Topics

Symposium on Catholics & American Political Life

PART I

The time is ripe to reconsider the trajectory of our nation, and how Catholics fit into it. To that end, we asked thinkers of different stripes four questions.

The Rise & Fall of the Human Life Amendment

THE END OF ROE & THE REIGN OF DOBBS

Paul James Macrae

Dobbs was the triumph of the “states’ rights” approach to abortion, an approach that never had the consensus backing of the pro-life movement.

Meet the New Puritans, Same as the Old Puritans

Alex Pinelli

How long can an ideology last when it is based on the demonization of entire sections of the population and on making oneself miserable in the process?

A Requiem for Old Rosy

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

Rosecrans had a reputation as a vocal Catholic with an aggressive evangelizing impulse. He kneeled alongside his soldiers at Mass, and regularly prayed the Rosary.

Merchants of Casual Sin

AMERICA'S DISCONNECT FROM REALITY

Jason M. Morgan

Oprah and the age of casual sinning she embodied, coupled with therapeutic celebrations of the same, must be met with a heavy dose of hard reality.

America’s Two Favorite Pastimes

GUEST COLUMN

Jeffrey Wald

Rather than spend even a second worrying about World War III, wouldn’t that second be better spent playing ball with my boys in the backyard?

Are We Weimar?

AMERICA'S BIRTH DEARTH

Pieter Vree

Abortion rates are sky high. Birth rates are at rock bottom. Americans are rejecting parenthood on a scale not seen before. What does this mean for our nation's future?

The Gospel of Greed

Barbara E. Rose

What began as a removal of religious questions from the public square morphed into a draining of religion and practically all virtue from Americans’ purview.

America’s Deposit of Faith

FOUR LITERARY EVANGELISTS

Will Hoyt

Hawthorne, Thoreau, Melville, and Dickinson together comprise a reliable foundation for realist biases that are fully in line with the Platonic-Augustinian tradition.

Reply from an American to a “Letter from an American”

DOES THE LADY KNOW WHAT SHE’S TALKING ABOUT?

D.D. Desjardins

Abortion was a crime in the extant states in 1868 and in the territories that became states after 1868 and the District of Columbia. Yet later, Roe was called “settled law”?

The Exalted & the Despised

CRAZED DISUNITY

Jason M. Morgan

Old categories of class, politics, and education have given way to a deep-down hatred for one another that traditional social sets can no longer begin to explain.

...And Justice for Some

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Catholic monuments, Catholic buildings, and Catholics themselves will continue to be attacked but the attackers have little to fear from the law.

The Cult of the Imperial Self

A VISIT TO NEW BABYLON

Robert McTeigue

In Catholic worship, the truth of God and man is revealed. The revelation takes root in only those who harmonize themselves within the hierarchy of God and man.

The Woke Ethic & the Spirit of Protestantism

ON FERVENT & MANIC BUSYBODIES

Pieter Vree

The woke project, like much of Protestantism, is led by a self-selected group of “the Elect” who see themselves as arbiters of excellence in moral matters.

The Native American Martyrs of Syracuse

A WITNESS THAT SHOULD NOT BE LOST

Ann O’Connor† & Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

Jesuit missionaries left reports on the martyrdoms of many Native American converts to Catholicism. Not one has been canonized.

Terms of Service: A Discussion of Social-Media Subterfuge & Death-Dealing Democracy

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION TO CORRUPTION

Pieter Vree & Jason M. Morgan

Our morally bankrupt political leaders lie for a living and call it the “fact-checked” truth.

Are Catholics the New WASPs?

COMPLETE ENCULTURATION

Casey Chalk

For many, Catholicism as a religion has become irrelevant as they have capitulated to secular American culture, as did WASPs in the mainline Protestant denominations.

When the Secular Saints Go Marxing In

REVOLUTION WITHOUT END

Jason M. Morgan

Some call on "the American way of life" as a bulwark. But the American way of life is whatever the latest and strongest revolutionary says it is.

Is America Under Divine Interdict?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

John Paul II wrote of political superpowers that all-consuming pursuit of profit and power are “forms of modern imperialism” and “real forms of idolatry.”

Behemoth Goes Back to Bed

A SHORT STORY

Jeffrey Wald

An enormous fat cat, reminiscent of a miniature hippopotamus, strolled the sidewalk. It had been decades since he’d been out. Some things were different...

Christians at the End of the Pax Americana

FROM A WARFARE STATE TO A WELFARE STATE

Robert McTeigue

With the welfare/warfare state, one may wonder: which came first? They are both features of empires, especially in the latter stages of an empire’s lifecycle.

After Dobbs: What’s Next?

PROCLAIMING TRUTH ABOUT JUSTICE & LOVE

James G. Hanink

Our shared vocation as Christians is showing our neighbors that destroying preborn babies cannot be an act of justice, much less of love.

An Apologia for Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet

THE BLACK-ROBED DEFENDER OF NATIVE AMERICANS

Clement Anthony Mulloy

Though the Indians held the Black Robes in high regard, one -- above all others -- gained the respect and trust of the Native tribes.

‘Tis Pity We’re All Whores

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

If we want our dignity — and our freedom of speech — back, then we have only to stop giving it away to the Internet.

Is America Rooted in Exodus?

Preston R. Simpson

Kass describes three key components in the formation of the Israelite nation: their deliverance from slavery, the covenant and Law, and the Tabernacle.

Revolt of the Ultra-Elites

ONE-PERCENTERS, COURTIERS, MAGICIANS & MINIONS

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

The most important impediment to domination by wealthy oligarchs is tradition, including American nationalism and Christianity.

Judeo-Christian Westernism: An Impossible Triangulation

Jason M. Morgan

The conceit of the Enlightenment was that we could have the good of Christendom without the Church. “Judeo-Christian Westernism” assumes this.

An American Hodgepodge of Religious Kookery

Jason M. Morgan

The temptation to be religiously promiscuous is simply how Protestantism works. Once the individual is the axis, the whole world takes the shape of the ego exalted.

Integralism: A New Totalitarianism?

WEATHER ADVISORY

Will Hoyt

The “third way” promoted by integralists features a mindset that can be every bit as anti-Christian as the mindset that governs cultural revolutionaries.

Did the Church Reverse Course on Americanism?

Casey Chalk

The condemnation of Americanism is a condemnation of the proposal that America’s peculiar political experiment should be normative for all nations.

The Eucharistic Theology of Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians

THE AMERICAN CHURCH’S GREATEST CRISIS

Monica Migliorino Miller

Now it is pro-abortion Catholic politicians who are teaching the bishops the meaning of the Eucharist, something as absurd as it is unprecedented.

Re-evaluating the Church’s Approach to Nuclear Weapons

TWO CHEERS FOR DETERRENCE

Andrew Latham

Deterrence advocates acknowledge the intrinsic balefulness of war but argue nonetheless that the possibility of war is ever-present.

Ministers of the Ecclesiae Mediae

THE PUBLIC SQUARE IS NOT NAKED BUT CLOTHED BY 'WOKE' IDEOLOGY

Casey Chalk

The public square is not naked but clothed by the “woke” ideology of our bourgeois liberal elites. It has its own "church" that pronounces on orthodoxy and heresy.

Moving Beyond Nuclear Pro-Choice

DETERRENCE IS MORALLY UNACCEPTABLE IN ITS VERY FOUNDATION

Julianne Wiley

The fact that some arguments against strategic nuclear deterrence are faulty does not permit the conclusion that there are no compelling moral arguments against it.

World on FIRE

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

The FIRE strategy -- which stands for financial independence, retire early -- doesn’t alter the debt-peonage economy; it just carves out exceptions for a select few.

A Perfect Media Maelstrom

VIRTUAL TORNADO LEAVES 160 DEAD

Eric Brende

The Joplin tornado of May 2011 showed the populace had come to rely on media in place of their own eyeballs for weather reports.

Conservatism at the Crossroads

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

The American founders followed Plato and Aristotle in acknowledging man’s inclination to consolidate power, indulge his passions, and oppress his fellowman.

The Root Causes of the Dislocation of Our Times

MASS MAN & THE LOSS OF COMMON SENSE

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

The masses are more and more prone to lies, which they buy willingly for the sake of having a rock on which to stand amid the shifting cultural sands.

All the World Is Staged

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

Most of us probably spend more time each day looking at screens than at anything, or anyone, else. Our thinking is curdled out of online scenarios.

Should Christians Pay Reparations for Racial Injustices?

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

The Church can engage in the work of racial reparations, but only while placing the project within a broader moral framework.

Why the Modern Democratic State Needs Abortable Children

THE FETUS AS HOMO SACER — PART II

Jason M. Morgan

Liberalism is, in its essence, universal sovereignty premised on the expendability of life inside the individual’s sovereign domain.

A Manifesto for 2021

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

As always, when contemplating the political order, we should keep in mind the psalmist’s exhortation: “Put not your trust in princes.”

Why Conservative Justices Run Interference for Liberal Causes

THE CONSTITUTIONAL FLAW IN THE CONSERVATIVE MIND

Edwin Dyga

The conservative disposition, forever disinclined to learn from the Left's successful strategies, is handicapped in the culture war.

Re-emergence in a Surprising Field

REBIRTH OF AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY — PART II

Lewis M. Andrews

The mental-health professions in recent years have changed their opinion of religion and now regard faith as a reliable predictor of well-being.

How the West Was Lost

GUEST COLUMN

Michael Wisniewski

How did Catholics by the millions enlist to serve their nation a few generations ago, and yet today there are hardly enough to serve at the altar?

Lives That Don’t Matter

GUEST COLUMN

Ewa Thompson

A popular children’s book remains on the 'Teachers’ Top 100 Books' list although its ostensible aim appears to be to denigrate Polish Americans.

Religious Persecution Is Rising. Do Catholics Care?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

Our struggles in the U.S. are a far cry from the hard persecution that our coreligionists elsewhere in the world face on a routine basis.

The Practical Application of Christian Ethics According to America’s Early College Presidents

REBIRTH OF AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY — PART I

Lewis M. Andrews

They represented a variety of denominations but expressed a remarkably similar prescription for living spiritually in the wider world.

The Fires This Time

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

July was a cruel month for attacks on Catholic churches. But the mother of them all wasn’t an act of destruction; it was an act of desecration, a hostile takeover of a former Catholic cathedral.

The Catholic Church in the Crosshairs

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

It is a cruel irony that, in less than a century, Catholics have gone from being victimized as unwelcome immigrants to being widely perceived as racist victimizers.

Churchmen in Antebellum Dixie

Jerry D. Salyer

Scrutinizing bishops for not siding with abolitionists involves a failure to realize that abolitionism was associated with violence and lawlessness.

Quackery Reducks: A Discussion of Spiritual Consumerism in Post-Christian America

FRIENDLY GHOSTS, KARMIC REVENGE FANTASIES & COSMIC HAMSTER WHEELS

Pieter Vree & Jason M. Morgan

People today are perhaps more gullible than at any time in history and likely to believe just about anything.

Countering the COVID-19 'Expert' Narrative

INDUCED PANIC HAS CRUSHED LIVELIHOODS & LIBERTIES

Michael S. Rose

Shuttered churches, depression-level unemployment, tracking devices, drone surveillance, civilian snitching— is this really how we want to live?

The Golden Age of Quackery

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

The West's turning away from Faith and the sacraments has opened a void we now try to fill with whatever hucksters come up with next.

The Deepest Bias of the American People?

CATHOLICISM: A CULTURE WITH NO CASH VALUE

Thomas Storck

Catholicism is a 'general culture' that inculcates a way of life and encompasses a whole realm of unspoken and spontaneous things in daily life.

Sign-Stealing of the Times

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

The Astros' systematic cheating vitiated the sanctity not only of the game of baseball but a core feature of American identity.

“Love” Conquers All

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

What a crazy, mixed-up world we live in where even polygamists claim their lifestyles are part of their 'identity' and who they were created to be.

Did William Shakespeare Predict Donald Trump?

Kenneth Colston

Contemporary scholars are so anti-religious, or a-religious, that they block out the huge role religion played in the past.

Progressivism’s Bastardization of Science

Terry Scambray

When elites ignore the sublime Judeo-Christian doctrine that each individual is made in the image of God, then scientism and cults like eugenics flourish.

Conservatism: The God That Failed

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

Conservatism claims to respect the Church, to have regard for God, but it reduces the Church and remolds God as a supporting figure.

The Things They Auctioned

GUEST COLUMN

John Lyon

In our striving, we men have decided to separate in function things we have found functioning together in “nature,” in “the way things are.”

Post-Truth, Climate Change & the Catholic University

WHY DO PEOPLE REJECT THE SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS?

A. James McAdams

As the earth was created before man, Pope Francis advises, man is obliged to treat the earth in a manner that is “caring, protecting, overseeing, and preserving.”

America’s Linguistic Revolution

NOTES FROM THE WORD CEMETERY

Frederick W. Marks

Where do we stand in relation to George Washington’s claim that godlessness leads to immorality, and immorality to a breakdown in democratic governance?

Why I’ve Tuned Out National Public Radio

ON THE WORSHIP OF THE MOLOCH OF EQUALITY

John Lyon

NPR’s programming has drifted downward and to the Left: the expectable, inevitable, massive movement of most institutions in a democracy.

You Can Say That?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

China could well be poised to inherit the earth that the U.S. once commanded — especially if our comparative student bodies are any indication.

The Final Journey of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America & the Birthplace of St. Catherine Tekakwitha

PRELUDES & POINTS — PART II

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

The missionaries' love enabled them to long for martyrdom for the salvation of souls.

The Myth of Meritocracy

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

A meritocracy fits America’s sense of itself as free from the class-based social structures that defined the European countries from which our predecessors fled.

On the Trail of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America & St. Catherine Tekakwitha

PRELUDES & POINTS — PART I

Richard Upsher Smith Jr.

Historians have to “get inside” their subjects if they are to understand and represent them well. 2,845 miles' worth of investigations are reported here.

“Raising Awareness”: Reducing Philanthropy to Vanity

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

There is something very particularly American about "raising awareness": it is democratic, in seeking to sway public opinion; it is optimistic; it is evangelical and yet post-Christian.

By the Lakes of Babylon

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

Fr. Hesburgh proved to be a perfect avatar for the Notre Dame he created: an endorser of some kind of vaguely conceived “natural religion.”

Finding Security Behind Closed Doors

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

The sexbot is a tool that uses us and mocks our weakness. It is a vision of Hell: inhuman, ruthless, mendacious, comfortless, and cold.

I Am Not White

WHAT CONSTITUTES CULTURE?

Thomas Storck

Public discourse remains limited to material concerns, but what really differentiates human beings is culture, which is founded on religion.

Why American Politics Marginalizes Catholic Voters

SEARCHING FOR A CATHOLIC THEO-POLITICAL CONSENSUS

Kenneth Colston

American Catholics must be careful not to be more American than Catholic, especially since American politics is essentially Protestant.

The Weight of Anchises

WHAT DOES PIETAS REQUIRE?

Jake Neu

A descendant of the South asks: How do we properly reckon with our own families’ participation in historical racial injustice?

Briefly: September 2018

Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality... The Maternal Face of God?: Explorations in Catholic Sophiology... Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion... An Introduction to Ethics: A Natural Law Approach

The Politics of Suicide in Post-Christian America

GUEST COLUMN

Amir Azarvan

There's a direct link between changes in theistic belief and suicide rates. "Disbelief can be deadly" is one way to put it.

Who Really Won the Civil War?

A HOUSE DEEPLY DIVIDED

Stanley T. Grip Jr.

The Civil War remains a benchmark of contemporary issues and controversies; it raises questions of right and wrong, good and evil.

Losing Our Religion

Distinctions between Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Episcopalian carry less and less import to today's Protestants, as "nondenominationalism" and "none of the above" become more common responses on U.S. religion surveys.

They're Coming for Our Children

American Christians take pride in the "religious freedom" we think we enjoy. But rights regarding even our own children can evaporate into the mist.

American Libidocracy

OUR NATIONAL EXPERIMENT IN POLITICAL SCHIZOPHRENIA

John Lyon

When faith is restricted to "personal" matters, it becomes socially retrograde and politically irrelevant, the possession of civil idiots.

The News You May Have Missed

READ ALL ABOUT IT...

Put Not Your Trust in…Priests?... "I Believe in God the [redacted] Almighty"... Papal Peronista?... Scriptural Trans*lation... Veggie Bomb... A Tax on Both Your Houses... Mr. & Mr. Claus... Nintendo Dependency... and more

Is Football Past Its Prime?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA'S "GREATEST GAME"

Casey Chalk

The game diminishes the intrinsic worth of its participants, whose bodies, brains, and even lives are considered expendable.

Was Trump's Election Divinely Ordained?

APOCALYPTICISM & THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Christopher Gawley

If God accomplishes an amazing feat through someone less than holy, the temptation exists to whitewash the vice in that actor.

Twilight of the Idols

Confederate monuments are coming down, as they ought. But once begun, where will it end? Where race in America is concerned, reason and real history have been superseded by sentimentalism and reaction — on all sides.

The Most Segregated Hour

DOES ECCLESIAL CONSUMERISM LEAD TO RACIAL DIVISION ?

Bryan Cross

Could the continued separation of Christians into like-minded, like-colored pockets, or "bubbles," be a factor in racial inequality, racial tension, and overall injustice?

The New Tower of Babel

SOLDIERS FOR THE BRAVE NEW WORLD ORDER

John Martin

Washington let it be known that if the states would but ask to be enrolled in the Common Core plan, billions of dollars in stimulus money would be theirs.

To Die from Having Lived

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #46

Mitchell Kalpakgian

It is to have performed the obligations of one's vocation, to have used one's gifts and opportunities to give glory to God and serve others.

Eugenics in the USA: Black Life, White Justice

Justice Ginsburg, a powerful abortion advocate, has been working for 20 years to reduce those populations she doesn't "want to have too many of."

On Pilgrimage with Pope Francis

ESCHEWING SECURITY, HEADING FOR THE PERIPHERIES

Raymond T. Gawronski

Francis allows us to surrender all our preconceived notions in favor of a direct encounter with the Lord of history in the circumstances in which He has placed us.

Anarchists in Chicago

Terry Scambray

The dominant liberal-progressive historians of the past 100 years have "photoshopped" the Haymarket event into their picture of America as an intolerant plutocracy.

A Chronicle of Christendom's Decline

Frederick W. Marks

Historian Warren Carroll is, first and foremost, an eloquent exponent of Judeo-Christian values who puts character delineation front and center.

The Spirit of Democracy & the Threat of Elitism

A PARADOX THAT CANNOT BE OVERCOME

Robert Lowry Clinton

The progressive elites now governing have enacted policies in apparent disregard of public opinion and traditional American values and principles.

The Failure of Liberty

Christopher Zehnder

Ferrara shows how public recognition of the true religion is essential to a Christian order; thus, this order requires a certain intolerance of false religion.

The Orientalism of Barack Obama

GUEST COLUMN

Terry Scambray

Modern-day American "anti-colonialism" is composed mostly of neo-Marxism mixed with a smidgen of post-Victorian disillusionment.

Catholic Moment 2012

The path of explaining -- let alone implementing -- Catholic wisdom as applied to societal matters is a long and complicated one. It helps to have authentic lay Catholics in high offices.

The Black Hole of American Morality

ON FALLING INTO THE ABYSS

Carl Sundell

If the world was converted once, it can be converted again. The first time, only twelve Apostles and their disciples bravely managed to plant the seeds.

The Catholic Connection

DISPATCH FROM THE FRONT

Frederick W. Marks

If interreligious connectedness is not recognized and cherished at a time when religion itself is imperiled, we are in a bad way.

Finding the Truth in a Narrative of Lies

WHERE THE CONTRACEPTIVE IMPERATIVE TRUMPS ALL

Kenneth D. Whitehead

Catholic bishops have been depicted as wishing to push women back into the supposed servitude of the Dark Ages.

Occasions of Truth

Sustained national discussion of taboo topics like contraception and Planned Parenthood have yielded valuable 'teaching moments' and surprisingly countercultural essays in some mainstream venues.

The Culture War & the Catholic Church

THE CONTRACEPTION MANDATE IN CONTEXT

Tom Bethell

In the face of rising opposition, will the Church blossom, as John Paul predicted, or will she contract, as Benedict expects?

The Rush to Radical Informality

NOTES FROM A CULTURAL NO-MAN'S LAND

Frederick W. Marks

Some delight in radical informality because they see it as emblematic of the spirit of American democracy and the ‘virtue’ of tolerance.

The Perils of Promoting Personhood

DEEP-SIXED IN THE DEEP SOUTH

James T. McCafferty

Conspicuously absent from a coalition of pro-life advocates supporting a personhood amendment in Mississippi were the bishops of Jackson and Biloxi.

Saints for a Secular Nation

Secularism could be said to be our national religion, with its own pantheon of "saints," including the newly "canonized" Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and perfecter of the glowing handheld idol.

The Great Catholic Science Textbook Debate

CAN SCIENCE & PHILOSOPHY BE SEPARATED?

Murray S. Daw

Any approach to teaching science must begin with certain attitudes and assumptions about the nature of the world around us.

We're All Socialists Now

Edwin Dyga

The traditional left and mainstream right are in the same camp, usually competing over the externals of governance, not the real substance of policy.

The U.S. Catholic Church Is Sinking Fast -- Part III

The more Catholics enjoy the material and social comforts of mainstream America, it seems, the more they lose their faith.

Is Immigration Prolife?

THE ONLY STATE CLAIMING OUR ULTIMATE LOYALTY IS THE STATE OF GRACE

Kenneth G. Davis

Immigrants now make up about 20 percent of our seminarians and a majority of our Catholic youth.

To Make Catholics Fit Into America

Thomas Storck

Catholics can provide the best intellectual framework for the "American proposition," but subordinating the Church to a larger project is an error.

Catholic Voters: Play Hard to Get

GUEST COLUMN

Thomas Storck

Don't run to the Republicans who promise a lot and deliver next to nothing. Don't run to the Democrats who tell us to ignore the murder of the unborn.

Christianity & the Space Program

CREATING A 'NEW JERUSALEM' IN OUTER SPACE?

Lewis M. Andrews

The dawning era of extraterrestrial colonization has profound implications for organized religion and the spiritual orientation of popular culture.

Is the "Catholic Issue" Really Behind Us?

John C. Chalberg

If only a Catholic could run as a Catholic and be elected as a Catholic (and not deny his Catholicism as John Kennedy did in 1960), then Al Smith might stand redeemed.

Catholic History, Misconstrued

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

A problem arises when someone unfamiliar with Catholic history composes a study of eminent Catholics who lived under persecution.

When 'Faith-Sharing' Isn't

FAITH WITHOUT DOCTRINE IS NOT FAITH

Jeffrey Gordon

A Catholic high school teacher explains why a trendy (and mandated) exercise is really just an exercise in narcissistic self-indulgence.

American Catholics as Cultural Protestants

"WE USE MORE SULFURIC ACID THAN YOU"

Thomas Storck

Cardinal George said U.S. society "is the civil counterpart of a faith based on private interpretation of Scripture and private experience of God."

Our Mischievous Founding Fathers?

J. A. Gray

We believe that our system of government secures freedom of religion. But, says Craycraft, we are deluded.

Power, Money, Deals, Drugs & Bimbos

HOLLYWOOD ACCORDING TO THOSE IN THE KNOW

Wayne Lela

Neurotics, sexual libertines, and drug users exercise enormous influence over our children via the entertainment industry.

The Intellectual Battle over the Puritan Legacy

James J. Thompson Jr

The founders of Massachusetts believed, Miller says, “that ultimately all the world would imitate New England.”

America's Children Are in Jeopardy

CHILDHOOD BETRAYED — A PERSONALIST ANALYSIS

James G. Hanink

Suggesting that the very young, born or pre­born, are not persons is exclusivist. It makes the betrayal of children almost morally palatable.

Born in the U.S.A.

EDITORIAL

Let us not love America inordinately or unrealistically. It is enough to be Americans without also being vainglorious Americanists.

Can a Catholic Be a True American?

James J. Thompson Jr.

A Protestant need not fret about a clash between religion and culture; for him, the two have generally been inseparable.

The Continuing Irony of American History

A NIEBUHRIAN VIEW OF CARTER, REAGAN & THE NEW INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

Charles L. Garrettson III

Our past is neither as virtuous as our optimists think nor as vicious as our pessimists think. It consists, rather, of a mixture of comic and tragic elements.

The Obsolescence of Left & Right

ON THE EXHAUSTION OF THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

Christopher Lasch

The “crisis of modernity” remains unresolved by a “sham conservatism” that merely sanctions the unbridled pursuit of worldly success.

New South, Old Religion

SUN-BELT PARADOXES & EXCESSES

James J. Thompson Jr.

Is the South still the Bible Belt? Well, yes — but then, no, too: at least not in precisely the same way it used to be.

Is George Will Actually a (20th-century American) Liberal in Disguise?

THE STATE, TRADITION, COMMUNITY, AND CHARACTER-BUILDING

Charles L. Garrettson III

This Land is Not Our Land

James G. Hanink

Review of Confessions of a Parish Priest by Andrew Greeley, A Path From Rome by Anthony Kenny, and Catholic America by John Cogley

American Religion: Patriotic or Critical?

James J. Thompson Jr.

America is a formidable land in which to be in the world but not of it; its at­tractions are many and its lures seductive. The imperative for Christians lies in resistance.

After the Fall of Richmond, What?

James J. Thompson Jr.

For Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, and Walker Percy, neither tradition nor wealth-getting nor Protestantism answered the question of the meaning of existence. Their answer was in the Church.

Short-Term Thinking & the Decline in Values

THE REWARDS OF PATIENT CAPITAL

Norman Lear

We are controlled by numerical systems run amok — creating lists and statistics, SAT scores and Nielsen ratings, Gallup and Harris polls, and the fearsome “bottom line.”

Religion & Race in the South

James J. Thompson Jr.

In 1986 the Alabama legislature voted to observe the third Monday of each year in commemoration of both General Lee and Martin Luther King Jr.

The New Right & the Pro-life Movement: How Solid is the Marriage?

ON THE RIGHT WING’S “SEAMLESS GARMENT”

Stephen Settle

March for Life organizer Nellie Gray had little patience with those who would solicit pro-life support simply to boost the bomb, bolster corporate profits, or get fluoride out of the water.

Weakness Amid Strength: The Roman Catholic Paradox

HOW TO ENERGIZE A PASSIVE LAITY

John A. McDermott

We Catholics have nowhere near the influence that our numbers and organization would suggest. Man for man, woman for woman, the U.S. Catholic community has a surprisingly modest impact on American public life.

Thomas Merton on War, Gog & Magog

“ULTIMATELY THERE IS NO HUMANISM WITHOUT GOD”

David D. Cooper

Merton’s decision to get actively involved in a campaign to abolish war came at a time when Cold War tensions reached a flash point and atmospheric nuclear testing was increasing.

Cultural Analysis

David Courtwright

Dominant social classes and institutions now systematically encourage egotism, while discouraging forces that rein in the self, such as religion or traditional family life.

“Conservatism” in Europe

THE FUTURE OF AN IMPORTED WORLDVIEW

Thomas Molnar

The Right in Western Europe is the immediate heir to the pre-1945, even pre-1914, system of values which it keeps alive on the political/cultural landscape.

Struggling With Today’s Evils

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Elderly folks I once knew were proud of their indifference to the urban American world and its culture, its values and habits, of which they occasionally heard from their children.

Beyond the Mixing of Politics & Religion

WHEN WILL CHRISTIANS EMBODY WHAT THEY ADVOCATE?

William H. Willimon

Christians are not usually in politics on our own terms, from the unique standpoint of people who are trying to follow Jesus Christ.

The Sanctity of Life & the Right to Adequate Health Care

DETERIORATING HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA

John O’Connor

Infant mortality, life expectancy, and disability rates confirm that the poor and uninsured permanently suffer the consequences of our broken healthcare system.

Billy Graham to the Rescue?

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

I fantasize that some contemporary Nathan the Prophet might chat with the President, not about sins like adultery and murder but about social sins. I’m afraid a Catholic bishop would not be right for the part.

Christopher Lasch: A Fellow Traveler with Christianity?

James J. Thompson Jr.

Lasch’s views on feminism and environmentalism illustrate his expressed intention to transcend the political ideologies of both Left and Right.

Bruce Springsteen: American Working-Class Hero

GUEST COLUMN

Greg Erlandson

Springsteen describes a difficult, often lonely America, yet he is an idealist speaking of plain virtues — strength of will, hard work, generosity.

The Conflict Between Civil Piety & the Right to Life

THE RADICAL IMPLICATIONS OF BEING ANTI-ABORTION

Stephen Settle & John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe

America is in desperate need of hard love. Whether or not pro-lifers are adequate to the task of provid­ing it only they themselves can answer.

The Spiritual Life of Children — Part I

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

The mother of a child I was studying said, 'You ask our daughter about everything except God.' I was at a loss for words.

Diagnosing America’s Troubled Ethos & Culture

Dale Vree

The social basis of our culture is bureaucratic consumer capitalism centered on the autonomous individual and generally hostile to older ideas of moral order.

Hankering for a Civil Religion

Richard V. Pierard

Neuhaus’s plea for the restoration of religious values in the public sphere and for the believing community to act there on the basis of its beliefs is proper and necessary.

The Hero Without & Within

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

The usual categories we summon to describe people, to explain their motives and purposes, can be rendered utterly inadequate by particular moments of crisis.

The Two Minds of Modern Conservatism

DEBATING THE ROLE OF VIRTUE IN SOCIETY

Steven Hayward

The ultimate pitfall of classical liberalism is the annihilation of morality and the destruction of meaningful community life.

Idealism

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

How can experts sort solidly idealistic activists from those who would end up a source of trouble to themselves or to those meant to be helped?

Beyond the Reefs of Roast Beef

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Among the industrial nations of the West, only the U.S. has had no democratic socialist par­ty of national significance, nor a party to speak for the labor move­ment.

Journalism, Theology, & History

EDITORIAL

George William Rutler

Newspapers, confined to messages in black and white, often think in black and white and do not perceive true, profound traditionalism.

Fleeing from the Whore of Babylon

GROWING UP “ANTI-CATHOLIC”

James J. Thompson Jr.

Flesh-and-blood Cath­olics I met proved to be generous and kind people who had no desire to gobble up little Prot­estant boys.

Contemplating the Foolishness of Our Age

James J. Thompson Jr.

Polit­ical activists of every stripe distrust Percy, for none of them knows exactly where to peg him.

Can a Political Conservative Be a Christian?

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

James J. Thompson Jr.

The Christian conservative must not subsume his religion under his politics and thereby pervert a timeless Gospel into an ideological weapon.

On Pornography

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

How are we to protect our children from an entire culture become in so many instances obsessively, coyly, or blatantly pornographic?

The Passing of the Old-Timers

Michael Kerper

With their old anti-Stalinism gone because of Stalin’s death, the anger of many New York intellectuals was turned against Ameri­can society.

My Pilgrimage

COMING HOME TO THE CHURCH

Juli Loesch

When the Mass was trans­lated into English, I noticed right away how often it says “Peace”: it’s repeated over and over again, like a heartbeat, clear through.

Fundamentalism in Perspective

John E. Phelan Jr.

The theo­logical and social perspectives of the “New Right” were developed, challenged, and solidified for the most part within the Baptist culture of the South.