Joe Carter

Remember the “Hokey Pokey,” the silly little ditty your well-meaning 3rd grade teacher made you sang and dance to? You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out, You put your right hand in, And you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. Well, . . . . Continue Reading »

Jordan Ballor has an intriguing post on “the relationship between the church’s approach to charity and the creation of the welfare state” as discussed in Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef 1980 book, The Deacons Handbook: A Manual of Stewardship:DeKoster and Berghoef argue in . . . . Continue Reading »

A fear of many who protest the opening of this clinic is that doctors there will fertilize myriad eggs and discard the “extras” and the abnormal as if they were no more meaningful than a dish of caviar. But this fear seems largely unwarranted. —Comment made by columnist Ellen Goodman . . . . Continue Reading »

James Collins explains how the novels of Jane Austen can serve as a moral compass in today’s world : Today’s readers tend to appreciate Austen despite her didacticism rather than because of it. She can be positively priggish, and that is an embarrassment. The contemporary reader who . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host heated, half-serious, half-cocked arguments about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is the best movies of the past ten years. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com ] The most remarkable thing you’ll . . . . Continue Reading »

In his excellent post on evangelicals and nuclear abolitionism , Brian Auten notes that “it is important for, again, non-experts—national security and theological alike—to see that there are other, in some cases radically different and yet still Christian, perspectives to many of . . . . Continue Reading »

Frank Capra and Ayn Rand aren’t often mentioned together. Yet the cheery director of Capra-corn and the dour novelist who created Objectivism have much in common. Both were immigrants who made their names in Hollywood. Both were screenwriters and employees of the film studio RKO. And during . . . . Continue Reading »

This is disturbing sign of what we’ve passed on to the younger generations : Researchers were conducting a study comparing the views of men in their 20s who had never been exposed to pornography with regular users. But their project stumbled at the first hurdle when they failed to find a . . . . Continue Reading »

At FrumForum Alex Knepper—who believes all religions are “equally bizarre and irrational”—argues that Mitt Romney should be judged based on his religion : If freedom requires religion, if his Mormon faith sustains his life and he will be true to those practices, then I’m . . . . Continue Reading »

In his 1975 book Thinking About Thinking , philosopher Anthony Flew outlined a form of argument that he dubbed the “No True Scotsman” fallacy: Argument: “No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.” Reply: “But my uncle Angus likes sugar with his porridge.” Rebuttal: . . . . Continue Reading »