Let it be said at the outset that James Wood is a splendid literary critic, one of our best. One of the things that make him interesting is that he cant get over the God problem. Wood is a product of what I have called the narrow escape syndrome. That is to say, he was reared in a . . . . Continue Reading »
Twenty-seven states in the United States have amended their state constitutions to limit marriage to unions of one man and one woman. Even before the recent decision of the California Supreme Court mandating that California allow same-sex couples to marry, many other states were considering similar . . . . Continue Reading »
New biotechnologies promise to revolutionize human existence¯not only by delivering therapeutic treatments and cures but also by offering physical and mental enhancements: creating stronger bodies and more powerful minds for ourselves and for the children we carefully select. Biotechnology will . . . . Continue Reading »
As those of you who tried to reach us over the weekend will have noticed, we temporarily lost ownership of our domain name, which closed down the site. Were back up and running now. Because Richard John Neuhaus Daily Article from Friday was unavailable for readers, weve decided to . . . . Continue Reading »
Honor your father and your mother. As the Church Fathers wrote, there are things we know simply by virtue of being human but then, after we alienated ourselves from the source of our humanity, God gave us the Decalogue to remind us of those things. One of those things is that we should . . . . Continue Reading »
Sometimes events conspire. In mid-May, the California Supreme Court decided that anything less than marriage for same-sex partners leads to a fundamental discrimination against homosexuals. A week or so later, the Texas courts opined that state officials who removed children from a polygamist Mormon . . . . Continue Reading »
For the past two decades, euthanasia/assisted-suicide ideologues have worked overtime to conflate palliative care¯the medical alleviation of pain and other distressing symptoms of serious illness¯with intentionally ending the life of the patient. The movements first target was the . . . . Continue Reading »
This week was the annual meeting of the editorial council of First Things . In addition to taking care of the business that magazines have to attend to, the custom at these meetings is to take up a major subject or two. This year, Wilfred McClay of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga led the . . . . Continue Reading »
Every other year, the Whitney Museums Biennial Exhibition promises to put its finger on the pulse of contemporary American art. Curators look for the latest and the greatest, the up-and-coming work, the cutting-edge stuff. Its then gathered and put on display at the Whitneys . . . . Continue Reading »
Forty years ago this month, Bobby Kennedy was still alive and running for the Democratic party’s 1968 presidential nomination. I was a seminarian in Washington, D.C. I was also an active volunteer in Kennedy’s campaign. I can still remember helping with secretarial work in the same room where . . . . Continue Reading »