David Mills

You will have noticed a new feature below, called First Links , pointing you to stories we think you might find of interest. Later this afternoon we’ll be posting a second stage called, naturally enough, “Second Links,” and occasionally in the evenings we will post a “Third . . . . Continue Reading »

Another of those tests many people enjoy: the Face Memory Test from the BBC’s home page. I’ve just gotten to the age that leaves me wondering if I really want to take it. . . . . Continue Reading »

Still in the World is the title of Joe Carter’s “On the Square” article today, a reflection on the lesson he learned while tending his mother as she was dying, and how her life and death led him to understand Jesus’ life and death better, and what it means for us. . . . . Continue Reading »

“Hand washing removes more than dirt—it also removes the guilt of past misdeeds, weakens the urge to engage in compensatory behavior, and attenuates the impact of disgust on moral judgment,” reported an article in the journal Nature titled “Washing Away Postdecisional . . . . Continue Reading »

We reported in mid-June that an Egyptian court was trying to force the Coptic Church— a minority in the country, reportedly representing 10 percent of the population —  to change its marital discipline and let divorced members remarry in church. Egypt’s highest court has . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend and frequent contributor Father Edward Oakes (see here , here , and here for recent “On the Square” articles), sends the link to his colleague Father Robert Barron’s Why Christians should pray for Christopher Hitchens . What Hitchens’ suffering means, and what God . . . . Continue Reading »

Kevin has commented on the Presbyterians’ recent decision to approve of practicing homosexual clergy, a move that will only divide an already divided body — still divided even though many of the conservative members hived off decades ago into bodies like the Presbyterian Church in . . . . Continue Reading »

Fired for Being Catholic? reported on the troubles of Dr. Kenneth Howell, who lost  his adjunct job at the University of Illinois for admitting in a class on Catholic teaching that he, as a Catholic, agreed with it. A friend who teaches in a state university wrote: Having read his e-mail, the . . . . Continue Reading »

In The Gospel Of Scientific Materialism , today’s “On the Square” article, R. R. Reno explains why those he calls “our Happy Warriors of Science” — the Dawkins/Dennett crowd — are so enthusiastic, nay Evangelical, about “the most reductive sort of . . . . Continue Reading »

A classic, just found on the web: Alan Bennet’s sermon from Beyond the Fringe , on the text “Esau was an hairy man, but I am a smooth man.” I have heard sermons like this. . . . . Continue Reading »