Out in Orange County , they’re preaching fire and brimstone. "Rebellion, grave disobedience, and mortal sin," the pastor of St. Mary’s by the Sea in Huntington Beach, California, thundered to his congregation in the church bulletin. Now, ever since Jonathan Edwards preached . . . . Continue Reading »
As with the pun, appreciation of the limerick is a cultivated taste. I’m still working on it, very intermittently. Ernest W. Lefever has put together a little collection of 230 of them in Liberating the Limerick (Hamilton Books). There is, for instance, this: . . . . Continue Reading »
Today is Ascension Day, a holy day of obligation. In some dioceses, the observance is transferred to next Sunday. The idea, as it is helpfully explained, is that going to Mass on a weekday may be excessively burdensome or give non-Catholic neighbors the impression that Catholics are different. At . . . . Continue Reading »
So what’s your church? I don’t know what easy answer Mark Kinzer has in response to that question. He is president of the Messianic Jewish Theological institute, and an ordained rabbi who teaches Jewish studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. Jews who have come to faith in Yeshua as the . . . . Continue Reading »
An amazing story in the Guardian today: Patients who were unconscious for years, diagnosed as being in “persistent vegetative states” came awake when they were given a new experimental medication. As Wesley J. Smith emails to note, “They interacted with their environment. And . . . . Continue Reading »
Speaking of . . . um, that goofy book that we here at First Things decided we wouldn’t bother to mention, since everyone else in America would mock it all the way to the remainder tables at Bob’s Super-Saver Book Emporium. Of course, that plan didn’t work out so well: It ended up . . . . Continue Reading »
There really is something called the American Name Society. Kent Evans, who teaches psychology at Bellevue University in Nebraska, is the president, and he says that people who follow these things are amazed at the soaring popularity of “Nevaeh” as a name for baby girls. It is now in . . . . Continue Reading »
We are pleased to announce that we have hired Anthony Sacramone to be the new Managing Editor for First Things , beginning May 30. An editor with long experience as copy chief, proofreader, and managing editor in the publishing world, from Biography and Reader’s Digest to Beliefnet and . . . . Continue Reading »
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), with the approval of the Holy Father, has decided, in the words of the official Vatican statement, "to invite [Father Marcial Maciel] to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry." Fr. Maciel is . . . . Continue Reading »
Over on The American Scene , Ross Douthat reflects on conflicting studies about the effectiveness of promoting abstinence or artificial contraception in reducing teen pregnancies. He correctly notes the dishonesty of including morning-after pills and related abortifacients in the category of . . . . Continue Reading »
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