First Things RSS Feed - Letters to the Editor https://www.firstthings.com/author/letters-to-the-editor en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:55:59 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/letters-to-the-editor 60 November Letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/11/november-letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/11/november-letters Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0400 Notre Dame, Again

I find myself in substantial agreement with Joseph Bottum’s central thesis(“And the War Came,” June/July 2009): There is indeed a split happening in American Catholicism, and its fault lines are becoming more and more publicly evident”the Notre Dame controversy is an episode in and a symbol of this split.

But Bottum’s analysis does not go far enough; the wound runs much deeper than he suggests.

He says that there is “a great divergence, in outlook and purpose, between Catholic universities and the Catholic culture of America.” This implies that there is a unitary American Catholic culture with which Catholic universities are at odds. Yet Bottum himself claims that “at the root of culture lie the deepest commitments to what people hold to be true.” If this is true, then we clearly do not have a single “Catholic culture” in America.

This claim can be supported with evidence Bottum himself provides. For instance: 1) the 54 percent of self-identified Catholics who voted for Obama in the last election, and 2) the news reports that students on campus strongly supported Notre Dame’s administration, while the alumni were less happy, and the pro-life community was outraged.

On those grounds”and I’m sure we can all supply further anecdotal evidence”we must conclude, however reluctantly, that there are two different sets of deepest commitments to what is true within the Catholic Church in America. For one of those cultures, abortion is a central concern; for the other, it simply is not.

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]]> Aug/Sep Letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/08/augsep-letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/08/augsep-letters Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400 A Green Thought in a Green Shade

Alan Jacobs’ critique of The Green Bible (“Blessed Are the Green of Heart,” May 2009) was not only insightful but written with cleverness and wit. Far be it from me to respond to the article. His critique is worthy of consideration even if one does not agree with what he had to say.

Give Alan my regards and congratulate him. We need articulate thinkers who can analyze and write with brilliance. I think that what he had to say could itself be critiqued, but I believe that his thoughts were so well expressed that they deserve to be read and reflected on without comment.

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]]> June/July Letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/06/junejuly-letters https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/06/junejuly-letters Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 Choose Your Own Narrative

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