Conjuring images of the old American West is not hard to do: the empty plain and the big sky, the wagon train, cowboys versus Indians, the gold-crazed forty-niner or the oil baron, probably corrupt, in search of a financial bonanza. And of course we cannot forget the rugged individualist on . . . . Continue Reading »
As I write late on Thursday evening, some conservative Republican senators and representatives are opposing the Paulson bailout plan because they think that the government should not intervene in the market¯that it is better to let financial institutions that took risks that turned out badly . . . . Continue Reading »
The argument is that religious freedom is itself an achievement of religious freedom. Then too, protecting the rights of those with whom we disagree is in the self-interest of all. On most controverted issues in our public life, there is no stable majority, only ever shifting convergences and . . . . Continue Reading »
What is the theological significance of wealth and its production? The debate rages over this issue in American public life today. But the debate is not new. It is quite ancient, and it has only grown in complexity and precision in recent times.A particularly fruitful period of discourse occurred in . . . . Continue Reading »
People are basically good, right? It’s a truism drilled into us by any number of self-help books, magazines, talk-show hosts, and pop therapy. When, from time to time, people do terrible things to each other or themselves, we are assured that just the right combination of education, medication, . . . . Continue Reading »
After more than a year of nasty gurgling and stomach churning over sub-prime mortgages, the financial markets have recently shown themselves to be very, very sick. Normally sober folks with no investment in the media shock-a-day culture of endless hype have expressed frank worries. The current Wall . . . . Continue Reading »
This just in: It turns out that the problem with America’s Catholic bishops is that they’re not Protestants. Or so we can reasonably surmise from Amy Sullivan’s recent Time /CNN commentary on the plight of Catholic Democrats, titled “Does [Sen. Joseph] Biden have a Catholic . . . . Continue Reading »
At least since Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter in 1980, the question of religion in public life and, more specifically, the meaning of “the separation of church and state,” has surfaced in presidential elections. Sen. Obama has been working hard to overcome the perception that his party is . . . . Continue Reading »
I recently needed to track down a reference in a long out-of-print anthology called Humanism and America: Essays on the Outlook of Modern Civilization , published back in 1930. Having got my citation, I was going to return the book when I caught sight, in the table of contents, of a contribution . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not a heavy user of the Web. But sometimes I get a few odd words of an old song or fragments of a melody stuck in my head. I fire up the computer, go to YouTube, type this or that into the search field, and presto, I’m listening to a recording of a half-forgotten song that until only . . . . Continue Reading »
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