The Narthex

Words from Ecclesiastes -- “Be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (xii.12) -- must occasionally spring to the mind of those who inflict “opinion pieces” upon innocent readers! But we are engaged in a mostly cold war against those who…

Does democracy need prophets? Yes, especially in a democracy like ours, because ours is in crisis. Distorted by a duopoly lusting for power, our political discourse has become a concatenation of cliches. And most of us seem to sleep through the affairs of state. The prophets we need, to be…

With Mother’s Day in the rear view mirror and fresh events crowding the daily “news” cycle, the controversy some retailers generated this year by offering women an “opt out” of Mother’s Day mailings and specials will likely soon be forgotten -- until it returns next year. I’ve tried to showcase…

Australia faces a possible constitutional change later this year when we shall be asked to approve The Voice, a modification to our foundational document that will not only formally recognize the first occupiers of our continent but establish a special body to represent their interests. Regardless of what position one…

The Tuesday after Easter, preparing to exit the Washington Metro at my usual stop, I waited for the car doors to open. My eye caught something red on the edge of the door, which extended downwards, even to a blotch on the floor. I’m not a biologist, but I think…

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a document in the last days before Easter, “On the Proper Disposition of Bodily Remains.” Its topic was what a Catholic should do with the postmortem remains of a human being. It's timely in this Easter period. The document was…

The Dawson Centre’s call for Colloquium papers includes the following statement: “School children are taught to believe that girls can be boys, that boys can be girls, and that grown-ups should be punished for denying it.” Someone subsequently asked me for evidence that any “grown-up” is ever actually penalized for…

One-time NOR blogger Dominick Sansone makes an apt and educative historical comparison in a recent article ("Weak Interventionism," The American Conservative, March 28) about America's proxy war in Ukraine. He first dispenses with the oft-repeated “appeasement” comparison between interwar Germany and present-day Russia, which has been the kneejerk reaction of…

An 18-year-old woman named Layla Jane was in the news recently with a heartbreaking story. Ms. Jane is suing Kaiser Permanente and another medical institution for performing a double mastectomy on her at the age of 13. (Her story has been covered by several national news organizations.) There was nothing…

Words mean something. Sadly, their overuse leaves them captive to clichés. Thus captive, they can be enlisted in all manner of nonsense. Two examples come to mind: accompaniment and discernment. Note that both of them have become suspiciously “churchy.” Let’s start with accompaniment. Rightly used, it means “being with” another…

George Orwell wrote, “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” It is a fine thing, in a 21st-century Western democracy, to be reminded that writers and journalists once thought like that, and acted accordingly. Now, by contrast,…

One of the definitions of topsy-turvy is the “inversion of the natural order.” This is what we are experiencing in our culture, from the top down. As a recent article by Victor Davis Hanson states, “the Establishment Is the Revolution” (see link below). It is not the protestor in the street…

U.S. conservatives are now able to openly voice criticism of Washington's continued pro-war stance in Ukraine -- able to openly voice meaning they can do so without being accused of being pro-Putin. The Overton window on discussing the Ukraine war has moved, making room for intelligent discussion and views that…

Good politics calls for building bridges and forming coalitions. The American Solidarity Party gets it. Here in California, as elsewhere, the powerbrokers, whether Democrat or Republican, have a vested interest in blocking new parties from getting ballot access. The “duopoly” has an effective strategy for shoring up the status quo.…

The cost of an uncomplicated birth, even for parents with employer-provided health insurance, has gotten way out of hand. The situation screams for proposed solutions, and so the leaders of two pro-life organizations have offered one. Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, and Kristen Day,…