R. R. Reno

Dear Reader, I am pleased to welcome you as one of our early Kindle readers. You may not know that First Things is a non-profit publication. For more than twenty years readers have provided donations that have sustained the journal. Now I’m inserting this letter because I want to reach out to . . . . Continue Reading »

It wasn’t a conclusion he thought he’d come to. When he was a young graduate student, Jonathan Haidt presumed that “liberal” was pretty much a synonym for “reasonable,” if not for “obvious.” Now, as he writes in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and . . . . Continue Reading »

Yes, it’s true. I love New York, and for all sorts of reasons, among which is Mayor Bloomberg. Matthew Cantirino’s posting draws attention to the ironies of Bloomberg’s neo-puritanism. When it comes to abortion we’re not to invade anybody’s private choices: . . . . Continue Reading »

Notre Dame has decided to stand up and be counted in the struggle to preserve a robust tradition of religious liberty in America. Notre Dame President, Fr John Jenkins, announced: “Today the University of Notre Dame filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana . . . . Continue Reading »

Some years ago David Brooks wrote a column, “Who’s John Stott?,” that challenged the parochialism of our secular elites. As Brooks observed, John Stott, unknown to nearly all New York Times readers may have been one of the most influential intellectuals of the second half of the . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s easy to see why gay activists invoke the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and early 1960s, and not just because it’s a handy way to take the moral high ground. It puts a large body of legal sanctions, an expansive bureaucratic power, and a well-established tradition of social censure . . . . Continue Reading »

When Representative Paul Ryan said that his recently released budget proposal was developed in accord with his understanding of Catholic social doctrine, the liberal Catholic establishment reacted with outrage. Ryan was scheduled to talk at Georgetown, and the ever-reliable Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J., and others have organized a letter of protest. “Our problem with Representative Ryan,” Reese told reporters, “is that he claims his budget is based on Catholic social teaching. This is nonsense.” … Continue Reading »

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has posted a slide-show presentation of changes in support for same-sex marriage. There’s no new news here. Rising support for same-sex marriage has been widely reported. Not surprisingly, secularists are most supportive, religious people less . . . . Continue Reading »

For a very nice remembrance of Chuck Colson, see Timothy George’s piece in the National Catholic Register . Fitting that our baptist friend would remember an evangelical founder of Evangelicals and Catholics Together in a Catholic journal. . . . . Continue Reading »

Vatican watcher Rocco Palmo flags the Wednesday release of a four-year-long study of women religious. Even the most casual observer knows that many female orders are, well, in disorder. A particular virulent version of the post-Vatican II flu ran through various orders of nuns, and . . . . Continue Reading »