At the Intersection of Faith and Culture

Interestingly, in spite of the fact that our generation is probably as loquacious a generation as there has ever been, there is relatively little conversation to be found in it.  We are a chatty people, to be sure, but we are not conversable.  Unfortunately, however, it seems that the more communicative we become, the rarer…

The Republican Party against which the American voter cast his vote in ’06 and ’08 is the party of George W. Bush, the party of “Compassionate Conservatism.”  It is incumbent upon Republicans generally, and the next Republican presidential candidate specifically, to account for why a vote for the Republican presidential challenger in 2012 will not…

Over the last couple of weeks, many on the right have complained about President Obama’s lack of “leadership” vis-à-vis the current world scene.  Just the other night, while I was on the phone with him, a good friend of mine reiterated this position, what has now become a refrain among Republicans.  My response came as…

Now that he has successfully defended his thesis, a good friend of mine is scurrying to make final revisions so that his advisor can sign off on it.  Although considerations of race and gender seem to be conspicuously irrelevant to his project—a relatively radical exposition of the Genesis creation accounts in which he argues against…

For quite a while, I contemplated opening an account with facebook.  A few months ago, I set aside what reservations I entertained and decided to go for it. Admittedly, neither the desire to “reconnect” with old acquaintances nor any other such sympathetic desire figured at all in helping me arrive at my decision.  Rather, I…

For quite some time now, such representatives of the conservative movement as, say, Rush Limbaugh, have charged the environmentalist left with insincerity.  Far from having a genuine concern for the environment, as he claims, the environmentalist is motivated, rather, by a desire to assume unto himself as much power as possible, the power, that is,…

Recently, the pastor of my church—a priest who I love and who my wife and I requested to marry us—gave a homily on the relationship between “justice” and “charity.”  Sadly, this sermon supplied none of the inspiration of which his other sermons were ridden. This, though, isn’t to say that it wasn’t provocative; unfortunately, however,…

While on his campaign trail for the presidency, Barack Obama talked to no end about the “change” that would visit upon America, a change so profound, so sweeping, that it would “fundamentally transform” America.  To understand the implications of this, we would do ourselves a good turn to subject the concept of “change” to philosophical…

The standard argument against abortion relies upon the language of “rights”: All human beings have a “right to life,” the unborn is a human being, thus, the unborn have a “right to life.”  For at least two reasons, this argument fails to perform the task to which it has been assigned. First, the notion of…

The “revolution” that began in Egypt and that is now spreading across the Middle East has many a Westerner, and even more Americans, smiling.  Those who supported President Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” are now crediting the former visionary for setting in motion the domino effect that, they are convinced, promises to bring “Democracy” to the Islamic…

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