Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is from Nigeria, not New Orleans. But the reaction to his attempted bombing of up a Northwest Airlines jet can only be understood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina America underwent one of the most significant spiritual crises in our nation’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently I opened a jury duty summons for one of our local courts. My report date hasn’t arrived quite yet, but I’m looking forward to the possibility of serving. I’ve only been empanelled once and it was a nightmare; I’m hoping for a better experience this time. The accused . . . . Continue Reading »
Palliative sedation, that is putting an imminently dying patient into an artificial coma and allowing the disease to take its course, is a legitimate palliative technique—when the symptoms warrant it. Thus, in the rare case where pain can’t be controlled or a patient panics due to . . . . Continue Reading »
Simon Winchester complains the typical New Year’s celebration has reduced to little more than an excuse for unrestrained drunkenness and revelry. He lays blame for this woeful development partly on the example of the Scottish who have long treated the occasion as an opportunity for drinking . . . . Continue Reading »
Here is a great sermon from my colleague, Rev. Christopher Esget, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alexandria, Virginia.Readings for St. John’s Day: Rev. 1:1-6; 1 Jn 1:1—2:2; Jn. 21:20-25Beloved, today is St. John’s Day, the beloved disciple of Jesus and the man inspired by the . . . . Continue Reading »
Of the Twelve, John alone did not forsake Jesus in the hours of His suffering and death. With the faithful women, he stood at the cross, where our Lord made him the guardian of His mother. After Pentecost, John spent his ministry in Jerusalem and at Ephesus, where tradition says he was the bishop. . . . . Continue Reading »
I was thinking of using the title “From Providence to Eschatology” just to make things sounds more theologically rich. Then I though, “So what? Who cares?”There is a step between Christmas and Pentecost, between Israel proper and the church that might be . . . . Continue Reading »
Today is the feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr in the eastern church. The western churches celebrated his feast day yesterday. His story is told in Acts 6-8:1. One element of this episode has always puzzled me. Verses 2-4 of Acts 7 tells us:And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples . . . . Continue Reading »
The NHS continues to teach us important lessons. Once government bureaucracy gets hold of health care, the sky will be the limit—for their expenses. This is especially true when things go wrong, since the answer to problems with centralized systems is, well, more central . . . . Continue Reading »
I have written extensively about how the Swiss Constitution declared the legal intrinsic dignity of individual plants (and an ethics committee declared the “decapitation” of a wildflower to be immoral ). I have also written how Nicaragua’s new constitution created the “rights of . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
