Joe Carter

The vicar of Collingbourne Ducis, UK, discovered a law left over from the Middle Ages that allowed her to s ummon the men of her village to archery practice . So she did: The Reverend Mary Edwards, of Collingbourne Ducis, near Marlborough, called residents to the village recreation ground on . . . . Continue Reading »

Political journalists called 1992 “the year of the woman” because so many female candidates won Senate seats that year. With the rise of female candidates who oppose abortion, next year may be, says Ramesh Ponnuru in the Washington Post , the year of the “pro-life woman” : The . . . . Continue Reading »

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch intellectual and former Muslim who is under a fatwa for her writings criticizing Islam, argues that Christians should try to convert Muslims : Q: One of your more startling arguments in Nomad is that Christian churches should proselytize in immigrant communities to try to . . . . Continue Reading »

(Note: For several years on Evangelical Outpost , I compiled a weekly roundup of thirty-three links, quotes, and other intriguing tidbits I found around the web. When I turned that site over to the folks at Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute, they kept the tradition going . I’ve . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is animated films. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.] The first movie I ever watched in a theater was the animated films, Bednobs and Broomsticks . . . . Continue Reading »

While I’m not much of a soccer enthusiast, I’m a loyal fan of the sport of trash-talking. Worthy matches are hard to find, but an email exchange between the British Embassy in Washington and the U.S. Embassy in London about the upcoming America/England World Cup match reveal that the . . . . Continue Reading »

What can nonbelievers learn from religious art? Quite a lot, says Aaron Rosen in an article in  The Humanist : This is not simply to say that all religious expressions are artistic. But what religious symbols can do, more powerfully than any other, is reveal a horizon of meaning towards . . . . Continue Reading »

Were California voters duped in supporting public funding of embryonic stem cell research? In 2004, they approved Proposition 71, a ballot measure that would allow the state to borrow $3 billion in order to push through the unethical research. Now, six years later, award-winning science . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Yesterday Wesley Smith and Gene Fant wrote about the latest controversial remarks by ethicist Peter Singer. Because too few people are aware of how radical and influential Singer is in the field of ethics, I thought it would be worthwhile to shed some light on more of what he believes.] To . . . . Continue Reading »

“What if political scientists covered the news?” asks Christopher Beam in a new article in Slate : A powerful thunderstorm forced President Obama to cancel his Memorial Day speech near Chicago on Monday—an arbitrary event that had no affect on the trajectory of American politics. Obama now . . . . Continue Reading »