R. R. Reno

We seem to be in a season of judicial sanity. As Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who argued the case reports, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that vindicated the claims of Julea Ward. Ward was a counseling grad student at Eastern Michigan University, and when she . . . . Continue Reading »

Exporting Gay Rights It was a telling speech, Hillary Clinton’s address to the United Nations Human Rights Council in recognition of International Human Rights Day. The secretary of state drew attention to the brutal treatment of homosexual people around the world: lesbians raped by groups of . . . . Continue Reading »

Some legislators in Colorado have filed suit to overturn the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights , a cap on spending and taxation that requires voters to approve increases directly by way of a referendum. It’s a sign of the times. As the post-War middle class dominated social and . . . . Continue Reading »

Today’s New York Times reminds us that the Jesuits haven’t gone entirely off the rails. Their exposé exposes the fact that Fordham has resisted compliance with a New York state law that requires insurance coverage that pays for birth control pills. Nice to know that on this . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Greve at the American Enterprise recently posted in a Liberty Fund blog a trenchant analysis of the recently announced HHS regulations that will compel all insurance policies to cover contraception, sterilization, and morning after pills He provides a very lucid analysis of the way in which . . . . Continue Reading »

I have long suspected that free-market libertarians aren’t all that different from postmodern relativists who insist that human beings have no natural end, no normative patterns for life. Some recent editorials in the Wall Street Journal confirmed my suspicions. Last Monday, in advance of the New Hampshire primary, a staff editorial assessed Rick Santorum’s economic message, giving him a mixed review. What leapt out, however, was this sharp attack… . Continue Reading »

In a New York Times Op-Ed , history professor Sara Ritchey makes much of the fact that married Anglican clergy will become Catholic priests under the new Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Ritchey provides some useful historical background that outlines the early medieval shift to an . . . . Continue Reading »

The National Catholic Reporter is almost always predictable, and their choice for 2011’s “person of the year” was true to form: Elizabeth Johnson . Johnson, a professor of theology at Fordham University, is a standard issue Catholic Theological Society of America theologian, which . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s the basic data from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life : Among the 57% of Iowa caucus-goers who describe themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, Santorum finished in first place with 32% support. Ron Paul garnered 18% of the evangelical vote, while Romney, Newt . . . . Continue Reading »

I imagine that Leon Wieseltier and I disagree about many things. But I’ve long found him to be a reliable enemy of cant. I was not disappointed by his recent Washington Diarist column in The New Republic . He takes Duke University philosophy professor Alex Rosenberg and author of The . . . . Continue Reading »