Religion
I hadn’t thought the link on Drudge worth clicking, because stories about holiday displays in state houses tend to be media-trumpeted examples of adults’ immaturity, but procrastinating before bed, last night, I took a look at this sample out of Illinois and find the controversial signage to be surprising even within its genre: The sign…
My monthly column in the current Rhode Island Catholic reviews the Commerce Clause, government spending, and the Fourteenth Amendment as contributors to trends that are transforming Christmas into a private affair: The underlying assumption that an atheist should feel as at home as an orthodox Roman Catholic in any corner of the nation is at…
Mary Eberstadt notes that, leading up to the turn of the millennium, the taboo against pedophilia appeared to be next up on the list of cultural norms to undermine: The phenomenon of pedophilia chic revealed the intensely troubling possibility that society, especially literate and enlightened society, was in the process of sanctioning certain exceptions to…
Among the arguments of those who’ve sided with Congressman Patrick Kennedy in his rejection of Catholic doctrine is the point that Kennedy works for the people and therefore must represent their wishes. My usual response is that an elected official is to balance and represent the interests of his constituents, and it is just not…
With all of the local controversy over matters of church and state — made timely again, today, by Ed Fitzpatrick’s column about Treasurer Frank Caprio’s status as a pro-choice politician with experience as an unwed teenage father (more on which anon) — it’s worth submitting into the discussion this excellent explanation from the religious side,…
Apart from the whole review from which it comes — by Thomas Hibbs, of David Walsh — this paragraph offers a worthwhile point of reflection on a rainy Saturday afternoon: The withering critique of propositional, systematic metaphysics has made possible the re-emergence of the priority of life to thought and of the practical to the…
Anybody who missed my appearance on WRNI’s Political Roundtable on Friday can find the audio here. There were two points that I didn’t manage to work into the extremely rapid format: In response to Scott MacKay’s suggestion that the Roman Catholic Church would find its pews empty were it to be as intransigent on every…
Father John Kiley steps forward to defend the Western period of exploration as a time when we “began to also hope in progress,” not in religion alone. Indeed, Fr. Kiley credits the likes of Christopher Columbus and Leonardo de Vinci not just with their particular discoveries and innovations, but with the whole technological drive of…
The person who brought my attention to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s scheduled appearance at Central Congregational Church, in Providence, this Sunday, suggested that the politician is likely to face a very friendly audience as he gives his national healthcare pitch. It’s all too obvious to wonder what might be the reaction were a right-of-center politician giving…
The Kennedy/Tobin flap has revealed the rank opportunism of those who, like the Kennedy’s and so many other politicians, fall back on their Catholic heritage when it comes to getting votes from one segment (older Democrats who remember Jack) or excoriate the Church when it is advantageous to get them from another (pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage…
