Ive long enjoyed reading Camille Paglia, surely one of the most interesting voices in academia, full of piss and vinegar, and capable of original thought. I remember reading her insightful and very funny essay, The Joy of Presbyterian Sex, in the 1980s and marking her down as . . . . Continue Reading »
It was a big move for the Pentecostal World Conference to have an official from the World Council of Churches, wrote a Pentecostal friend responding to my Need They Speak This Way? , and both sides must have feared that the relation could fall apart before it had really begun, if he said . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s no secret that Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (and an evangelical Christian), is a proponent of embryo-destructive research. No matter what his other qualifications, President Obama would never have appointed the former head of the Human Genome Project . . . . Continue Reading »
Reflections after reading Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave GirlSlavery was the original American sin.I don’t know anyone who justifies race-based slavery, but I have known seemingly good folk with more than a dollop of sympathy for the Confederacy. Growing centralized . . . . Continue Reading »
California is Greece without the Acropolis. And yet, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine—perhaps its profligate administers fearing that the people of California will pull the plug when its ten year borrow and spend license expires—is spending desperately on research in . . . . Continue Reading »
There are probably a number of legitimate perspectives that First Things could offer on Glenn Beck’s recent rally in Washington, D.C. As an evangelical who is allergic to civic religion, my take is likely to be extremely unpopular. I am a fervent believer in the need for Christianity to take . . . . Continue Reading »
Japan-Style Stagnation? You Should Be So LuckyAugust 29th, 2010 By David GoldmanLast week some old comrades-in-arms from the financial industry turned up in New York from their present haunts in Europe and Asia; at the end of the week we all found ourselves on the deck of a beach house in the . . . . Continue Reading »
At the always superb Public Discourse, Matthew J. Franck and Gwen Brown have a great essay on why same-sex marriage is becoming more “accepted”: In the 1993 Seinfeld episode The Outing, a female reporter mistakes Jerry Seinfeld and his friend George Costanza for homosexual . . . . Continue Reading »
A new study is out that claims atheist physicians are more likely than those of a religious persuasion to hasten the deaths of patients. From the story:Terminally-ill patients would be well advised to find out the religious beliefs of their doctor, according to research showing the effect of . . . . Continue Reading »