Our son Chippy enters 7th grade this year. In fact, at this very moment he is attending summer band camp at the Frost Middle School in Fairfax, VA where he will start his classes in September. He tells me that he “needs” a cell phone because “all his friends” have one. I say, “Forget it, … Read more
Year: 2010
Why Do Kids Have Cell Phones?
Our son Chippy enters 7th grade this year. In fact, at this very moment he is attending summer band camp at the Frost Middle School in Fairfax, VA where he will start his classes in September. He tells me that he “needs” a cell phone because “all his friends” have one. I say, “Forget it, … Read more
American Apparel’s misogyny getting more attention
Emma Silvers, an editorial fellow at Salon, has finally seen the light on popular hipster store American Apparel. Now the largest clothing manufacturer in the U.S., American Apparel opened in 2003 in Los Angeles after a short stint as a wholesale T-shirt supplier. Within two years, it had 53 retails stores in five countries. Its … Read more
How My First Catholic Mentors Taught Me Spirituality
When I arrived at Emory University for my doctoral studies in 1974, I had just finished three years at Princeton Theological Seminary as an aspiring Southern Baptist minister. Despite being a Southern Baptist from Texas, and having pursued Reformation studies — Calvin, Luther, and the Anabaptists — at Princeton, I was more than just intellectually … Read more
The Myth of Pope Joan
The Myth of Pope Joan Alain Boureau, translated by Lydia Cochrane, University of Chicago Press, 2001, 385 pages, $60 Pope Joan is one of the most tenacious myths of the Middle Ages, told and retold by Catholics and anti-Catholics alike since the 13th century. It is said that beautiful young Joan, an Englishwoman born in … Read more
Abortion in Roman Britain?
It’s tempting to romanticize the ancients, but stories like this remind us why we should not. Archaeologists in central England have been reviewing a mass burial site of 97 infants on the property of a Roman villa, and have come to an awful conclusion: Archaeologist Dr Jill Eyers said: “The only explanation you keep coming … Read more
Home Is Not a Place
It was a cool fall day ten years ago when Dan, my husband, pulled our banged-up Volvo station wagon to the side of a country road and waved his hand toward the nearby woods. “This is it!” he beamed. I looked. I saw trees. “Here?” I questioned him. “Right here?” He pointed to … Read more
Friday with Wendell Berry
Rather than quote from the esteemed poet, essayist, farmer, and conservationist, I thought I’d post this short video of Wendell Berry at a talk in Arlington, Virginia, on May 4, 2010. The question posed to him related to our dependence on cheap oil. Let me know what you think. (Sorry, but they’re not allowing embeded … Read more
Friday Free-for-All
Time for your Friday morning links: In the Caritas Christi Health Care deal in Boston (where the Catholic hospital group was just sold to Cerberus Capital Management), how much is their Catholic identity worth? 3 percent of the purchase price. Pius XII just got a movie, and now John Paul II has… a musical? For … Read more
Curing Socratophobia: On Teaching the Great Books
Modern liberal Catholic colleges and universities have made a mockery of academic freedom, as the recent Marquette “controversy” reveals (see my analysis here and here). Unfortunately, in reaction to the modernism, relativism, careerism, atheism, skepticism, and political correctness of the typical “Catholic” educational institutions today, some of the more unapologetically orthodox Catholic colleges and universities … Read more
Godless Morality: Why Judeo-Christianity Is Necessary for Human Rights
“Europe will return to the Faith, or she will perish. The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith.” So wrote Hilaire Belloc in 1920, when the death of Christianity on the European continent appeared to loom over the horizon. Now that horizon seems to have been reached. A mere 21 percent of Europeans say … Read more
Theologian says there was no crucifixion
The Daily Telegraph reports that theologian Gunnar Samuelsson from Gothenburg University believes Jesus wasn’t nailed to a cross at all — his ‘crucifixion’ is based on artistic renderings and Christian tradition rather than actual antique texts: Mr Samuelsson, who has written a 400-page thesis after studying the original texts, said: “The problem is descriptions of … Read more
Adult stem cell therapy returns sight to blinded patients
To put it bluntly, this rules: Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells — a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday. The treatment worked completely in 82 … Read more
Chris Christie’s modest ambitions
I continue to be impressed with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. In a political age where every elected official covets the office above his, it’s nice to run across an exception. During a Fox Business Network interview yesterday, Christie — a rising star in the GOP — was asked if he had interest in the … Read more
Preparing for the Pope
It sounds like something that would at one time have been every British Catholic’s dream: The pope comes to England for a state visit; he is received by Her Majesty the Queen; he addresses members of Parliament in Westminster’s Great Hall, where St. Thomas More was tried four centuries earlier; and he celebrates a great … Read more
The pattern behind the Evangelical worship service
If you’ve ever been to a contemporary Evangelical church, you will love this good-natured satire. From the tattooed youth pastor to the worship leader/auteur, the filmmakers have absolutely nailed the Evangelical ‘liturgy.’ Enjoy:
Gotham’s Public Piano Project
While Pixar’s One Man Band still holds the (somewhat dubious) distinction of being my favorite Imaginative Busking Example Ever, this New York story is a worthy entry: On Monday morning, New York City added a new sound to its usual cacophony of honking cars and taxis, groaning buses, and screeching subways: 5,280 tinkling piano keys. In a collaboration … Read more
Let’s Pretend We’re Jesuits in China
Drawing crackpot connections between seemingly unrelated things is a key skill for a writer. Whatever is actually happening in the world, he can use it to prove a point about whatever he was thinking about already. Metaphysical poet John Donne took a flea that he squished with a fingernail and stretched it out as a … Read more
According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press/Smithsonian Magazine, 40% of Americans think Jesus will return to Earth by 2050. Telephone and online interviews were conducted with 1,546 adults this past April. The Daily Telegraph highlighted some of the other findings: By mid century, 71 per cent … Read more
According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press/Smithsonian Magazine, 40% of Americans think Jesus will return to Earth by 2050. Telephone and online interviews were conducted with 1,546 adults this past April. The Daily Telegraph highlighted some of the other findings: By mid century, 71 per cent … Read more