of course, that tends to insist on exclusively domestic roles for its women, while the former has a . . . . Continue Reading »

“Women tend to be more religious and on average attend church services more often than men. There is also reason to believe that women on average have more conservative views on sexual and lifestyle issues than men. Overall, there is a large body of evidence to suggest that women have more . . . . Continue Reading »

Ian Bogost is fed up with TED talks—-the techno-utopian Chautauqua retread—-and spent fifteen minutes writing a strangely convincing parody: I’m here to talk to you about the biggest challenge facing upper-class Western society: ideas, and how to understand them. What is an idea? . . . . Continue Reading »

Delivered under sponsorship of the King’s College on March 30, 2012 at Calvary-St. George’s Episcopal Church, New York, New York. . . . . Continue Reading »

Women are slightly more likely than men to say that abortion should be illegal when the pregnancy results from rape, according to Gallup . This counterintuitive gender gap holds when the mother’s life is threatened, when her physical health is endangered, when the pregnancy results from . . . . Continue Reading »

“There is a nice passage in Joseph de Maistre, the counter-revolutionary, the enemy of the French Revolution, where he says that human beings are not able to build things, because when they try to create something they do not get it. You cannot really produce new and interesting things. It is . . . . Continue Reading »

Christian Sahner explains how strife in Syria is leading to the destruction of Syria’s major historical sites: Among the at-risk monuments is the Unesco World Heritage site Crac des Chevaliers, a Crusader fortress of the 12th to 13th centuries, which stands on a hilltop overlooking the plains . . . . Continue Reading »

From Douglas Kmiec’s 2008 book  Can a Catholic Support Him? : So what does the ‘Born Alive’ Act do? Largely, it redefines what it means to be ‘born alive.’ From the time of ancient common law, ‘born alive’ has meant live birth at or near the end of a full . . . . Continue Reading »

The New York Times ran a column in this weekend’s Sunday Review by John G. Turner arguing that Mormons need to make a “fuller confrontation” with their church’s history of racism. It’s an important question, but one has to wonder at the usefulness of raising it in . . . . Continue Reading »

The Economist has a story assembling hard figures and best guesses on the size and state of the complex, opaque finances of the Catholic Church. Some figures from the report: 6,800 is the number of Catholic schools  in America (5% of the national total) 630 is the number of Catholic hospitals . . . . Continue Reading »