Archive
More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.
Articles 344
The Fight for Parents’ Rights in Canada
Last month the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) published an article with a rather condescending tone: “Where did the term ‘parental rights’ come from?” Other media outlets have published similar...
Canada More Divided Than Ever
Canadians went to the polls this week in a snap election called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau did not have to call this election. Most Canadians had no...
Canada Divided Against Itself
When the separatist Parti Québécois first came to power in Québec more than four decades ago, the language issue was front and center. It displaced the religious issue during...
Canada’s State Religion
When Canadians go to the polls, we vote for a single office-holder: a member of Parliament to represent our electoral district, or riding. Canadians do not have the luxury...
Flightless Birds
My paternal grandparents were born in Cyprus as subjects of the sultan in Constantinople, albeit under British colonial administration. Cyprus came into British hands in 1878, but it remained...
Check the Box and Take the Cash
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is well over halfway through its statutory four-year mandate, and the prime minister continues to cause controversy by imposing his contestable interpretation of Canada’s Charter...
The Queen Would Not Be Amused
As one of Queen Elizabeth II’s Canadian subjects, I personally doubt she would approve of the remarks her freshly minted representative made last week. Some months ago, Prime Minister...
Rousseau, Sanders, and the Religious Test
During last year’s presidential election campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a latecomer to the Democratic Party, positioned himself as a voice for the downtrodden against big moneyed interests, something...
Living Communally in God’s Good Creation
I may be somewhat out of step with my fellow Reformed Christians in acknowledging a certain affinity for St. Benedict and the way of life he represents. In my...
The Evolving American Constitution: Change Without Amendment
Might the United States be headed for significant constitutional change without formal amendment of the document we know as the Constitution? One of the key features of the modern...
“No Core Identity”?
I am no fan of nationalism. Given what my paternal relatives experienced as refugees in their own country of Cyprus, I thoroughly detest the clashing ethnic nationalisms that tore...
The Perils of De-industrialization
One summer in her youth my mother worked at the Willow Run factory in suburban Detroit where the short-lived Kaiser-Frazer automobiles were manufactured. The plant had been constructed, just...
The Impossibility of Equal Concern
In recent months, terrorist attacks in different parts of the world have left scores of people dead and injured. Attacks have occurred in Paris, Beirut, Brussels, Orlando, Istanbul, Baghdad,...
Unity and Independence
In the aftermath of last week’s vote in Great Britain to leave the European Union, First Things has published a few posts supporting the narrow decision of the British...
The Tempering of Democracy
No, it isn’t just about Trump. Or Clinton or Sanders. It’s about democracy itself, which most of us have come to think of as an unmitigated good. Throughout much...