Hard to tell

The big question about politics in the Middle East is: has 9/11 so changed the American public that isolationism is no longer an option?

For love

Fr.Samir has a forceful editorial on freedom of conscience in Islamic countries.

Security vs. freedom

T. Dalrymple confirms our previous impression of the events in France.

A country in denial

This piece on the situation in France rings true. European decadence is also visible in its educational system.

I have full awareness of what I have chosen

This guy does not sound particularly crazy.

No fathers

This piece about marriage among African-Americans makes you think that the notions of freedom and civil rights can become very hollow if they are separated from the deeper question of the education of a people.

Consistory,

The Boston Globe has some nice pictures of Cardinal O'Malley

Good statistics

The Weekly Standard correctly notices the cultural significance of monasticism.

Martyrdom

The New Republic has a good piece on the terrible situation of Christians in Iraq. One wonders though whether the greatest danger is not external, but the temptation for the Church to assume a purely defensive posture that neutralizes what is really its only asset: that it carries something radically different to a world dominated by violence.

How forceful

The US intervenes in favor of Abdul Rahman asking that his trial be handled in a "transparent way" (followed by a "transparent execution"?)

Always bigger

John D. Barrow won the Templeton Prize.

Defying the stereotypes

The Economist is intrigued by Sen. Brownback.

Projection

Jeff Jacoby tells it as it is.

Progress I

It appears that Gary Wills has finally written something we can agree with:

"Wills rejects the familiar distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. If the first Christians had not been radically tranformed by the resurrection - if Jesus had simply been a passing mystical figure - then you and I would not be thinking about or reading about Jesus at all....`The only Jesus we have is the Jesus of faith. If you reject the faith, there is no reason to trust anything the Gospels say.'"

Progress II

An update on Bush's initiative to support faith-based social works.

Enforced mediocrity

ABC's John Stossel has got himself into trouble with the Teachers's union by stating some completely obvious truths.

Wrongful

A NYTimes article on the issues involved in pre-natal detection of birth defects

Dis-educator

A new book on John Dewey, the man who probably shaped more than anybody else education in the US. The reviewer seems to miss the fact that what Dewey eliminated is not "moral" education. Our schools are full of mindless moralism. What is missing is the possibility for young people to develop critical thinking by being inserted in (and verifying for themselves) a living tradition. The tragedy of liberal education is that when you stop proposing a way to judge, you stop educating.

Misunderstanding freedom

"The point is that parenthood is against the grain of all the aspirations of our culture...pregnancy heralds at least one relationship of dependence...but you've spent much of the previous 10 years attempting to eradicate any hint of dependence, either of your own or of others on you."

Wrestling with demons

A true specimen of American Protestant Christianity. The cave story will sound familiar to all Walker Percy's readers.

Thought for the day

As a general rule people are happier when they are able to give their life for a greater meaning. They are miserable when the measure of their lives is determined by their own ideology (which is usually not really their own).

Discovering humanity

The historical events described in Joyeux Noël could only have happened in a civilization marked by Christianity. One wonders it anything like that could happen in today's Europe.

Freedom

The African-American children in Minneapolis are migrating to the charter schools.

The benefits of patriarchy

You are changing the history of the world by having children.

A historical turning point?

A column on the explosive growth of Christianity in Asia.