Should the Obama Conscience Rules Seek to Protect Persons or Provide Benefits?
The state is required to protect persons not just from physical harm but from being forced to violate their limited but definite freedom of conscience.
Politics and Science
The “rightful place” of science is not as obvious as the President thinks.
Confronting the Hook-Up Culture
A new approach is needed to support students in the hostile hook-up culture on college campuses.
Dividing the Child: The Problems with the Saletan Abortion Compromise
William Saletan’s proposals for abortion compromise would do little to relieve the plight of women or save the unborn.
Privatizing Marriage is not the Answer to the Same-Sex Marriage Debate
Far from settling the marriage debate, ‘getting the state out of marriage’ will reduce liberty, leave cultural questions simmering, and harm our nation’s children.
Government Mortgage Relief: Economically Flawed and Morally Dubious
Homeownership has long been part of the American Dream, but current government plans to keep more people in their homes reflect the influence of failed economic policies from the past and may encourage more risky decision making in the future.
More Government, Less God: What the Obama Revolution Means for Religion in America
While many social conservatives have focused attention on Obama’s liberal social commitments, few have considered what effects an expanded welfare state will have on religious belief—or how these religious effects will in turn impact civic virtue, personal responsibility, altruism, or solidarity. If the European experience with the welfare state and religion is any indication, the Obama revolution could well lead the United States down the secular path already trod by Europe.
Liberty, Authority, and the Good of Religion
Religious liberty and religious authority are frequently seen in tension, but they need not conflict. In fact, a proper understanding of both shows that they are equally necessary for full human flourishing.
A Real Compromise on the Same-Sex Marriage Debate: An Invitation to Rauch and Blankenhorn
A recent compromise on the same-sex ‘marriage’ debate granted too much to revisionists and too little to traditionalists. A better compromise will respect the societal importance of marriage while also providing for the real needs of domestic partners.
What Obama Will Give the Left
With political realities preventing Obama from satisfying his left-wing base on economic and foreign policy questions, look for Obama to give the left the barn on social issues. And expect him to do so in significant measure through the courts.
Sartre Debates an Islamist
The play “Madah-Sartre,” both funny and poignant, provides a glimpse into the contradictions, logical impoverishment, and inhumanity of Islamist ideology, while also offering a dose of basic human decency to parties in a conflict which is more often characterized by violence than civil debate.
David Ogden and the New Pornographers: Why the Senate Should Reject His Nomination
David Ogden has impressive legal credentials, but his long career as a pornography-industry attorney casts doubt on his ability to enforce laws meant to protect children.
2009: A Critical Year for Protecting Children
The recent passage of the PROTECT Our Children Act makes 2009 a critical year in governmental efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Taking a New Look at Pornography
Recent technological developments in the production and dissemination of pornography, coupled with recent scientific investigations on pornography’s impact, force all thoughtful citizens to reconsider the social costs of pornography.
Pornography and the Courts
The nomination of David Ogden reminds us of the problems caused by pornography, both at home and abroad.
Pro-Life Secularists and the Future of Abortion Politics
If opposition to abortion is not necessarily tied to a religious worldview, pro-life advocates may see victory in the culture wars.
Collegiate Sex-Ed
Every fall, kids arrive on college campuses and learn that their basic moral intuitions on sexual matters don’t square with the reigning ideas. Thanks to debased campus culture and overreaching on the part of administrators and professors, students are beginning to respond systematically—and they’re having an impact. Here’s how.
Positive Secularism and the American Model of Religious Liberty
At its fullest, the American model of religious liberty is not a freedom from religion or a freedom of religion; it is a freedom for religion.
The Impact of Parental Notification Laws
Professor Michael New writes that, contrary to claims by the Guttmacher Institute, parental involvement laws do have a significant effect in reducing abortions.
A Diverse Bioethics Council?
President Bush created a council that represented the range of viewpoints held by reasonable and responsible Americans on the most urgent and divisive bioethics questions facing the country. Will President Obama do the same?
Our Struggle for the Soul of our Nation
In remarks delivered yesterday at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life, Robert P. George reflected on the history of the pro-life movement and offered advice for its future.
Hillary Clinton, Public Diplomacy, and the Middle East
America’s public diplomacy should be focused on fostering ideas in our interest that matter in key foreign audiences, not just on pro-America image marketing.
Islamists Killed Tahar Djaout: We Should Give Life to His Ideas
The Algerian novel The Last Summer of Reason provides a powerful and strangely beautiful reminder of the danger of letting violent ideological fundamentalism fester. We would do well to heed this reminder now, not later.
Risky Business: Keynes, Moral Hazard, and the Economic Crisis
If governments do not take moral hazard seriously, their response to the present recession may sow the seeds of a future economic crisis.
