As I write this, Sen. John McCain is edging closer to Sen. Barack Obama in the national polls. Whether this will translate into enough votes to win battleground states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio is still a long shot. But whatever happens on November 4, a major shake-up in the GOP is a certainty. Dana … Read more
Jesus famously said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you as well.” Elsewhere, He restated this principle using a different image and adding a negative corollary: Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more … Read more
As angry as many people were about the bailout of Wall Street, something else makes people just about as angry: falling stock prices. It is probably for this reason that Washington decided to take the risk and push one of the more outrageously extravagant spending programs in the history of the world. The benefits of … Read more
There is an elderly man in our parish whose self-appointed mission during Mass is to angrily harass any parent who dares to linger in the apse of the church for a second after his or her child begins to fuss. It’s discouraging to see this sort of behavior in a parish with so many … Read more
I’ve always loved this funny little tune from Chaucer’s day called “Sumer is icumen in.” Joyful and ebullient, it was doubtless sung by many an English peasant out sweating in the field and is full of the solid earthy, good humor of a people who were closely bound to the land. For them, one of … Read more
Recently, the influential German philosopher Jürgen Habermas spoke of the emergence of a “post-secular” society. It had long been thought that as societies grew in technological and economic power, and as the risks of daily life that had been so common for generations faded beneath the safety of plentiful food, a social welfare system, and … Read more
Catholic social teaching has consistently held as its core principle that economic activity is to be subordinated to the common good, which the Catechism defines as “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.” Debate over precisely how the … Read more
Once upon a time, not so long ago, atheism was the belief system that dared not speak its name. Even the most ardent skeptic paid lip service to faith, or at least to the blessings that mankind derived from it. But that’s not the case anymore. Atheism is a strong and growing influence in our … Read more
Eric Genuis is a composer, performer, and conductor on a mission to save the culture from the destructive effects of bad music. Like the philosophers of ancient Greece, Genuis believes music shapes our character, and worries that "young people are damaged by popular music before they become adults." His solution is to make good music … Read more
Item: The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality. For the utterly confused atheist in your life, here’s another testament to the fact that atheism can’t stand to be in the same room with itself for too long. Here, the author tries to crib a little bit of consolation from the theistic tradition while hoping nobody … Read more
My kids have been using their spare time to bone up on the Essential Marvel Comics. I know — this makes me a bad parent. Of course, when I was their age, I was poring over MAD Magazine. (I can still recall the cartoons — and the awe-inspiring sound effects — of Don Martin … Read more
If you examine an icon, you will notice that the figure in it will often be breaking out of the frame. Sometimes the hands, sometimes the halo, sometimes both are outside the border framing the image. That’s no accident. It’s part of what iconography is trying to get us to see: that the supernatural is … Read more
“We didn’t invite Hillary Clinton, she asked to come. So we had no choice but to say ‘yes’ to hosting the campaign rally.” That’s what a Catholic college official allegedly told the distraught mother of two students who called the college last week to complain. The mother then called me to ask what she could … Read more
“What do you think you’re doing!” cried the great scientist to the soldier, as he leaned over his tracings in the sand. The soldier — who had no idea who the man was, and how much his commander wanted him alive — slew him on the spot. Had his world needed the works of … Read more
Let’s say you want your computer fixed or your software explained. You can shell out big bucks to the Geek Squad, or you can ask — but you can’t hire — a typical teenager, or even a pre-teen. Their experience with computers and the online world is vastly superior to most people over the age … Read more
The lives of the saints always fascinate me. There are so many different ways for people to express their friendship with Jesus — so many different ways to grow in holiness. The canon of the Church’s saints and blesseds includes people from all walks of life. There are mystics, missionaries, martyrs, and heroic servants of … Read more
Picture a man in his late 50s, wearing headphones and cackling hysterically at a computer screen. That pretty much captures the image my wife remembers of my first encounter with machinima 15 months ago. After 37 years of marriage, my bride has resigned herself to some odd behavior from her mate, but I rarely laugh … Read more
“Come sit over here,” my wife whispered to me. “Let’s give Dad a chance to be alone with her.” It was a quiet room in a hospice, the only sounds the muffled pumping of oxygen, and the softer and slower breathing of my mother-in-law, Esther, as she lay a few hours before her death. Her … Read more
C. S. Lewis once remarked that he was a converted pagan living among apostate Puritans. Our culture is, if anything, even more redolent of curdled apostate Calvinism than it was in Lewis’s day, and that fact can be seen everywhere. On a whimsical note, it is discovered in an NPR broadcast I heard a few … Read more
A culture of death is a culture of fear and ours is a culture of death. Fear is a sort of background radiation, a certain slant of light coming through red, lowering clouds and casting a strange pall over what used to be called “normal life.” The signs of it are everywhere. Here’s some Muslim … Read more