Postmodern America’s true religion is ideology. By that, I mean we expect our churches to either give full-throated approval to our political beliefs or remain
For Christmas, I gave myself an early gift: I uninstalled my Smart News app. Over the last six months, this app has given me news
Is Advent a penitential season? Yes, it is. No, it isn’t. Well, maybe it ought to be again. The answer you get depends, I suspect,
The problem of free will has—you’ll pardon the expression—bedeviled philosophers and theologians for centuries. If God foreknows our actions and choices, then in what sense
In his essay, “Wanted for Arrest: Followers of Jesus Christ,” Dennis Dillon asks, “Are we at the beginning of de-Christianization, as France was in the
“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, / Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” If you’re a
As a political slogan, “abolish the police” is bad salesmanship at the very least. I often think political advocates ought to spend a year or
The word socialism is freely tossed around in the public square, especially on social media. Too often, though, it’s either a misnomer for some government
Reform of the American medical care system is necessary not only from the perspective of Catholic social teaching but also from the economic standpoint as
Denying that price-gouging is a real and infamous practice, you would think, is like denying that gravity exists. However, Kyle Smith tries his best to
As with so many other things, so with coronavirus: You can trust Catholics to turn it into an intramural spiritual battle. I don’t have statistics
In “The New Goth is the Original Goth,” I suggested (half fun and full earnest) that we ought to resurrect the “fence” of traditional practices
Goth is passé. Although the goth subculture has shown more staying power than did the “flower children” of the 1960s, its “counterculture” largely shows up
It’s Valentine’s Day again. It’s hard to believe now that this annual celebration of romance and érōs ever had any connection with Christianity, let alone
Wealth is a moral conundrum for many if not most people. For instance, in the best-selling book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, author Robert T. Kiyosaki
About cussing I’m ambivalent. By no means is my verbal communication always pure and elevated. Yes, it does include a lot of big words, but
Slowly but surely, philosopher Edward Feser contends, philosophers of science are rediscovering a need for teleology in the universe over three and a half centuries
The recently-arisen “minimalist” lifestyle movement defies reduction to a pithy single-sentence definition. People who identify as minimalist can have any or several different motives for
Does sin have a social aspect? This question is one key to understanding the recent refusal by Fr. Scott Nolan of St. Stephen in Grand
In 1968, an ecologist named Garrett Hardin wrote an article for Science magazine titled “The Tragedy of the Commons.” A utilitarian and Malthusian, Hardin argued
Over my lifetime, I have been called many things, some of which are printable. Within the last 11 years’ worth of blogging, I’ve had a
Mystics and theologians have long and often used romance as a metaphor for our relationship with God. Many of the challenges we face in our