The Editors

Jon A. Shields on debating Roe ’s legacy : In response to recent claims (including my own in First Things ) that Roe aided pro-lifers in unexpected ways, Daniel Williams argues that such views are mistaken. The decision, according to Williams, neither hurt pro-choice momentum nor breathed new . . . . Continue Reading »

Elizabeth Scalia wonders how we respond to “ so what? ” The repeated thesis was simply this:  “so what?” Such a disarming question; the sort of question society has long-regarded as adolescent, arrogant, disdainful, and yes, more than a little snotty. It is a question that . . . . Continue Reading »

R.R. Reno on freedom from religion : For the most part intellectual techniques of critique help us break free. Elaine Pagels specializes in books that call orthodoxies into question. Why privilege the New Testament over the suppressed and supposedly heretical Gnostic gospels? When it comes to God, . . . . Continue Reading »

Wesley J. Smith on environmentalism’s deep misanthropy : In recent years, deep misanthropy has seeped into the popular culture. For example, the 2008 remake of  The Day the Earth Stood Still  starred Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien come to earth to commit total genocide to . . . . Continue Reading »

Joe Carter on the Pentagon’s removing the ban on women in combat : In response to the news I won’t offer an argument, only a lament. The arguments against allowing women in combat have for decades been made with force and vigor, but to no avail. Because the rational commonsense of the . . . . Continue Reading »

John Daniel Davidson asks, “Has American Fiction Lost Sight of God?” In an article in the New York Times Book Review last month, Paul Elie ponders why Christian belief figures, “as something between a dead language and a hangover,” in current fiction. He observes that the . . . . Continue Reading »

John Murdock on marching for life : I was pro-life from a young age. Though hardly full of fiery zeal, there was no doubt where our family stood. Copies of the National Right to Life Committee’s newspaper could be found in our home, and my normally quiet father might snarl at the TV whenever . . . . Continue Reading »

Micah Mattix on the morality of modern cycling : Last week, in an interview with Oprah, Lance Armstrong admitted what everybody already knew: that he took performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. Last year, the head of USADA (United States Anti-Doping Association) stated that under . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter Leithart on men of steel and flesh : Since Thetis dipped Achilles in the Styx, men (especially men) have dreamed hot dreams of invulnerability. The Greeks kept dreaming, but they knew these dreams couldn’t come true. Even Achilles—best of the Achaeans, half divine and a tornado of . . . . Continue Reading »

Russell E. Saltzman on wishing our way to doomsday : I think we should blame President John F. Kennedy for National Geographic Channel’s  Doomsday Preppers . It was his loose Cold War talk on nuclear survival that launched the doomsday survival business, I bet. He told Americans that if . . . . Continue Reading »