As you may or may not remember, last week was Pledge Week . This week (or what’s left of it) is Still Another Pledge Week . . . week.Most such campaigns promise to send you some premium in exchange for a fat donation . We, on the other hand, promise not to send you any of the following items . . . . Continue Reading »
What has Pentecost to do with public life? As Paul would say, much in every way.The Bible does not permit us to confine the work of the Spirit to the inner man or to private experience. Through Isaiah (44:3), the Lord promised to pour out water on the land of Israel and his Spirit upon . . . . Continue Reading »
You can see them at many grave sites where the War of Independence was fought, and the battlefields of 1812, and the Civil War. You can see them at the Alamo. You can see them arrayed now in rows of crosses and stars of David below the purpled hills of Anzio, and on the long sweeps of the green . . . . Continue Reading »
Francis Bacon once wrote, "Read not to contradict and confute; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider." The sentence exaggerates. Some books are maligne and require contradiction. As Dr. Johnson knew, talk is one of the pleasures of life, and if books enrich . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s the latest example of a fascinating, though depressing, cultural phenomenon. A fellow who clearly knows nothing about a deep and difficult intellectual problem produces a manuscript purporting to resolve the problem definitively. Such a fellow is a crank, you might think, and will quite . . . . Continue Reading »
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is a cultural and religious enigma. An indigenous American religion that springs from the great American West, it was founded by the descendants of Europeans who had settled in the northeastern United States. Its practitioners, known as Mormons, . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s pledge week here at PBS. Er, I mean, First Things . I wish I did mean PBS, since then we could count on large corporate donors¯ Mobil! Exxon! Mutual of Omaha! Bob’s Big Boy! ¯to take up the slack. Unfortunately, we depend on the kindness of friends to help us continue . . . . Continue Reading »
This talk was delivered at the Path to Peace Foundation seminar “Catholic Students and the Common Good: Building a Better World” in New York on May 22, 2007. I’d like to begin with a couple of disclaimers. For the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of serving on the U.S. . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, well, well. The June/July issue of First Things has arrived, and in the annals of human endeavor it ranks somewhere around¯um, I don’t actually know. The publication of Emile Zola’s J’Accuse! maybe? Or the printing of Civilian Personnel Law Manual: Title 2, Leave, 1996 . . . . Continue Reading »
Rudy Giuliani and abortion? No big deal. As he told the folks in Iowa, we have to "get beyond" those divisive questions. The Wall Street Journal recently echoed that line of argument , so to speak. It’s not as though abortion matters the way that, for instance, corporate tax rates . . . . Continue Reading »
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