In her excellent book How the West Really Lost God, Mary Eberstadt argues that the sharp decline in religious belief (and the waning influence of the churches) in the Western world is related directly to the decline of the traditional family. “The Christian story itself is a story told through the prism of the family. Take away the prism, and the story makes less sense … Continue Reading »
Every culture thrills to its favored words or concepts. In The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard Weaver dubbed them “god terms.” They’re the argument-ending, conclusive words that we find intrinsically persuasive because they express our deep prejudices about what’s good and true and beautiful. Weaver wrote The Ethics of Rhetoric after World War II. The god terms in his day were “progressive,” “democratic,” “scientific,” and so forth… . Continue Reading »
On Pentecost Sunday all hell broke loose in Rome. Following Mass that day, the unpredictable Pope Francis laid hands on a demon-possessed man from Mexico and prayed for him. The YouTube video of this encounter was flashed around the world, and the story caught fire: Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The Holy Father’s Vatican handlers were quick to deny such… . Continue Reading »
The Atlantic has a very provocative cover story this month: “The Gay Guide to Wedded Bliss.” It explains to anyone who wants to know “what gay and lesbian spouses can teach straight ones about living happily ever after.” The author, Liza Mundy, highlights some of the most important research on same-sex marriage, presenting much of its critical findings… . Continue Reading »
Scientists recently announced that they had successfully cloned human embryos for the first time, using the same process that produced Dolly the sheep. This news constitutes an ethical earthquake. Cloning is the essential technology in the development of a plethora of other unprecedented and morally dubious technologies … Continue Reading »
There you are, such an enormous crowd”thank you! Thank you to all the volunteers of La Manif pour Tous, in Paris, in the provinces too; and of course our spokespeople, among them the first of all, Frigide Barjot. You made possible our Manif pour Tous… . Continue Reading »
All the talk of Republicans needing to do better among Hispanic voters should not obscure that Romney also failed to maximize his vote total among white voters. Byron York has written a very wise column about how Romney’s Hispanic problem was primarily a middle-class and working-class problem… . Continue Reading »
If you want to know what unqualified utilitarianism or hedonism is likely to get you, you can hardly do better than starting with Jeremy Bentham. Since many of his works are either still mere manuscripts or available only in poor editions, however, it has only been with the work of the Bentham Project at the University College London that we have begun to more accurately apprehend his views. … Continue Reading »
Despite his humble origins as a baker’s son from Trastevere, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, longtime curial head of the Holy Office (“successor to the Inquisition,” in journalese) and scourge of the nouvelle théologie of the 1950s, was a formidable figure in pre-conciliar Catholicism. Ottaviani’s approach to theology was neatly summarized in the Latin motto of his cardinalatial coat of arms, Semper Idem [Always the Same] … Continue Reading »
On an early summer day, six years ago next month, an event of historic significance took place in Washington, D.C. A diverse group of people”politicians, clergy, and émigrés”gathered to dedicate the Victims of Communism Memorial in honor of “the tens of millions of men, women and children who were ruthlessly and systematically exterminated to advance the cause of the murderous, malevolent ideology that is Communism.” … Continue Reading »
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