Joe Carter

Last week the state of Arizona executed Eric John King for two murders that occurred during a robbery in December 1989 that netted $72. On the same day the prelates of the Arizona Catholic Conference released a statement expressing vehement opposition to the death penalty. “We firmly hold that capital punishment is state-sanctioned vengeance,” said the bishops, “that is not in keeping with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” I confess that these claims left me flabbergasted… . Continue Reading »

Have you ever looked at a piece of abstract art and thought, “”My monkey could have painted that.” (What do you mean you don’t have a monkey? What are you, some kind of philistine?) Some enterprising researchers decided to test to see if people could indeed tell the . . . . Continue Reading »

About the best thing that can be said about Ayn Rand is that few people take her seriously. Although her books are still widely read, Rand’s pseudo-religious cult—Objectivism—is largely ignored or disdained even by the fans of her work. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the . . . . Continue Reading »

In the latest addition to my Jane Austen Theorem*, Mark T. Mitchell explains how Jane Austen teaches us to be a gentlemen: Austen’s gentlemen (I’m thinking especially of Darcy here) understand the call of duty; they are committed to family, reputation, propriety, and self-control. To be . . . . Continue Reading »

Since the days when mankind invented agriculture and animal husbandry, we’ve been genetically modifying the plants and animals we consume. Yet for almost a decade scientists have been blurring the line between human and animal by producing human-animal chimeras—a hybrid creature . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul F. Crawford debunks four myths about the Crusades : Myth #1: The crusades represented an unprovoked attack by Western Christians on the Muslim world. Nothing could be further from the truth, and even a cursory chronological review makes that clear. In a.d. 632, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia . . . . Continue Reading »

Although philosopher Ed Feser is writing about Catholic bishops , I think this passage is applicable to at least 75 percent of Christian clergy: Here’s how the temporizing approach works. Where the liberal or secularist finds Catholic teaching hopelessly “reactionary,” the . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s On the Square, First Things editor R.R. Reno asks, ” What makes First Things First Things ? ” The first thing to say about First Things is that it stands for the conviction that our personal and communal submission to the authority of revelation humanizes, and that the . . . . Continue Reading »

1. What Exactly Made the King James Bible So Good? In both [William Tyndale] time and theirs this was a modern translation, the living language of streets, docks, workshops, fields. Ancient Israel and Jacobean England went easily together. The original writers of the books of the Old Testament knew . . . . Continue Reading »

Normally when a country decides to intervene in another country’s civil war, they choose a side. The U.S. has decided to take a different approach in Libya: We may soon be bombing both sides. As NATO takes over control of airstrikes in Libya, and the Obama administration considers new steps . . . . Continue Reading »