Some Muslims in America are unhappy with us. And apparently they know something I don’t. This from The American Muslim : "The most extreme and most sophisticated example of patronizing intolerance in contemporary America, because it most starkly illustrates the reversal of truth and . . . . Continue Reading »
The Swiss Supreme Court has ruled that people with mental illnesses can be legally assisted in suicide. The case came about when a member of Dignitas, an organization that, for a fee, provides a safe house for, and assistance with, suicide, brought a lawsuit seeking the right to have his death . . . . Continue Reading »
Overweening moralism is, if you believe most of what you read in the newspapers, the unique sin of conservative religious people. Of course, it isn’t actually true¯as witness this latest example of moralism, a secular-liberal moralism imposed by law, from Great Britain. At issue was . . . . Continue Reading »
As a general rule, the New York Times tries so hard to discredit Jewish and Christian morality that it is foolish to trust any of its articles purporting to describe Census Bureau statistics, especially when the latter involve marriage and family. It is best to treat analyses appearing in the Times . . . . Continue Reading »
My webposting last week asking whether it is legitimate anymore for Catholics to call Protestants heretics has caused quite a stir, both on this page ( here from Stephen Barr and here from Alyssa Lyra Pitstick ) and elsewhere (see, for example, here and here ). I meant my reflections merely to . . . . Continue Reading »
Fr. Edward Oakes has been thinking about what constitutes a heretic . Let us take the next step with him in upping the ante of precision for the use of the word.He is right that “unthinkingly hurling accusations” is counterproductive. But if heresy concerns dogmas with “objective . . . . Continue Reading »
I have not yet read Jeremy Cohen’s new book Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen (Oxford). And it may be that Adam Kirsch, chief book editor for the New York Sun , misrepresents Cohen’s argument. So I’ll attend to Kirsch’s argument, which . . . . Continue Reading »
While I agree with the general sentiment of Fr. Edward Oakes’ observations yesterday concerning the invidious or vituperative use of the word heresy , I feel that he is turning into a matter of sentiment what should be a matter of precise definition. If the word heresy is thought of merely as . . . . Continue Reading »
On January 19, 2007, a journalist named Hrant Dink was shot dead by a seventeen-year-old militant on one of Istanbul’s busiest avenues. In just thirty-two hours, the Turkish police caught the reckless killer, who confessed his crime quite proudly. “I shot the Armenian,” he said . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the most dramatic stories of religious and cultural change in recent American history is the collapse of what was viewed as the Protestant establishment. Its main institutional embodiment was the National Council of Churches (NCC) , established in 1950 as the successor to the Federal Council . . . . Continue Reading »
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