thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb This somewhat rambly first-person account repeats the familiar complaint that the vocational gatekeepers in most American dioceses aren’t looking for priests of integrity and orthodoxy, they’re looking for someone who’ll fit into their feminized and bureaucratic idea of FutureChurch: If You’re Not a ‘Nice Guy’…. In a section on “The Right Kind of Guy” … More ...
Condom promotion seems to have its limitations as a public health measure: more use correlates with more STDs. The result isn’t surprising. Nonjudgmental “safe sex” education says that sexual well-being is basically a matter of correct use of technology. The slightest attention to human experience would show that’s not so. If you want to … More ...
The notion that there really are differences between the sexes worth taking into account for reasons other than their more effective eradication seems to be creeping back into respectable discourse. The most recent example: a USA Today article confirming what I think most American men remember from childhood, the bias against boys in female-dominated elementary … More ...
Another multicultural data point from Vancouver: in addition to the throat slashings and whatnot among schoolchildren we’ve already commented on they’ve got the worst outbreak of syphilis in the developed world. The combination of immigration and casual sex, notably among homosexuals, has driven the incidence of syphilis up about 200-fold in the past 5 … More ...
At an American Catholic university it’s discriminatory and thus opposed to institutional purposes to treat Christian commitment as relevant to moral and social commitment. A pro-life club at Gonzaga University can’t receive official recognition as a student organization while restricting leadership positions to Christians. It’s just not done at Gonzaga, it seems, to treat Christianity … More ...
Merry Christmas!
From Turnabout
More questions from my Finnish correspondent, with responses:
… More ...Q: If the possession of property is necessary for development of responsibility and virtue, it seems reasonable to desire an extension of this possession to as many as possible. Why don’t American conservatives make more of that issue?
A: I think that the notion that government action
A Finnish correspondent sent me some questions about the current overall situation, where it’s likely to go, and what to do about it. I thought others might find them of interest, so here they are with my responses:
… More ...Q: How do we know that faith in the omnicompetence of technique will give way to anything
Computer simulations of artificial societies are leading to social science that seems illuminating, and conceivably might even be useful at some point. At least that’s what an account by Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic Monthly suggests. Some interesting results:
From Newman onward, the chief sensation many converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism have had when looking back at their old communion is amazement at its utter nothingness. Converts’ views aren’t always fair, but it does seem that the habitual accusations against a serious enterprise would involve something worse than general dottiness. An recent example: the … More ...