Perhaps the most heatedly denounced work of a distinguished scholar is Harry Jaffa’s occasional writing on homosexuality. The passions surrounding the issue distort understanding of these essays, but his purpose in them follows that of the rest of his mature corpus—the recovery of natural right and the great intertwined questions of reason and revelation. Jaffa’s writings on the topic need to be approached from the moral-political perspective from which they were intended. Continue Reading »
• I am not Charlie. I am not a trickster or prankster. I do not think freedom is based on mockery and transgression. I do not believe that a culture of freedom is nourished by the conceit that nothing is sacred. • Charlie Hebdo reflects a self-complimenting nihilism. It claims the . . . . Continue Reading »
In the ongoing cultural disputes that pit a person’s sexual “identity” against a person’s religious liberty, it’s not often that you see eye-popping courage and conviction. Continue Reading »
Far from being criticized, Wesleyan University should be congratulated for revealing the ethical assumptions and the practical destination of the politics of sexual identity. Continue Reading »
Last week the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held a rare public press conference. The topic was gay rights. Jonathan Rauch described the event as one in which Mormon leaders “made a startling offer to gay and lesbian America: If you will support reasonable religious-liberty exemptions for us, we will support expanded civil-rights protections for you.” Continue Reading »
As America lurches toward a fully same-sex-affirming public square, it is increasingly urged along by that most curious of cheerleaders: the “affirming pastor.” Continue Reading »
Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faithby eve tushnetave maria, 224 pages, $15.95 I have almost no conscious interest in the possibilities of being gay and Catholic, so I find it hard to explain why I was first drawn to Eve Tushnet’s writing over a decade . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve been saying this for a while now, but on the most contentious issues of the culture war, namely homosexuality and same-sex marriage, it is conservative Christians that deserve credit for being the most reasonable and peaceable combatants. Continue Reading »
Gender dysphoria (transgenderism)—formerly known as gender identity disorder—was once considered a mental illness. Today, the condition—and how individuals and society react to it—is a prominent civil rights issue, the “T” in LGBT. Continue Reading »
According to former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, he was fired for being a Christian. According to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, he was fired for insubordination and poor judgment. And according to theNew York Times’s recent editorial, he was fired for speaking of his subordinates as “second-class citizens.” But the argument over the motive for Cochran’s firing and its effect on civil and religious liberties obscures a deeper disagreement over Christian conceptions of sin and the consequences of those ideas in a public work environment. More than a mere difference in theology, this disagreement has dramatic implications for pluralism. Continue Reading »
