According to a poll, middle-aged Americans are unhappy about their sexual lives . “Some 24 percent of middle-aged group say they are dissatisfied, compared with only 12 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds, 20 percent of those 30-44 and 17 percent of those over 65.”
Increasing numbers of parents are choosing “gender-neutral” boys’ names for their newborn sons. “Among my generation of parents, our nontraditional boys’ names—vaguely androgynous, nonmacho, or just plain unique—reflect our own desire to raise sons who will be as comfortable pushing dolls in strollers as pushing trucks,” said one such parent.
Matthew Hanley asks if very rich men who give out lots of money for “family planning” are really philanthropists , or something else. “They give away lots of money. But that is not the same as ‘philanthropy,’ a word with Greek roots which means: love of mankind. The word implies a worldview – a fraternal disposition towards the objective good of one’s fellow creatures.”
A Catholic church in downtown Pittsburgh offers Mass at 2:30 a.m. on Sundays to attract people leaving the bars when they close, and in doing so revives a tradition. “The early Mass hasn’t been held since 1991. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the service was dubbed the ‘Printer’s Mass,’ because it was popular with newspaper employees. Some had just finished their shifts while others would attend Mass and then go deliver newspapers.”
Germany’s leading hardcore feminist has attacked the government’s minister for families and women, who doesn’t believe that “heterosexual sex [is] hardly possible without the subjugation of women” and changed her name when she married.
Archbishop Cranmer, or someone speaking in his name, criticizes an Anglican bishop for his pessimistic remarks about the next royal wedding.
Georgetown professor and “Front Porcher” Patrick Deneen writes in defense of culture .
AUL vice-president William Saunders analyzes the decision of the Montana Supreme Court legalizing assisted suicide .
Thanks to Kevin Staley-Joyce for links.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
