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Leo XIII, Abraham Kuyper, and the Foundations of Modern Christian Social Thought

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For Christians who wish to restore our society, the writings of Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper can provide a set of guiding principles.

Russian Hacking and Acts of War

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Prudent foreign policy does not multiply the country’s enemies unnecessarily.

Toward an Urban Conservativism: Learning the Right Lessons from 2016

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Facing an increasingly divided nation, the conservative movement must offer policies addressing the reality of life in urban centers.

Higher Education in Hell

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A politicized education is illiberal by its own inner compulsions. It has almost the hideousness and chaos of hell itself, so inextricably coupled it is with the mire and passions of the passing day.

National Geographic‘s “Gender Revolution”: Bad Argument and Biased Ideology

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Accepting the claims of transgender ideology requires papering over one’s conscience and making a mockery of the “law written on the heart” that our bodies bear witness to in our complementary design.

A Nine-Year-Old Boy is Spreading a “Contagion of Mass Delusion”

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National Geographic’s cover photo is exploitation. The health and well-being of a child are being sacrificed to advance a political and cultural crusade.

Race, the Legacy of Slavery, and American Promise

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A new documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment and the disproportionate imprisonment of African Americans is a wake-up call to conservatives who feel threatened by apparently unpatriotic protests or demands for racial justice.

Rebuilding Cultural and Intellectual Life: An Invitation to Witherspoon’s Summer Seminars

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The Witherspoon Institute’s summer seminars help the university accomplish its purpose: to teach students to work together to pursue truth with humility and dedication.

Trump, Hillbillies, and the Forgotten Men and Women of America

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Hillbilly Elegy not only helps us to understand the social phenomena highlighted by Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency; it also reminds us of other things that have been obscured by that rise, but that we ought not to forget.

The Battle Belongs to the Grassroots: This Is Our Moment

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This battle hinges on one thing: creating a vibrant—dominant—marriage culture based on the participation of millions of individuals.

Feminists Should Fight the Department of Education’s Redefinition of Sex Discrimination

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Title IX exists to address discrimination faced by women and girls. Now it’s being used to privilege the interests of one male over many females.

Against Pious Nihilism: C.S. Lewis on Natural Law

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For many, the Narnia stories were their first exposure to the goodness of God and his creation. While they called us to move “further in and further up” to things that were more real and solid than these Shadowlands we now inhabit, they did so by calling us to attend to the traces of the divine already present in the created order.

Unconscionable: Threats to Religious Freedom and Rights of Conscience in the Abortion Debate

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Waging war against those who cannot in good conscience help perform or facilitate abortions does little to improve access for women seeking abortions, damages the integrity of those who object, and harms civil society.

State vs. Family: The Tyranny of the “Emerging Orthodoxy”

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State agencies used to intervene in family life only when it was in the “best interests of the child.” Now, however, their power is being exercised to advance an ideological agenda.

Parallel Societies: How the American Military and Civilian Worlds Parted Ways

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The military is no longer a populist artifact but a plaything of political elites, and deep fissures have formed between it and the citizens that it used to represent.

Banking on the Margins or the Core of Human Flourishing?

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Samuel Gregg’s new book makes it clear that the fundamental purpose of finance, as of all civic practices and institutions, is the good of human beings.
Public Discourse

Mercy for Dylann Roof

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Showing mercy to Dylann Roof by refusing to impose the death penalty would respect the acts of both his victims, who showed him welcome, and their families, who showed him forgiveness. In this way, good could be drawn from evil, and the sinfulness of Dylann Roof’s actions could be overcome by love.

On the Bipartisan Inadequacy of Governing Elites: A General Theory of Trump’s Victory

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A bipartisan record of inadequacy by governing elites incapable of admitting their failures led to the election of Donald Trump. Thankfully, America is vast, diverse, and free enough to give itself a new governing elite if the old one can’t learn.

Who’s on Which Side of the Lunch Counter? Civil Rights, Religious Accommodation, and the Challenges of Diversity

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In many ways, so-called progressives are comparable to lunch-counter segregationists, and proponents of religious exemptions are the heirs of civil rights activists.

Love, Liberal Education, and the Secret of Human Identity

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True liberal education should teach us that we do not only give ourselves away: we become ourselves by the gift. We become who we are by forgetting to think about who we are.

Checking the Court: What Can Be Done to Rein in the Supreme Court?

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Michael Stokes Paulsen has identified six courses of action that might effectively curb the Supreme Court’s abuse of judicial authority.

Double Standards on Abortion and Animal Rights

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Abortion rights dogma can obscure human reason and harden the human heart so much that the same person who feels empathy for animal suffering can lack compassion for unborn children who experience lethal violence and excruciating pain in abortion.

The Liberalism of the Founding Fathers Is Not to Blame for Our Current Problems

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If today we see ill effects of individualism, it does not mean that we should blame them on the founders. Our problem is a cultural one, not some deep, all-encompassing flaw in our political system.

Giving Thanks for Eight Years of Public Discourse

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This Thanksgiving season, Public Discourse will continue to commit itself to the peaceful and rational persuasion of our fellow man in the cause of the common good. Will you join us?