“The early church was a socialist church.” So said Rev. Raphael Warnock in 2016, four years before the citizens of Georgia elected him a U.S. senator. It’s a strange statement, least of all because the description “socialist church” is an oxymoron. Not only would the Church fathers be puzzled by it, but so would socialism’s … Read more
Several decades ago, in The Triumph of the Therapeutic, Philip Rieff contended that, in the West, the religious worldview that was concerned with personal salvation in God had been eclipsed by the therapeutic culture. The primary goal of this new, dominant culture is for the individual to feel good because there is “nothing at stake … Read more
This may shock you, but most mass shooters are not white. The American Left, including the Catholic political Left, hold onto certain narratives as if their lives depended on it. They hold on so tightly their knuckles—if you’ll pardon the expression—turn white. Hardly any narrative seems so important to them right now as “most mass … Read more
There has been much discussion in recent years regarding what the Catholic Church can do about self-identified Catholic politicians who support policies considered gravely immoral by the Church. Most of the conversation has centered around Canon 915, which states that those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to … Read more
The events of the past year have posed new and, in certain respects, unprecedented challenges not only for the Church and the body politic, but also for individual man and his relationship to both. In the early days of the pandemic, governments surely had just cause for concern in the face of this highly contagious … Read more
While a growing number of media outlets are attempting to indict “white supremacists” for the dramatic increase in reported hate crimes against people of Asian descent, the reality is that for more than four decades Asian Americans in some of our largest cities have been the victims of violence and discrimination perpetrated by members of … Read more
There is a section in Monsignor Luigi Giussani’s The Religious Sense in which he identifies various ways of escape people choose when confronted with questions of unwelcome ultimacy. For instance, the meaning of one’s own existence, about which a great many people appear to be strangely incurious. The section is called “Emptying the Question,” and in … Read more
My daughter’s high school required her to wear a black cardigan sweater. So off we went to a clothing store so that she could be in full conformity with the school’s dress code. The sales clerk, however, told us that none were in stock. Nonetheless, my daughter, while browsing, discovered exactly what she was looking … Read more
If you’ve scratched your head over the latest of the ever-growing number of things (like algebra and Beethoven) that has “become” racist, you can blame your confusion on radical leftist Saul Alinsky. Alinsky once said, “He who controls the language controls the masses.” Today, the masses are being played by some novel concepts derived neither … Read more
In just the first months of the Biden administration, Catholic educators have been confronted by serious threats to their freedom to teach and witness to the Catholic faith. We knew the storm was coming. Over the last four years, schools and colleges enjoyed a brief respite before the anticipated return of Obama-era policies like the … Read more
“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only—and that is to support the ultimate career.” That famous C.S. Lewis line (which is actually just a paraphrase of his original quote) comes to mind every time I see a headline about what the market rate value of a housewife should … Read more
Politics is downstream from culture. You have heard it plenty of times. Andrew Breitbart coined it, and many conservatives have adopted it as a truism, almost as gospel. But is it true? Sure, it’s true. It makes perfect sense. The country’s political views grow from a cultural soil that has been prepared. Brown v. Board … Read more
Everything seems to be an existential threat nowadays—from racial, gender, economic and political inequalities, to climate change, to the coronavirus pandemic. However, if we have been paying attention to the media recently, there has been a new addition to the list: misinformation, aka “fake news.” Journalists and politicians would have us believe that misinformation has … Read more
While faithful Catholics are grateful for the statement last week from five of our bishops on the threats posed by the Equality Act, it is a bit too little and much too late. For more than two years, Crisis Magazine has been sounding the alarm about the threats posed by the Equality Act that was … Read more
Impeccable authorities on all-things-religious, such as The New York Times, are swooning over “perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century.” That would be President Joe Biden. That obviously unproven statement is patent political propaganda. Of course, it’s a statement impossible to know let alone claim, least of all as this … Read more
With the drama of the election and its aftermath at an end, the nation moves on, as it must. For those on the losing side, however exhausted we may be, questions persist: To where is the nation moving and where do we wish it to go? To answer these questions, it is incumbent upon us … Read more
Perhaps I was wrong. Just a few weeks ago, right after the presidential inauguration, one of my wife’s close friends, another parent in our homeschooling co-op, expressed her fear that homeschooling is likely to come under greater scrutiny with the new administration. I shook my head in dissent. Sure, I acknowledged, there are some, particularly … Read more
In an online event recently, Bishop McElroy of San Diego criticized the idea of making abortion a “litmus test” for Catholic politicians. When Catholic leaders do this, he claims, “such a position will reduce the common good to a single issue.” Clearly, the bishop was thinking of many Catholic Democrat politicians, notably the new president, … Read more
In an essay written in 1927 on the British philosopher Francis Herbert Bradley—whom hardly anyone bothers to read, much less remember, anymore—T.S. Eliot, who wrote his Harvard dissertation on Bradley, sought to identify the secret of his excellence, tracing it to what he called “his great gift of style.” And while it is true that … Read more
“At the bottom of their hearts the great masses of people are more likely to be poisoned than to be consciously and deliberately bad. In the primitive simplicity of their minds they are more easily victimized by a large lie than by a small lie.” The author of these chilling words: Adolf Hitler. President Biden, … Read more