The Double Mommy Trap: Two Mothers and No Rights for Junior
The double maternity two-step is a forced march. The intended destination seems to be greater personal fulfillment for adults. But if we arrive there, what will be left of the rights of children?
Unmasking Liberalism
A new book reveals the crumbling foundations of the myth of liberalism and urges the challenging task of rehabilitating virtue.
Legal Sex: Exchanging the Truth of Sex for the Lie of Gender
Gender ideology leaves us de-sexed in law. The problem is not merely that our legal identity can now be chosen, but that it can now only be chosen.
Life Worthy of Life: Down Syndrome, Equality, and My Son Silas
Those of us blessed by the love of someone with an extra twenty-first chromosome look forward to October. October invites me, along with all other parents of children with Down Syndrome, to proclaim loudly that our children live lives worthy of life.
Markets, Catholicism, and Libertarianism
Supporting markets as the economic arrangements most likely to help promote human flourishing doesn’t necessarily mean you accept libertarian philosophical premises.
Calling All Electors: Throw the Election to the House, and You Just Might Save Our Country
The Electoral College was conceived for just the kind of national leadership crisis we now face.
2016 and the Future of the Supreme Court
What would happen if a justice with the judicial philosophy and record of Justice Ginsburg were to replace Justice Scalia on the Court?
Better to Give than to Receive: Catholicism and the Enlightenment
In science and philosophy, politics and society, the Enlightenment and the Faith could and did bring mutual intelligibility to each other, showing no intrinsic incompatibility—“faith cannot collide with enlightened reason,” a new book reminds us, for truth cannot contradict truth.
The Future of Pro-Life Legislation and Litigation
In her landmark 1971 paper, Judith Jarvis Thomson tried to defend abortion by appeal to norms of justification consistently applicable in a range of other cases. By contrast, the courts in and after Roe and Casey have treated the right to abortion as an unquestionable legal principle. This inverted approach is doomed to fail as it continues to reveal the anomalous character of abortion rights.
No, We Should Not Legalize Recreational Marijuana Use
Legalizing recreational marijuana use would hurt not only those who smoke—it also hurts children and society as a whole. As a country, if we encourage and profit from this vice, we will be undermining the very foundations of our government.
If Tim Kaine Wins, the Catholic Church Loses
Many high-profile Catholics like Tim Kaine publicly dissent from Catholic teaching and promote offenses against human dignity. When their actions go unrebuked by Church leaders, it harms both the Church as a whole and the faith of individual Catholics.
Hijacking Science: How the “No Differences” Consensus about Same-Sex Households and Children Works
The claim that there are no differences in outcomes for children living in same-sex households arises from how scholars collect, analyze, and present data to support a politically expedient conclusion, not from what the data tend to reveal at face value.
Pronouns, Ordinary People, and the War over Reality
Do not dismiss the pronominal wars as nonsense or assume that its warriors are merely daft.
The End of the Utilitarian Argument for Trump
If you have been tempted by the utilitarian, lesser-of-two-evils argument for Donald Trump, then you must appreciate how his latest and most serious scandal changes that calculation.
We Abandon Social Conservatism at Our Own Peril
Fiscal conservativism cannot exist without social conservatism. Strong families form the foundation of healthy societies and strong economies.
Love, Not Power: Diagnosing our Body Politic
The deepest wellspring of human action is not power but love—the appetite to love and care for others and to be loved and cared for. Any healing of our broken political system must proceed on the basis of this basic truth about its parts.
Autonomy or Worthiness? How to Find Dignity in Death
There is dignity in living and dignity in dying, because the concept of “dignity” is inseparable from our humanity. Even when our autonomy is lost, all people can still undergo suffering and death with a noble and dignified serenity.
Betrayed by Our Leaders: A Young Conservative Responds to Endorsements of Donald Trump
The leaders of organizations that have shaped a generation of young conservatives are now endorsing Donald Trump, a man who is the antithesis of the values held by each of these institutions.
Collaborative Greatness: The Lesson of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton
We need to reflect on and learn from Washington and Hamilton’s lesson in collaborative greatness. Their alliance forged our nation, and we will need similar alliances to preserve it and ensure its flourishing.
Joseph Boyle, Public Discourse, and the Kingdom of God
Joseph Boyle was a colleague, mentor, and friend to many associated with Public Discourse and in the broader academic community. He will be sorely missed.
On Wealth and the Bible, The First Christians Were Not Like David Bentley Hart
Neither the New Testament nor the writings of early Christians support the idea that material wealth is intrinsically evil.
