B. D. McClay

Stephen H. Webb ( noted hater of bourbon ) returns this Tuesday for another On the Square : “Why Von Balthasar Was Wrong About Holy Saturday.” Some people think Von Balthasar went too far by placing Christ in Hell. But perhaps he didn’t go far enough: My experience with prison . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square , R.R. Reno argues that the fight over gay marriage is another aspect of the war on the weak: The first thing to say is that the gay rights movement has been largely an upper middle class project. Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University, an all-black college in . . . . Continue Reading »

The debate over “In Christ Alone” rages on, as Timothy George returns to take on the some of the counter-arguments in today’s On the Square : There are many evangelical hymns, of course, that suffer in both content and musicality. But “In Christ Alone” is not one of . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square , Robert L. Kehoe III reviews the new Joyce Carol Oates novel, The Accursed . Which means that, yes, on top of all the Dickens and the Civil War and the personal great books , we’re giving you yet another book to read: Oates brings Woodrow Wilson’s tenure . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square , Wesley J. Smith decides to take that lawsuit filed against Israel and Italy for the unlawful death of Christ a little more seriously than it might deserve: On one level, the claim is disturbingly reminiscent of the vicious “collective guilt” excuse cited . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square , some loser named B.D. McClay is writing about deconsecrated churches: A deconsecrated church is just a pile of stones, I guess, no different from any other. It’s not wrong to live or work or do business in that space, or sacrilegious; and yet, the space is too . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square , Pete Spiliakos returns to discuss immigration and the working class: As individual foreign-born low-skill workers attain US citizenship, gain access to the American welfare state, and build social networks, we should expect the labor markets of those particular . . . . Continue Reading »

If you’re following the discussion of “favorite Dickens books,” currently there is no clear winner. By my count we have a five-way tie between Barnaby Rudge, Bleak House, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, and Tale of Two Cities . (I am subtracting any negative votes from the . . . . Continue Reading »

The day after I arrived in New York City, I got lost. I had left the First Things office for lunch and could not find my way back. Eventually, however, I spotted a church: remembering that there was a church near the office, I headed for it with a sense of relief. But it wasn’t a church, as it happened; it was a shopping center. So I stayed lost. . . . Continue Reading »

In case you don’t already have enough on your reading list, what with Gina Dalfonzo’s post on Dickens and R.R. Reno’s post on personal great books , here comes George Weigel in today’s On the Square with his arms full of books. Did you know that it’s the . . . . Continue Reading »