Thirty-some years ago, I spent a fair amount of time on religious freedom issues; which meant, in those simpler days, trying to pry Lithuanian priests and nuns out of Perm Camp 36 and other GULAG islands. Had you told me in 1982 that one of my “clients,” the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, would be archbishop of Kaunas in a free Lithuania in 2012, I would have thought you a bit optimistic. If you had also told me, back then, that there would eventually be serious religious freedom problems in the United States, I would have thought you a bit mad… . Continue Reading»
I recently read a review of a book about Margaret Thatcher which argued that: “Thatcher… . wanted to restore the balance of virtues in Britain away from current sentimentalities such as compassion and toward the ‘vigorous virtues’ of courage and enterprise.” What struck me about the remark is that virtues can become their own enemies unless they are counterbalanced with other virtues… . Continue Reading»
Ameritopia, a work of pop-political theory by talk radio host Mark Levin, has been riding high atop the New York Times bestseller list for the past several weeks. The book, as Andrew McCarthy recounts in an extended essay/review appearing in this month’s New Criterion, centers around the thesis that all societies (and so, by extension, America today) face a basic choice between “utopianism” and “realism.” McCarthy praises Levin’s thesis, but his enthusiasm is a bit surprising given how inchoate Levin’s argument sounds… . Continue Reading»
On February 27th and 28th some twenty scholars, as well as First Things editors and assorted auditors, met to discuss the question of whether liberalism has a future”and what comes after liberalism. Three essays served as foci for the seminar, and they will be featured in upcoming issues of First Things. Wilfred McClay’s essay, “Liberal Institutions Without Liberal Theories” will appear in the May issue along with responses by Yuval Levin and James Rogers… . Continue Reading»
By mid-eighteenth century, two religious titans of the Anglo-Saxon world, erstwhile allies, were at loggerheads over the question of just how many people were destined for an eternity in hell. George Whitefield attacked John Wesley in 1740 for asserting “God’s grace is free to all.” … Continue Reading»
To many Americans, business appears to inhabit a morally murky world where good is evil and evil good. I’m not talking about sweatshops, bribery of government officials, or cooking the books. Even the normal norms of business seem, to many, to violate the norms we adhere to elsewhere… . Continue Reading»
Yesterday marked the Jewish holiday of Purim, when Jews gather together for festive meals and merriment, exchange gifts, and most centrally, assemble in synagogue for mirthful public readings of the Book of Esther”all in celebration of the salvation recounted therein. A quick synopsis of the somewhat elliptical storyline … Continue Reading»
An older man I know once remarked that in his experience, there wasn’t much point in arguing that divorce was wrong. What he’d come to believe was that”especially when the couple had children”divorce was simply impossible. These two people would continue to remain yoked to one another’s lives, their memories, griefs, resentments as intertwined as their laddering DNA… . Continue Reading»
New art works animated by sincere piety are rare in the United States. Still rarer are voices that do not see Islam as a minority protected from oppression or a dangerous threat to American liberty, but instead as a moral-theological system whose insights are relevant to contemporary domestic life. It’s unsurprising, then, that despite the critical adulation received by Ashgar Farhadi’s new film, A Separation, its reviewers seem to have missed that the film is work of sincere religious conviction… . Continue Reading»
On February 6, Queen Elizabeth II marked her diamond jubilee, an achievement that Great Britain will celebrate throughout 2012. I am not a monarchist, but I’ll happily join in saluting the Queen, who embodies several qualities that are in short supply among 21st-century public figures. In one of a slew of diamond jubilee books, author Robert Hardman reports that Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is awed by the Queen’s “gravitas.” … Continue Reading»
