In June 2021, Dr. Ed Litton was narrowly elected the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His critics soon drew attention to doctrinal statements on his church’s website, including the following: God is One, the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in . . . . Continue Reading »
The Baron de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (1748) has been among the most influential modern political treatises, not least in the United States. Montesquieu’s discussion of the “separation of powers” proved crucial for James Madison’s own constructive thinking about the . . . . Continue Reading »
Nobody could accuse Scott Yenor of pulling his punches in “Sexual Counter-Revolution” (November 2021). His particular brand of reactionary conservatism is shared by many on the right in our moment. The general view of these conservatives is that the sexual revolution of the past fifty years is . . . . Continue Reading »
A vignette from Victorian England offers a good starting point for thinking about the current state of the Western civilizational project. The place: the village of Olton in England’s West Midlands. The date: October 2, 1873. The occasion: the dedication of a new Catholic seminary, St. . . . . Continue Reading »
When questioned by reporters whether fascism would come to America, Huey Long allegedly replied: “Of course fascism will come to America, but here we’ll call it antifascism.” In 2020, black-clad “antifa” activists rioted and practiced violence on a scale never imagined by the several . . . . Continue Reading »
Not so long ago, liberal opinion was smitten with Silicon Valley’s “disruptive” agenda. Pundits, journalists, and officials all proclaimed the democratizing power of digital platforms, which they saw (dubiously) as the force behind the Arab Spring. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton placed . . . . Continue Reading »
Iranian rule has come to an end in the country of Iran!” So declared Persia’s chief Zoroastrian priest, Adurbad-i Emedan, roughly a thousand years ago. Arab armies flying the banner of Allah had checkmated the Sasanian dynasty four centuries earlier. In a.d. 651, the last Sasanian monarch, . . . . Continue Reading »
In 1965, the Second Vatican Council adopted Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. With this document, the Church sought to address “the whole of humanity.” In a way, this aspiration was not surprising. Christian doctrine holds that Christ died for the . . . . Continue Reading »
The Ur-Bororo are the most boring people in the world. Their entire population, which is not large, lives in “dwelling sheds,” rectangular clapboard houses in the depths of the Amazon rainforest. Other jungle tribes tend to decorate their bodies with elaborate tattoos, lip plugs, or ritual . . . . Continue Reading »
America has only a limited feudal past, the plantation aristocracy of the antebellum South and the enormous class chasms of the Gilded Age being pretty much our only examples. Yet today—after decades of social mobility, a digital revolution that was supposed to empower individuals everywhere, . . . . Continue Reading »
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