“Who needs a God who suffers?” is just one of many discomforting questions God on Trial dares ask, intending to provoke and challenge believers and nonbelievers alike. The compelling and disturbing television drama, to be broadcast on PBS stations Sunday, November 9, is as powerful as . . . . Continue Reading »
Prosperity and success tend to relax the mind. After the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, free-market principles gained widespread support. For nearly three decades, most Americans experienced a long run of economic growth and widespread opportunity. Entire new industries emerged. Unprecedented . . . . Continue Reading »
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna vote Obama! It infuriates me that I can’t.One of the more remarkable things about the so-called single-issue vote controversy is that it’s been cast as a “Catholic” issue at all. The ironic, forehead-smacking, thing is that the bishops who are weighing . . . . Continue Reading »
One can argue that every presidential election is a “historic” election. But some are more historic than others. Daniel Henninger had a provocative column yesterday making a strong case that this one is a “tipping point” between America continuing as an entrepreneurial society or . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s easy to be gloomy these days. Financial markets convulse almost every day, and the general economic situation does not look good. Editorial writers predict the end of American capitalism. All this is taking place against the background of a long-running anxiety that America is somehow . . . . Continue Reading »
Prof. Timothy L. Fort has made a very interesting contribution to our understanding of the relationship between business and commerce in his recent book, Prophets, Profits, and Peace: The Positive Role of Business in Promoting Religious Tolerance . “Religion affects politics,” he writes. . . . . Continue Reading »
As I read David Lebedoff’s latest book, The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War , I began to think of George Orwell as a real-life Dr. Rieux, the hero of Camus’ The Plague , whose heroism suggests that it is possible to be a saint without believing in God. In support . . . . Continue Reading »
This week marks the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Russell Kirk. Kirk, who died in 1994, is best remembered for his role in helping to create the postwar conservative movement in America. His groundbreaking work, The Conservative Mind , received national attention when it was published in . . . . Continue Reading »
There is a definite risk in giving a book a title such as American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile . That’s the book I’m working on at present. I expect it will be out from Basic Books some time next spring. The title very deliberately aims at stealing some of the thunder, so to speak, . . . . Continue Reading »
We have a chronic problem in America with abstract words. We cannot do without them, since they are carriers of our highest ideals and aspirations: “justice,” “democracy,” “dignity,” “liberty.” But it is for precisely this reason that we should beware of them, and treat them as . . . . Continue Reading »
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