A lot has been said about the recent Pew study that concludes that 10% of the American population is ex-Catholic. It sounds discouraging for Catholics, and in fact it is–though it should be added that last year, Catholicism grew at a more rapid rate than any other religion in America (and tens of thousands convert every [...]
Archive for February, 2008
Why Catholics Leave the Church
Posted in culture, faith on February 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Politics that Disappeared
Posted in ideas, politics, tagged American history, liberalism, pro-life on February 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the company of educated, politically active Americans from Upper Manhattan to Marin County, from the North Shore to Dupont Circle, in the blogosphere and the coffee house alike, you can find a surfeit of libertarians (left and right), old school conservatives, neo-cons, and liberal democrats. What is very, very hard to find are people [...]
Squares and Circles
Posted in Europe, culture on February 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
With a new film soon to be released about a coming “demographic winter” based on extremely low birth-rates in the developed world, Rod Dreher and others have praised the film for its blunt critique of anti-natalism. The real work that needs to be done, however, involves finding a way to bring [...]
Sarkozy and Europe’s Past
Posted in Europe on February 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today’s New York Times piece on President Sarkozy’s proposal to have French fifth-graders follow the life of an individual child victim of the Holocaust gives a good sense of the debate in France, especially its religious dimension. But the article misses one important quasi-religious point raised in yesterday’s Le Monde: one historian [...]
Why Montalte?
Posted in ideas, tagged Pascal, truth on February 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A pseudonym historically associated with good thoughts like these: “Love of the truth is the greatest Christian virtue.” ”Love of the truth is the greatest Christian truth” (Pascal). Montalte is a brilliant critic of pedantry and a defender of honest learning. He is not always right, but he thinks with [...]
