John Derbyshire, the popular writer for National Review Online , recently published a "self-interview" disclosing how and why he lost his faith . Generally, I would not comment on such a personal matter or criticize anyone’s internal struggles. But Derbyshire went further than just . . . . Continue Reading »
It is always encouraging to see episcopal leadership on the important questions of our day. Particularly heartening is the courage of those bishops who eschew the lie of the naked public square. Catholic archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, New Jersey, is one of these Christian leaders. And in . . . . Continue Reading »
Evangelicals have never forgotten, and for good reason they have never forgotten, that Washington Post story of a few years ago that described them as “poor, uneducated, and easily led.” The Post apologized for it, sort of, but the sentiment lives on in large sectors of the commenting . . . . Continue Reading »
It begins in earnest when the viewbooks start to come in the mail. Mounds of them, innumerable quantities of them, each demanding to be read: Middlebury, Yale, Rice, Macalester, Brown, the University of Rochester, Upper Saginaw Creek Community College, St. Scholastica’s Reformatory for . . . . Continue Reading »
Those sixteen words have taken a terrible beating in the past fifty years. For most of our history, they occasioned little controversy. That was when our culture and our polity seemed to be on more or less amicable terms. There are several possible datings of the change, but I think we can settle . . . . Continue Reading »
Lewis Carroll anticipated the word games that demagogues play when he had Humpty Dumpty say, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” There are a lot of Humpty Dumptys around in our time, turning words inside out to turn the moral order upside . . . . Continue Reading »
Midterm congressional elections in the United States are barely two weeks away, and all the polls I’ve read (as here ) predict a severe rout for the Republicans, largely because of the chaos in Iraq. In the lead-up to the U.S.-led invasion, I recall two columns by the New York Times columnist . . . . Continue Reading »
A small price that I have paid for the privilege of writing book reviews for First Things is that I have ended up reading four of Richard Dawkins’ books. That is more than anyone should have to read, for though Dawkins writes extremely well, his repertoire of ideas is quite limited. Indeed, . . . . Continue Reading »
From the "I can’t believe my eyes and ears" file:A group called Majority Action ¯which describes itself as being "led by veteran Democratic activists and [having] a leadership board that consists of prominent political figures, including several former Members of Congress, . . . . Continue Reading »
“So,” asked Father Neuhaus, “why don’t they take out an ad in First Things ?” I explained that the deadline for applications is November 15, and I had just found out about it, and it wouldn’t do any good to have an ad in the December issue. Father looked . . . . Continue Reading »
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