thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb The other side of sex, tolerance, democracy, autonomy and what-not: the Elks have to admit women, and if members make sexist remarks while discussing a particular application they can get stuck with stiff damages for emotional harm.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court decided that the Elks are a “public accommodation” because they have lots … More ...
People argue about whether Lawrence v. Texas will lead to “gay marriage.” How much does it matter if the existing legal treatment of marriage is accepted?
Traditionally, marriage drew its importance as a civil institution from the circumstance that it was the setting for legitimate sexual relations. Marriage therefore had to do with children—sex naturally … More ...
The European Syndrome takes hold in America: the U.S. birth rate has fallen to a record low, and over one-third of all births in the U.S. are now illegitimate. In spite of the demonstrable importance of the latter statistic, the reporter didn’t mention it until almost the end of the piece.
Philip Jenkins has written an interesting paper on the dodgy background of current scholarly images of Christ. Yesterday it was Madame Blavatskaya, today it’s Elaine Pagels. I had been inclined, in a broadbrush fashion, to view most current New Testament scholarship as a bunch of experts turning their predilections into expertise. Jenkins provides a … More ...
There is a paradox in the notion of ultimate goods. They set our goals and measure our actions, so we need to align ourselves with them if our life is to hang together. However, we can’t define what they are without diminishing them. To state them fully would be to subordinate them to what defines … More ...
It’s hard to keep people from believing what they want to believe. That’s especially true if the people are experts. After all, expert opinion defines what is true, that opinion is “expert” because of certain formal procedures and qualifications and coherence with the opinions of other experts, and a well-placed group can manipulate those things … More ...
A resource for those interested in the social science aspects of human relations: a Heritage Society backgrounder on Why Congress Should Ignore Radical Feminist Opposition to Marriage. It’s a discussion with lots of footnotes about the “social policy” aspects of marriage and feminist opposition to same.
From a well-known Catholic blogger: “Parish programs are supposed to be about strenghtening [sic] parishioners to live the gospel out in the world. That would, you would think, be the point of religious ed programs or liturgy committee meetings.” You hear such things all the time, and that was certainly the point of the … More ...
Free love continues its progress, in an undramatic way, with the judicial invalidation of the Missouri “alienation of affection” law. The legal question is simple: if Miss A takes up with Mr. B, and Mr. B leaves Mrs. B for Miss A, has Miss A injured Mrs. C in a way that can be legally … More ...
I just ran into Cardinal Medina’s letter from early last year rejecting the ICEL version of the Roman Missal. It’s an extraordinary document, both for the complaints about bureaucratic footdragging and for the substantive comments on the ICEL translation. It seems obvious from the latter that consciously or not ICEL had been treating the “dynamic … More ...