Matthew Schmitz

America’s Christians and Jews will need a good deal of help from theologians and historians (and perhaps a little less help from polemicists and boosters) if they are to better understand the world’s Muslims, a group that includes, of course, many of their own fellow-citizens. All that . . . . Continue Reading »

Young voters are abandoning social issues and focusing on fiscal ones, the  New York Times informs us in a hopeful voice. They present scant evidence for this contention, ignoring data from the General Social Survey showing that young voters—-who through the 70’s, 80’s, and . . . . Continue Reading »

Last night I nearly completed a long-deferred sorting of Richard John Neuhaus’s CD’s and LP’s. It’s an impressive collection, encompassing a great deal of classical music and some of the folk music written and recorded by his friends in the anti-war movement. There are . . . . Continue Reading »

Recently, Robert P. George offered on these pages a much needed warning against the indiscriminate drone use that that has become characteristic of U.S. foreign policy. Yet what are Christians and others who believe in aboslute moral norms to make of the morality of drone use itself? Writing in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Our own Micah Mattix has a piece in the  Wall Street Journal reviewing Rainier Marie Rilke’s newly translated, Letters on God and Letters to a Young Woman . One notable tidbit Mattix draws out is Rilke’s defense of corrupt clerics over against pious reformers: For Rilke, . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert Oscar Lopez , a bisexual, Latino, lesbian-raised intellectual goes after critics of Mark Regnerus’s gay parenting study: The problem with Sherkat’s disqualification of Regnerus’s work is a manifold chicken-and-egg conundrum. Though Sherkat uses the term “LGBT” in . . . . Continue Reading »

Leon Wieseltier raises a cry of protest against the adulation of Bruce Springsteen that has recently engulfed the commentariat: Springsteen worship is a cry against the clock. But rock n roll has played also another role in American life, which is to prove that Herbert Marcuse was right. There will . . . . Continue Reading »

I agree with my colleague Matthew Cantirino  below , who, it should be noted, does not mean to defend the policies Kurtz criticizes. Further, I wonder if Kurtz, an opponent of regulation, would join in calls to abolish free parking and otherwise  relax zoning codes . Suburban sprawl is . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1936 the  New Yorker rejected “Thank You For the Light,” a short (at 1200 words, very short) story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that an editor deemed “too fantastic.” The current editors have risked embarrassing their predecessor by reversing his decision and publishing it in the latest . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday’s Chik-fil-A Appreciation Day—-organized by Mike Huckabee to support the company amidst criticism from same-sex marriage activists and Democratic officials—-created historic, record-breaking sales for the company. Good for them. I’m not one for expressing my . . . . Continue Reading »