Ralph Hancock

Mormons must appreciate Richard Mouw’s good faith effort to find common ground between us and “orthodox” Christians, as well as First Things’s according him the space to publish this effort. I reply in the same spirit, hoping both correctly to identify common ground and to explain . . . . Continue Reading »

Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem / That the riches of worlds can produce, / And priceless the value of truth will be when / The proud monarch’s costliest diadem / Is counted but dross and refuse.” Hearing these words, sung with devotion and considerable musical talent by . . . . Continue Reading »

Leo Strauss reminds us that Christians are not exempt from the deeply political responsibility of reason. Continue Reading »

I recently argued that the doctrine of “continuing revelation” held by Latter-Day Saints tends to be read through a progressive lens. In response, many asked whether this view really has significant influence and is worth talking about. This question perplexes me, since anyone at all attentive to the “bloggernacle,” that is, the LDS internet, or to press coverage of LDS affairs, either in the Salt Lake Tribune or in national organs, cannot help but notice the persistent progressive narrative surrounding questions of homosexuality and the status or role of women… . Continue Reading »

The great Jerry Seinfeld once observed that a man doesn’t care what’s on TV. He only cares what else is on TV. (Seinfeld late-night re-runs being displaced by Modern Family, by the way, is a sure sign of decline.) This seems to me to describe a prevalent attitude towards continuing revelation among many who consider themselves “thoughtful” Latter-day Saints. We forever have our thumb on the channel-change button of ultimate moral-religious truth just in case we might have to change our minds, just as we did in 1890 on plural marriage and 1978 on ordination of black members… . Continue Reading »

Naturally I appreciate the kind and intelligent attention to my ideas from Peter Lawler, Richard Reinsch , and Carl Scott.  (I would not be dismayed in the unlikely event that the term “Ralphism” caught on, though I might have suggested a term more along the lines of “the . . . . Continue Reading »

Finally, as an example of such vision of substantive goods (as evoked by Roger Scruton, above), let me share a tidbit from an important essay against same-sex marriage (made world famous by the Pope’s high praise) authored by France’s chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim.  I have just . . . . Continue Reading »

(This is a continuation of a post from yesterday; it will make most sense in that context.) When Maggie Gallagher answers John Corvino’s individualist argument for “gay marriage” (in Debating Same-Sex Marriage ), she relies mainly on a good and important argument for man-woman . . . . Continue Reading »

Tom West – who, I want to make clear at the outset, can easily run circles around me in his knowledge of Locke’s writings – does well to remind us of the (now) conservative, pro-family conclusions that Locke draws from his very modern philosophical premises.  And these . . . . Continue Reading »

(Please read my previous post first, if you haven’t.) Try to follow me here: Christianity, I was arguing, necessarily implies an ambivalence towards any moral-political culture. On the one hand, it reinforces much conventional moral content by declaring it to be the object of a divine . . . . Continue Reading »