Elizabeth Scalia on whether the Catholic Church is suppressing the will of God :
The editorial board of the National Catholic Reporter this week endorsed the ordination of women. Basing its position on a conclusion reached in 1976 by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, on “countless conversations in parish halls, lecture halls and family gatherings,” and on the supposed support of myriad unnamed, anonymous bishops, the Reporter calls “for the Catholic church to correct this unjust teaching.”
James R. Rogers does the math on religious affiliation :
In the forthcoming issue of the journal Sociology of Religion , sociologist Philip Schwadel reports that between 1974 and 2010, the “probability of reporting a strong religious affiliation declined considerably among Catholics” in the U.S. and “increased among evangelical Protestants.” The thing is, this is not necessarily quite the bad news it might sound to be for Catholics, and not quite the good news it might sound to be for Evangelicals.
Dear Reader,
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
