On Memorial Day weekend, I returned for the first time in years to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in Barrytown, New York. I travelled there with my family to attend the 39th convocation ceremony, as well as an alumni conference which followed. Though I am no . . . . Continue Reading »
Say what you will about Donald Trump. He has pushed immigration to the forefront of the 2016 Republican primary, and his crude bravado in speaking to this issue is one of the major reasons he’s still riding high.No one denies that US immigration policy is a mess. One poll found that 63 . . . . Continue Reading »
Vacation this year took us to Fredericksburg, Virginia just to see a ridge known as Marye’s Heights. It was there, December, 13, 1862, that a Union brigade of II Corps attacked the Confederate left, two thousand entrenched Rebels positioned behind a four-foot high stone wall bordering a narrow lane. Enhanced here and there by field fortifications, the wall was a perfect defense. Originally known as Telegraph Road, the lane was forever after called the Sunken Road. Continue Reading »
This past spring, the renowned sociologist Robert Putnam made waves with a claim that American churches had dedicated “all their resources”to fighting about abortion, gay marriage, and other matters of sexual morality, when they should have been addressing poverty and social inequality. Continue Reading »
The following is an official response from the Pew Research Center to Robert Wuthnow's article, “In Polls We Trust,” from the August/September issue of First Things. Read Wuthnow's response to Pew here. —Ed. In his essay in your August issue, “In Polls We Trust,” Robert Wuthnow . . . . Continue Reading »
The following is a reply by Robert Wuthnow to the Pew Research Center's official response to his article, “In Polls We Trust,” from the August/September issue of First Things. —Ed. I appreciate Alan Cooperman and Greg Smith taking the time to respond to “In Polls We . . . . Continue Reading »
At an inch or so over five feet and weighing, I would guess, something on the underside of 100 pounds, Sister Winnie, a soft spoken Filipina, is not your typical dinner speaker. Yet a few weeks ago she held a room full of Washingtonians spellbound with her story – which is also the story of a largely unknown American of whom the Church in the United States should be very proud. Continue Reading »
The Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision on June 26, 2015, did not simply redefine marriage. It also directly attacked my freedom to serve the public as an explicitly Catholic social worker. The reality is this: Within the next several years, this self-consciously “progressive” decision will . . . . Continue Reading »
In recent political memory, religious liberty was a value that brought together conservatives, libertarians, and progressives. As recently as 1993, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed by a nearly unanimous Congress and signed by a Democratic president. Today, the same value is . . . . Continue Reading »
The closest I have ever come to meeting Donald John Trump was during a visit to Manhattan when I took the elevator to the top of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, a 68-story building with an 80-foot waterfall. As I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, I offer no comments on the political earthquake . . . . Continue Reading »