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American democracy and rights

Although I have tried mightily, I cannot find much merit in the idea that there is a "party of death" at work in American politics. It seems to me that this formulation states the problem wrongly. Indeed, our biotechnological enthusiasts are nothing if not partisans of life, infinitely . . . . Continue Reading »

W.B. Yeats: Protestant

In my blog on Bobby Kennedy , I know I made one mistake, and at least two readers have written the editors (not me) to allege that I made another one, "a terrible error." The mistake I know I made was to give the wrong name to the great little journal of the Methodist Church, edited by . . . . Continue Reading »

Principle of Equal Importance

I would like to concur with Wesley J. Smith’s hope that talk about equality will be a saving grace in our public discourse by providing a basis on which virtually everyone can agree, but I think that there is little basis for this hope. The reason that virtually everyone agrees on a principle . . . . Continue Reading »

Material continuity in the resurrection

(This post was written by Robert P. George and Patrick Lee) We are grateful to Stephen Barr for his comments on our recent posting in which we say that the "reassembly" conception of the Jewish and Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body is most probable. We described that . . . . Continue Reading »

Universal human equality

My First Things blog post asserting that the widespread belief in universal human equality could be a potentially saving grace in the cultural controversies of our time has generated a lot of comment, for which I thank my correspondents. Based on what people are telling me, I think there has been . . . . Continue Reading »

Fr. Fred Dailey and homosexuality

Catholic blogger Gerald Augustinus of Closed Cafeteria links to this ABC story about Fred Dailey, 59, a Catholic priest in Utica, New York, who had been scheduled to head a Catholic Relief Services mission in Lesotho: "On July 18, Daley was suddenly withdrawn from his mission to Lesotho by its . . . . Continue Reading »

Christian morality, torture, and embryos

It hasn’t received that much coverage over here, but a recent Guardian editorial raised the possibility that the intelligence used to break up the terror plot in London was obtained, at least in part, by Pakistani torturers. This has already led some anti-torture voices to call into question . . . . Continue Reading »

Equality-of-life ethics

Regarding Michael Novak’s post about Heather Mac Donald’s discomfort with talk of God: I too have grappled intellectually with how to analyze crucial concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, in a society that seems so pluralistic morally that it frequently appears not to be a true . . . . Continue Reading »

George Soros and Ned Lamont

The ancient Roman sage Seneca recounts a popular insight: "You’ve as many enemies as you’ve slaves." People are not automatically antagonistic and resentful, but the arrogance, indifference, and cruelty of the powerful can make them so. Modern American liberalism has tended to . . . . Continue Reading »

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