R.R. Reno is editor of First Things.

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Anti-Secular Allies

The indispensable Peter Berger has posted a helpful discussion of the implications of the recent and ongoing controversy over the contraceptive mandate, the main one of which, to his mind, is the further clarification of the common interests of religious people over and against the secularist . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Feb 2012

Polling on the Contraceptive Mandate

The good folks at the Pew Research Center recently released the results of a survey that gives us some insight into the public reaction to the contraceptive mandate. Conservatives are more likely to think that religious organizations should be exempted, while liberals favor requiring contraceptive . . . . Continue Reading »

15 Feb 2012

Contraceptive Charade

I’ve taken a look at the supposed concessions made by the Obama administration about required insurance coverage for contraceptives. Here’s what the White House fact sheet says: The President will also announce that his Administration will propose and finalize a new regulation during . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Feb 2012

Evangelicals Supporting Catholics

Our colleagues and fellow laborers in the Lord’s vineyard, Timothy George and Chuck Colson, have written a powerful and effective open letter to their evangelical brethren. It’s a powerful testimony of Christian unity that, however divided we may be on matter of theology and church . . . . Continue Reading »

9 Feb 2012

Rights of Conscience

We seem to be in a season of judicial sanity. As Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who argued the case reports, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that vindicated the claims of Julea Ward. Ward was a counseling grad student at Eastern Michigan University, and when she . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2012

Rocky Mountain Democracy

Some legislators in Colorado have filed suit to overturn the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights , a cap on spending and taxation that requires voters to approve increases directly by way of a referendum. It’s a sign of the times. As the post-War middle class dominated social and . . . . Continue Reading »

31 Jan 2012

Against Sex Subsidies

Today’s New York Times reminds us that the Jesuits haven’t gone entirely off the rails. Their exposé exposes the fact that Fordham has resisted compliance with a New York state law that requires insurance coverage that pays for birth control pills. Nice to know that on this . . . . Continue Reading »

30 Jan 2012

Obamacare’s War

Michael Greve at the American Enterprise recently posted in a Liberty Fund blog a trenchant analysis of the recently announced HHS regulations that will compel all insurance policies to cover contraception, sterilization, and morning after pills He provides a very lucid analysis of the way in which . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Jan 2012

Wives of Priests

In a New York Times Op-Ed , history professor Sara Ritchey makes much of the fact that married Anglican clergy will become Catholic priests under the new Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Ritchey provides some useful historical background that outlines the early medieval shift to an . . . . Continue Reading »

13 Jan 2012

Circling the Wagons

The National Catholic Reporter is almost always predictable, and their choice for 2011’s “person of the year” was true to form: Elizabeth Johnson . Johnson, a professor of theology at Fordham University, is a standard issue Catholic Theological Society of America theologian, which . . . . Continue Reading »

6 Jan 2012