Matthew Schmitz

Mumford & Sons is out with their new album Babel, which is already being greeted by the same negative reactions from critics—and eager embrace from fans—that met their first. Many conservatives and Christians see the critical savaging of Mumford as another instance of media bias—the . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert P. George has already noted the sad passing of Eugene Genovese earlier this week. Genovese played a large role in the life of the magazine, with his wife, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, serving on our advisory council. Here’s Richard John Neuhaus writing in his “Public Square” . . . . Continue Reading »

Helen Rittelmeyer digs up a quotation from Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s letters that should appeal to our readers: My impression of Republicans, after living among them as an interested and sympathetic observer for almost two years, [is that] as a group you have almost no confidence that any . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 2004  Christianity Today cover story that helped introduce “emergent Christianity” to the Evangelical mainstream,  CT  editor Andy Crouch expressed hope that Brian McLaren’s project would not prove to be a revival of liberal Christianity: It’s not that . . . . Continue Reading »

Here is a video from the University of Pennsylvania’s Stephanos Bibas on his new book,  The Machinery of Criminal Justice ,  which I am currently reading for a review and can already recommend. Bibas recently wrote for First Things on what made Chuck Colson “the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Pew Forum’s annual report on religious freedom is out, and for the first time in its four-year history, it reports a rising tide of religious restrictions in the United States. This increase has moved the U.S., again for the first time, from Pew’s “low” to . . . . Continue Reading »

If not, here’s what you’re missing. A typical item from the wry humorist’s “Press Clippings” bureau: More here. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jonathan Reyes, director of social ministry and head of Catholic Charities and Community Services for the Archdiocese of Denver, has been appointed to succeed John Carr as the Catholic bishops’ point man on justice, peace, and human development in Washington, D.C. Many of the reactions . . . . Continue Reading »

What’s missing from this appeal to Catholic principles? . . . . Continue Reading »

It seems that Mitt Romney took up —-though admittedly in a private gathering—-the dangerously misleading statistic about how 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes. I pushed back against this last year after Tom Neven wrote a misguided First Thoughts post on the subject. . . . . Continue Reading »