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Public Discourse

The Paradox of Title IX: Fighting Sexual Assault on Campus

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In the fight against sexual assault on campus, Title IX is not so much powerful as it is pliable, subject to the competency of school officials and the potential for untruthfulness in either the accuser or the accused.
Public Discourse

Beyond the Screen: Love in a Time of Social Media

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By dropping our digital masks and, in the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, letting ourselves be “tamed,” we become “unique in all the world.” Truly loving another person draws us beyond ourselves.
Public Discourse

God, Death, and Capital Punishment

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It is philosophically and theologically defensible for Catholics to believe that the death penalty is intrinsically wrong.
Public Discourse

Nature vs. Synthetics: What’s at Stake in the Dolce and Gabbana Controversy

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Dolce and Gabbana, whether they use the term or not, are strong advocates of natural law.
Public Discourse

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Are Not Like Race: Why ENDA is Bad Policy

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Sexual orientation and gender identity are conceptually different from race, and beliefs about marriage as the union of man and woman are conceptually and historically different from opposition to interracial marriage. Adapted from testimony delivered on Monday March 16 before the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
Public Discourse

Natural Law and the Unity and Truth of Sexual Ethics: A Reply to Gary Gutting

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Catholic sexual ethics are as fully reasonable today as they were in the time of St Paul. In fact, the natural law understanding of human fulfillment is inherently intelligible even without a theistic framework.
Public Discourse

Federal Court Precedent: A Defense of Judge Roy Moore and the Alabama Supreme Court

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The US Supreme Court has set a precedent upholding the right of states to define marriage as the union of husband and wife. All federal and state judges—including those in Alabama—are bound by that precedent.
Public Discourse

“A Rather Antinomian Christianity”: John Updike’s Religion

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John Updike believed in a strange sort of Christianity that rejected the strictures of traditional faith, choosing divine comfort while rejecting divine commands. In other words, it was gospel without law, grace without repentance, the love of God without the holiness of God.
Public Discourse

God, Reason, and Our Civilizational Crisis

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The way that a culture understands the nature of God shapes its conception of man, reason, and society. Though this presents enormous challenges for the Islamic world, it also has significant implications for the sustainability of Western civilization.
Public Discourse

Souls Matter

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A materialist philosophy that denies the reality of immaterial features of the world is an impoverished view of nature, including human nature. In any complete analysis of what it means to be a living thing, souls matter. Without souls, there are no living things.
Public Discourse

True Paradox: Breaking Down the Barriers to Faith

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Christianity hasn’t been considered and found untenable. It’s presumed unreasonable and left unconsidered.
Public Discourse

Hearts, Parts, and Minds: The Truth Comes Out

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Once I began thinking, reasoning, and examining my life, an extraordinary thing happened: I couldn’t stop. Reason led me to acknowledge natural law, which led me to begin rejecting some of my former ways of thinking and acting. Reason then led me to recognize God.
Public Discourse

The Rich Roots and Spoiled Fruits of Liberal Toleration

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After decades of efforts to be emancipated from religious influences, the toleration of political liberals is still only an impoverished relative of its classical cousin.
Public Discourse

The Shopkeeper’s Dilemma and Cooperation with Evil

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A shopkeeper who objects to sex-same weddings but who nevertheless provides services at such weddings generally acts in a morally permissible way if he acts to comply with a validly-enacted law, to preserve the goodwill of his business, and to make a just profit. Nevertheless, a law that in this way coerces a shopkeeper to cooperate with actions he reasonably believes immoral is gravely unjust.
Public Discourse

Lincoln’s Best Speech: A Sesquicentennial

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Lincoln’s second inaugural address, 150 years old today, is as pertinent as ever. It reminds us that we must resist the poisonous temptation to see those with whom we disagree as bitter enemies even as we vigorously defend the moral truths that ought to guide our public life.
Public Discourse

Canada’s Supreme Court Creates Right to Assisted Suicide, Leaves Details Up to Parliament

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Most Americans are probably not aware that the push to create a right to assisted suicide is an international effort. The Canadian Supreme Court has just ruled that parliament must enact laws allowing assisted suicide.
Public Discourse

President Obama’s Dishonest and Unconstitutional De-Authorization

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President Obama’s “authorization” request is designed to curtail existing legal authority to wage war on ISIL and to handcuff future presidents in the exercise of their constitutional authority as commander in chief.
Public Discourse

Truth-Telling and the Right of Self-Government: Why Obama’s Marriage Lie Matters

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The right of self-government depends upon the ability of voters to give their informed consent in choosing elected officials. If candidates lie, self-government becomes impossible.
Public Discourse

Three-Parent Embryos: Harming Women to Save Lives

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The UK has passed a bill that allows for genetic engineering of children through nuclear transfer technology and germ-line modification. Young women will be needed to supply their eggs. But egg donation—or more accurately, egg selling—is risky business.
Public Discourse

An Insider’s View of the Pro-Life Movement

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A new book offers the first truly comprehensive history of the pro-life movement.
Public Discourse

Same-Sex Parenting: Unpacking the Social Science

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For some people, scientific research on the subject of same-sex parenting is irrelevant. A new volume is meant for those who still approach the topic of parenting and sexuality with open minds. According to the best data, average life outcomes for children raised by parents in same-sex relationships tend to resemble those of children raised by single and divorced parents.
Public Discourse

The Implications of Extending Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

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It is morally indefensible for Catholic institutions to recognize and incentivize same-sex marriages by extending marriage benefits to employees who declare themselves legally married to a person of the same sex.
Public Discourse

Abraham Lincoln and Same-Sex Marriage

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The structure and logic of the legal arguments made for nationwide judicial imposition of same-sex marriage are remarkably similar to the arguments made by those who argued for the judicial imposition of slavery nationwide. Will the Republican Party produce another Lincoln to stand against them?
Public Discourse
  • Islam

Islam and the “Islamic State”: What Does the Quran Really Teach about Christianity?

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True Islam condemns the violence of the so-called “Islamic State.” Christians and Muslims must work together to achieve peace and justice.