thoughts in and out of season
A few odds and ends run into on the web:
The feature of transnational institutions that will save us from the worst of their ambition to reconstruct us is their irredeemable inefficiency and corruption. It’s not something that will go away because of better management or appeals to abstract global ideals. Management is secondary, and generalized ideals are good fallbacks but can’t carry the … More ...
“Subsidiarity” is a basic concept of Catholic social teaching. according to which “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the … More ...
Longtime Catholic Workers Mark and Louise Zwick look back in puzzlement and sorrow: What Happened to the Tremendous Renewal Possibilities after the Second Vatican Council? They don’t really answer the question, except by going off on a ramble through post-60s history that ends in a harangue about Michael Novak, heartless capitalism, and John Allen as … More ...
Some Definitions
By using the terms “cult,†“occult,†and “New Age,†christians are in no way implying that the followers or leaders are necessarily evil or immoral people. It simply means that such groups seem to promote doctrine or practices which may be considered outside the realm of historic Christianity.
By its primary dictionary definition, … More ...
According to a generally thoughtful and well-informed conservative weblog, Power Line, a recent poll shows
… More ...“Americans believe by a 62 percent to 26 percent margin that American society ‘is generally fair and decent.’ This strikes me as a bit alarming. I’m pretty sure that such a survey taken 45 years ago, when I first
An issue that isn’t raised because public figures don’t understand it won’t get far in a media-drenched age. So an obvious problem for social conservatives is that the articulate classes don’t understand—at all—the issues they raise. Some possible reasons that come to mind:
Where the Polish Pope’s support for all international organizations has come out: U.N. Demands Poland Overturn Laws Against Abortion.
From the publishing company that gives us the New York Times and the state that gave us “gay marriage” as a constitutional right, lessons from the murder of Theo van Gogh: Madness in Holland. The richness of the text makes comment all but impossible.
An example of leftish puzzlement about religion and politics that’s more intelligent and well-meant than the sort of thing one sees in the New York Times:
… More ...The right question, I think, is not whether religion has an undue influence, but why it is that the current flourishing of religious faith has, for the first