Francis, John Paul, and the Christ of Culture
When Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) died in 2005, the pastor of my parents’ conservative Southern Baptist church in Alabama said something to his congregation that at one time would probably have gotten him fired on the spot. He informed church members that for much of the world, the pope is the face of […]
Isolated and Alone
In the last third of the 20th century, various commentators began to express concerns about a phenomenon known as social atomization. The idea was that human beings throughout history had existed in a rich and satisfying web of relationships including families, churches, guilds, and local communities. In The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet observed that the […]
The Cancelled Pro-Lifer
In February, members of the DuPage County board in Illinois voted to remove longtime Congressman Henry Hyde’s name from the county courthouse. To my knowledge, this is the first time a name has been removed from a government building for a person whose primary achievement was pro-life legislation. Who was Henry Hyde? He was a […]
Higher Education Rediscovers Itself
Dartmouth University is the latest of the American colleges to step back from issuing position statements on the varied controversies that seize the popular imagination. The University of Chicago, with its Vietnam-era Kalven Report, embraced a posture of neutrality in the interest of preventing institutions of higher learning from being turned away from education and toward […]
Aiming at a New Culture of Life
At the 2025 March for Life, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told the assembled crowd that he was the result of an unplanned teenage pregnancy. He expressed his eternal gratitude that his parents didn’t heed the advice of those who encouraged them to “just take care of that problem.” They would go on to […]
Putting Biden’s Four Years In The Rear-view Mirror
Few American politicians had such durable careers as Joe Biden, who won his first election to the U.S. Senate at almost exactly the minimum age (30) for the office. He would spend nearly four decades there, leaving only in 2008 to assume the vice presidency under Barack Obama. When he was bypassed in 2016 for […]
A Retreat From Content Control
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” That was a question posed by the Roman poet Juvenal. The translation is familiar to many Americans as “Who watches the watchmen?” While the author applied his inquiry to marital fidelity, there is a long usage of the query concerning politics and power. We empower rulers and law enforcement agents to […]
A Call For Reporters Who Truly Report
In one of the weirder sci-fi novels of all time, Stranger in a Strange Land, author Robert Heinlein introduced a social innovation. One of the book’s characters holds a special designation as the “fair witness.” By way of demonstration, someone asks the fair witness what color a particular house is. She answers by naming the color […]
Five Takeaways From The Trump Victory
The first and most important takeaway from the presidential election of 2024 is that inflation is the killer of incumbent politicians. There will be plenty of defenders of the Biden-Harris administration who will point to other factors to blame for the inflation that has left Americans poorer. Certainly, it is correct that inflation was not […]
The Irreplaceable Richard John Neuhaus and the Naked Public Square
During the 1990’s and the first decade of the 2000’s, Richard John Neuhaus was the editorial powerhouse behind First Things, a Christian journal dedicated to thinking through matters of religion, culture, and politics. It was unusual in the sense that it brought together some of the best thinkers from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions in […]