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From the NOR Dossiers
Last Things by David Mills
Last Things: June 2022
June 2022End-times mavens like to assign the meanings they want to cryptic or ambiguous Bible verses, and cherry-pick world events in the same way, to make political claims.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: April 2022
April 2022The bigot isn’t the man who thinks he’s right. Every sane man thinks he’s right. The bigot is the man who cannot understand how the other man came to be wrong.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: March 2022
March 2022Animals do all sorts of things we do not want people to do. Yet people say these behaviors are "natural" and, therefore, licit among humans.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: January-February 2022
January-February 2022What signs of distinction do Christians give? The signs must say not only, “We’re not one of you,” but “Come and see.” We’re not so good at those signs.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: December 2021
December 2021For my stand-alone Evangelical colleague, the true faith was what he said it was, no more, no less — whatever the rest of the Christian world said.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: November 2021
November 2021I make no claims to be someone who would kneel before the lions in the Colosseum. I pray I would, but no one knows how he’ll meet the test till he’s tested.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: October 2021
October 2021Catholic social teaching doesn’t map well on any of the usual political positions. It also leaves a lot to wisdom and prudence.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: September 2021
September 2021Who knows what experiences help make people one kind of person or another, and what little change might have made the villain a hero or the hero a villain.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: July-August 2021
July-August 2021“Don’t you fear dying?” a young woman asked me. I said I feared not dying. For her, death is the end of a life of pleasure. For me, it's the end of decline.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: May 2021
May 2021Catholicism offers so many material things that convey God's grace: holy water, candles, relics. What's eating a little holy dirt when you've found God through all those things?
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April 2021I enjoy what might be called “confessional tourism.” I’m fascinated by what confessors tell me, and so I tend to go to confession when I’m away from home.
VIEW ARTICLELast Things: March 2021
March 2021Politics gives us a lovely way to externalize our virtue. Or so we feel. The world encourages us to see our votes as acts in defense of light and against darkness.
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January-February 2021A scholar wrote to me that she fears for “the next generation of writers who grew up texting.” I think she's right, but only to a limited extent.
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December 2020It baffles me that self-consciously orthodox Catholics so blithely accuse Pope Francis of heresy. Catholic claims about the papacy, however qualified, are a high-wire act.
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September 2020Writing directly about what one knows, without trying to impress anyone, produces the most interesting and enjoyable writing.
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July-August 2020The passion for not masking has led to some Christians making ridiculous claims about Providence to justify not wearing one.
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June 2020The world does not like seriously religious people, like conservative rural white American Christians and like the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
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May 2020As I write, the local bishop has removed all the sacraments from the people and closed all the churches...
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March 2020Most Americans assume some people in power must be the good guys, people who can do something to fix things.
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