A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center studied the changing demographics of motherhood in the United States, examining data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the U.S. Census Bureau from 1990 to 2008. Mothers of newborns are now older, better educated, less likely to be white, and more likely to be … Read more
Friday is finally here, along with this morning’s link round-up: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a conference yesterday where she said she wants Catholics to “play a very major role” in immigration reform. Bill Maher on Christianity: “The problem with faith … is it kind of screws up your priorities. Your priorities shouldn’t be … Read more
Rising Road: A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America Sharon Davies, Oxford University Press, 352 pages, $27.95 In 1954, Hugo Black joined his fellow Supreme Court justices in outlawing racial segregation in American schools in the unanimous, landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education. There is, indeed, as Reinhold Niebuhr might put … Read more
Many readers of this blog also read First Things… or at least, would like to read it. Now you’ve got no excuse. The Anchoress is plugging a great deal today: a subscription to First Things for only $20. That’s half the regular price. The sale ends tomorrow, so be sure to check it out. That’s … Read more
They leave for different reasons. Some saw hypocrisy. Others were hurt by those in authority. Still more disagree with a Church teaching. Sometimes, all they’re waiting for is an invitation back. And often, it’s not the Catholic Church itself that the “fallen away” have a beef with but their particular experience of it. “Evangelize at … Read more
Spring means baseball, and spring plus kids means Little League. And since I’m the kind of guy who presses down with his feet to counteract airplane turbulence, for me spring plus kids means coaching Little League. It’s now my fourth child going through the system, and the sixth or so bunch of kids I have … Read more
…Father Rutler knew them. His collection of columns written for Crisis and InsideCatholic over the years on the famous (and not-so-famous) people he has known will be released next week by Scepter Publishers under the title, Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive. Father Rutler’s trademark thoughtfulness and bone-dry humor are … Read more
Maybe it’s the lingering effects of unaccustomed sun beating down on my fish-white neck all day yesterday as I tried to rototill a garden with my bare hands, as the bug-eyed little boy from next door snuck up behind me every time I hit my stride and shrieked, “KIN I TELL YOU SUMPIN’!!!!!!!” in my ear (what he wanted to … Read more
As many others have said, it’s impossible at this stage to know what the full impact of the Gulf oil spill will be. Some estimates say there may be as much as 200,000 gallons of oil bubbling up through the ocean per day. These waters are populated with endangered bluefin tuna and sperm whales, not … Read more
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) is at it again. For those not familiar with AGI, it is a $30-million-a-year research group based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Named for Alan Guttmacher, former president of Planned Parenthood, the mission of the organization is to “advance sexual and reproductive health” around the world. This makes … Read more
One of the things that has always fascinated me about baseball is the way it somehow manages to be ever-constant, yet also ever-changing. The general parameters of the game remain the same, so if I happened to stumble across ESPN Classic’s rebroadcast of Don Larsen’s shining moment, its connection to Mark Buehrle’s moment last year would be immediately recognizable. Yet … Read more
One thing we Catholics have known since almost the beginning: Most statements in the Bible can be misread, misapplied, and torn out of context to serve as the pretext for hysterical balderdash. Martin Luther famously used his private reading of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans to invent a whole new theology of salvation, … Read more
The weather isn’t the only thing that’s heating up down here on the border. As temperatures this week inch closer to the triple-digits, the repercussions of SB 1070 – Arizona’s tough new immigration law – continue to remain center stage. (If you haven’t read the law itself, the link above takes you there. Many people … Read more
A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday on Catholic opinions about the Vatican, the pope, and the abuse scandal is a mixed bag of results, as you might have expected. Laurie Goodstein summarizes some of the findings: A majority of Roman Catholics in the United States are critical of the way Pope Benedict XVI … Read more
A clergyman — an old friend, actually — remarked to me recently that he is inclined to view sin and hurt as synonymous. Such remarks arise, surely, from the wish to be compassionate. The idea would be that we mortals stagger along under such burdens and pains laid on us by heredity and environment that … Read more
The iPad is a technological phenomenon — a real game changer. I got mine in the mail a few days ago and was immediately impressed by its true portability: It’s a laptop replacement, no doubt about it. The basic genius of the device is that Apple has figured out the precise size, weight, and shape that … Read more
The iPad is a technological phenomenon — a real game changer. I got mine in the mail a few days ago and was immediately impressed by its true portability: It’s a laptop replacement, no doubt about it. The basic genius of the device is that Apple has figured out the precise size, weight, and shape that … Read more
This has got to win the IC prize for most heartwarming story of the week. It might even make Brian crack a smile (a benevolent one, not the evil grin he usually has going on). Seriously, this story’s so nice, it belongs on the Lifetime channel. Erik Martin, a 13-year-old boy living with liver cancer, … Read more
John McCain wants to appear tough on terror. Instead, he just looks like he’s never read the Constitution. Over at The Hill today, Michael O’Brien notes that McCain believes it would have been a “serious error” to read Miranda rights to Faisal Shahzad, the suspected Times Square car bomber. And while the years since 9/11 … Read more
The debate on the family is becoming increasingly politicized. Social conservatives propose federal programs to promote marriage and fatherhood and to enlist churches. Liberals respond that government does not belong in the family but then advocate federal programs of their own. Yet the more polarized the issues become the less willing we are to look … Read more