The Narthex

Even the so-called best of our modern schools offer suboptimal conditions for boys. Warren Farrell and John Gray's The Boy Crisis (2019) substantially treats the topic, as does the older War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers (2015). We all experience manifestations of the boy crisis in our daily lives…

In the early church, reports of Christians healing the sick and raising the dead by prayer were accepted without skepticism or disbelief. In his five-volume series Against the Heresies, St. Irenaeus (c.130-220), Bishop of Lyons, writes, “Some persons that were dead have been raised again and have continued among us…

Former confidants of Hitler did not get out of Germany alive, but Hermann Rauschning did. He later published verbatim private conversations with Hitler between 1932 and 1935, revealing a strategy to gain control of America that would have astonished the Allies. The author’s intimate revelations of Hitler’s personality, describing his…

Another school shooting, but the same old debate follows. The blood of the slain and wounded children is not yet dry in the classrooms before pundits start to parrot the usual lines.

“It’s the guns!” cries the Left.

“It’s mental illness!” cries the Right.

I submit it’s the public schools.…

One of William Wordsworth's best poems is an ode with the somewhat daunting title Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. It's a reflection on the progress of human life from infancy to maturity. He thinks of children as natural believers, born with an inherent sense of awe at…

The press is repeating Bishop (and now Cardinal-elect) Robert McElroy’s charge that excluding Catholic politicians from Communion is wrongheaded. “It will bring tremendously destructive consequences” he writes, and politics is to blame. “The Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare.” McElroy also points to the…

The need for sacrifice exists in every theater of nature. Life cannot exist and persist without some sacrifice of its components. Stars explode in supernovas to provide gaseous dust and minerals for newborn stars and their offspring in planetary systems. A forest's fallen timbers donate their substance to newly sprouting…

Edmund Burke described society as “a partnership... between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Conservatives feel this keenly, believing they have obligations to generations past and to come. Enemies of conservatism, often driven by deep resentment of traditional values, prefer to…

Over at The Federalist, author Joy Pullmann's article "The Left Has Effectively Banned Christian Kids From Public Pools, Libraries, And Summer Camps" paints a picture of what beleaguered Christian parents have to look forward to this summer (May 23). Pullmann's description of interactions with formerly benign groups like 4-H leaves…

Anthony the Great, known as the father and founder of monasticism, fled to the Egyptian desert in AD 270 at 19 years old. He chose to live as an extreme ascetic, renouncing all pleasure of the senses from rich foods, sex, bathing, and anything tempting his flesh to take its…

Last week I visited a homeless encampment. Ted Hayes, a veteran advocate for the homeless in Los Angeles, gave me a friendly walk-through tour. Located close to Venice Beach, the camp was clean and orderly. Ted had invited candidates in California’s upcoming primary election to speak briefly to the question…

A new military weapon is now revolutionizing warfare as did the machine gun and the atomic bomb. Miniature killer drones are inexpensive, more efficient, and silently effective compared to guided missiles that cost 20 times as much. This is not futuristic fiction. The Army is now in Phase III development…

Last summer I reviewed an important book about the eugenics movement of 100 years ago, and the subject bears repeating. The book is Mark H. Sutherland's Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor, and the Scottish doctor who fought against it. A link…

Men and women are not biologically equal in function and physique. But the extreme liberal camp has promoted that baseless notion, insisting the sexes are interchangeable. Women are not physiologically built like men, as the task of raising the young requires specific biological and…

The Nakagin building in downtown Tokyo is a hideous monstrosity. I have seen it with my own eyes many times. It is one of the most offensive and repulsive structures I have ever known. When the Nakagin was built in the early 1970s, however, it was hailed as an idea…