First Things RSS Feed - Charles L. Glenn https://www.firstthings.com/author/charles-l-glenn en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:52:35 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/charles-l-glenn 60 Authoritative Homes https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/08/authoritative-homes https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/08/authoritative-homes Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 -0400 Liberal States, Authoritarian Families:
Childhood and Education in Early Modern Thought
 by rita koganzon
 oxford, 224 pages, $74

Continue Reading »

]]> SCOTUS Rules for Religious Schools https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/06/scotus-rules-for-religious-schools https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/06/scotus-rules-for-religious-schools Fri, 24 Jun 2022 10:05:00 -0400 This week, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Carson v. Makin that a Maine program that bars “sectarian” schools from receiving state-funded tuition assistance is a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The decision is a welcome acknowledgment that religious schools must not be penalized for loyalty to their faith tradition nor tempted by government into conformity with public schools.

Continue Reading »

]]> The Future of Faith-Based Schools https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/11/the-future-of-faith-based-schools https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/11/the-future-of-faith-based-schools Mon, 15 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0500 The Supreme Court is considering yet another case involving public funding of religious schools, Carson v. Makin . The case raises important questions about the fate of faith-based schools and institutions in an aggressively secular society.

Continue Reading »

]]> Anti-Religious Education https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/04/anti-religious-education https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/04/anti-religious-education Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400 I spent the first thirty years of my adult life fighting racial injustice in America. I was a community activist in Boston in the sixties, I spent time in jail in North Carolina in 1963, and I walked across that Selma bridge with Dr. King in 1965. I was the Massachusetts state official responsible for racial equity in schools from 1970 to 1991. So, I know something about racial justice.

Continue Reading »

]]> Regressive Ed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/regressive-ed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/12/regressive-ed Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0500 The Cult of Smart:
How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice
by fredrik deboer
all points, 288 pages, $28.99

Continue Reading »

]]> Oppression by Indifference https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/02/oppression-by-indifference https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/02/oppression-by-indifference Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0500 Almost all Western democracies other than the United States provide public support to parents who wish to send their children to private schools with a distinctive religious character. In the Netherlands, this policy was ­formalized by the Pacificatie of 1917, which resolved seven decades of conflict ­between conservative Protestants and Catholics on the one hand, and the secular elite on the other. The elite had insisted on the unique role of public schools in forming citizens and the dangers posed by schools not under direct government control, especially when these had a ­religious character.

Continue Reading »

]]> My Excommunication https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/11/my-excommunication https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/11/my-excommunication Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0400 How is it possible? A denomination so proud of its inclusivity. Have I advocated false doctrines? I accept wholeheartedly the faith expressed in the creeds and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the doctrinal statement of the Anglican Communion. Do I perhaps have a shameful past of racism or gender insensitivity? I walked across that bridge in Selma with Dr. King in 1965, and for two decades enforced the educational equity laws of the most progressive of states. So how have I offended, that my credentials to preach the gospel and to administer the sacraments in the Episcopal Church should be revoked?

Continue Reading »

]]> The Past in Full https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/03/the-past-in-full https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/03/the-past-in-full Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 There’s a book I keep in the bathroom at home, a big blue volume of 750 pages titled, somewhat ironically, The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes . A terrific book to browse in, with more than four thousand brief anecdotes about more than two thousand individuals from ancient times to the near present. Virtually any historical figure you can think of is included, with brief portraits that are sometimes amusing, and sometimes revealing, but almost always interesting. A perfect bathroom book! But not quite a history book. Sadly, neither are many texts called “history” today in our schools.

Continue Reading »

]]> Muslims in the Melting Pot https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/04/muslims-in-the-melting-pot https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/04/muslims-in-the-melting-pot Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:00:00 -0400 S

Continue Reading »

]]> Faith-Based Resistance https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/12/faith-based-resistance https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/12/faith-based-resistance Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500 Last June, I was in Ukraine advising civil society groups that are seeking to ensure that the new Ukrainian education law promotes religious and educational freedom, including the rights of parents. Ukrainian policy-makers are eager to align their country with the West, so a number of times I pointed to the protections that these rights enjoy in the United States as a reason to include similar protections.

Continue Reading »

]]>