R. R. Reno

Friday saw the release of a fairly extensive interview with Pope Francis. The media was atwitter and reported the interview as a sign of a something big, something new. Some swooned. Perhaps this is the sign of the beginning of a long hoped-for liberalizing trend in the Church. Not likely. The Pope calls himself “a son of the church,” whose teachings are “clear.” But the tone is mobile, the rhetoric fluid, and he uses terms and phrases from the standard playbook of progressive reform. Thus, the media’s reading of the interview isn’t willful . . . . Continue Reading »

Symbolic killing: It’s a repulsive notion. Gang bangers do it, using killing as a rite of initiation. Shoot someone to show resolve. Many ancient societies did it, killing to send a message to the gods. Totalitarian states do it. What they lack in legitimacy they make up for with fear, preserving the credibility of their threats to destroy all dissent… . Continue Reading »

I’ve been weighing in against what seems to be a wide consensus that America must bomb Syria in order to “punish” or “send a message” or in some way tell the world that using chemical weapons “won’t be tolerated.” It’s a morally suspect way of . . . . Continue Reading »

I continue to be troubled by the President’s approach to military strikes against Syria. He speaks of making sure the chemical attacks in Syria are properly “punished.” This way of talking is morally sloppy. Yes, people can be punished, and should be when they do wicked things. . . . . Continue Reading »

I find myself more and more disturbed by the moral implications of President’s Obama’s approach to Syria. He speaks of “sending a message” and firing a “shot across the bow.” This is a dangerous way of thinking about war. There are times when military force can . . . . Continue Reading »

Something must be done. Or so we’re hearing from many quarters, including now the White House. Count me skeptical. The first thing to say concerns the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. This is being treated as a bright-line violation of global norms that in itself requires . . . . Continue Reading »

Same sex marriage has become the issue of our time. Michael Kinsley summed the situation nicely: “You may be in favor of raising taxes on the rich, increasing support for the poor, nurturing the planet, and repealing Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, but if you don’t support gay marriage, you’re out of the club”… . Continue Reading »

What makes a man a man or a woman or a woman? For a long time—forever to be exact—it was nature and its serendipitous allocations of chromosomes. A tiny, tiny, tiny number of newborns emerged with scrambled codes, but the rest of us fall to one side or the other: “Male and female . . . . Continue Reading »

We’re about to enter into a bio-technological revolution that will fundamentally change how children are conceived, gestated, born—-and understood. The science is advancing rapidly. Of equal important are social attitudes. A recent Pew study shows that the American public is largely . . . . Continue Reading »

I love the Feast of the Assumption. The readings for today include a dragon ready to devour the son of the sun-clothed Queen of Heaven. And then there is the magnificat, the Virgin Mary’s hymn of thanksgiving and praise: “My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior”… . Continue Reading »