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Public Discourse

Division and Remembrance: Syria Past and Present

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In his new book on Syria, Christian Sahner explores the rise of Islam, the place of Christianity, the emergence of sectarian politics, the autocratic state, and the Lebanese paradigm.
Public Discourse

Reconnecting an Unbound Generation

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The answer to our culture’s dramatic increase in out-of-wedlock births and children raised by single parents is not to lower the bar further. Rather than promoting “planned parenting,” we should work to build a culture of marriage.
Public Discourse

Civic Trust and My Friend José

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The disappearance of forty-three Mexican students serves as a cautionary tale—and a reminder of the crucial importance of what civic trust we Americans still have.
Public Discourse

A Tocquevillian Argument against Contraception

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Parenthood powerfully combats the two greatest dangers to a democracy: selfishness and isolation.
Public Discourse

J.S. Mill and the Pro-Life Cause

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In spite of its many problematic aspects, the political thought of J.S. Mill provides a low but solid foundation for the essential convictions of the pro-life movement: that the unborn, in virtue of their common humanity, deserve the full protection of the law.
Public Discourse

Myths about Israel and Zionism

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Debates about Israel and Palestine often assume a historical narrative that is at odds with historical realities.
Public Discourse

Evangelicals and the LGBT Community: What Does the Future Hold?

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Evangelicals are learning to model both grace and truth when discussing homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
Public Discourse

Embracing Exile, Working for Renewal: A Report from the Pennsylvania Conference on Faith and Society

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Untethered to an “establishment” and or a “mainstream” that needs to be placated, today’s conservative students can experiment freely with impolitic ideas—perhaps more closely approaching the truth in the process.
Public Discourse

Children’s Rights, or Rights to Children?

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If it’s okay to buy and sell sperm, eggs, and wombs, then why is it not okay to sell other human tissues or organs? If it’s okay to sell one’s reproductive parts, why is it not okay to sell one’s sexual parts, as in prostitution? If it’s okay to pre-sell and pre-order children via third-party reproduction, what is so wrong with buying and selling children who are already born or conceived?
Public Discourse

In For the Long Haul: Factors Contributing to the Marriage Crisis

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A model developed by developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, paired with the example of the pro-life movement, may demonstrate a new way forward in rehabilitating marriage.
Public Discourse

Not Sentiment, Prejudice, or Tradition: Exploring the Nature of Marriage

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Patrick Lee and Robert P. George’s new book clearly establishes that the case for conjugal marriage is not based on irrational prejudice or sentimental appeal to tradition. It is based on a series of sophisticated arguments that deserve to be answered.
Public Discourse

Trading Places with Senator Portman: How I Discovered the Truth of Complementarity

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Like Newton’s law of gravity, natural law can’t be defied or ignored, at least not for long. We deny or disregard the significance of complementarity at our own peril, for the consequences of our denial will likely be staggering.
Public Discourse

Austria’s Troubling Quran Law

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Austria’s attempt to mandate a single German translation of the Quran reflects ignorance about Islam and the factors contributing to violent extremism, obliviousness to the nature of modern media, and an attitude of cultural imperialism.
Public Discourse

Academic Freedom, Religious Institutions, and the State

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Government funding of education should not be tied to the beliefs of unaccountable academics. Public support for education should empower students and parents, and the choices they make.
Public Discourse

Who’s Framing Brittany Maynard?

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The effort by pro-euthanasia group Compassion & Choices to use Brittany Maynard’s story to push physician-assisted suicide is part of a larger strategy. When talking about end-of-life issues, a strategically crafted frame points to only one logical conclusion: I’d rather be dead.
Public Discourse

Religion in the Age of Evolution: Shaking the Pillars?

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The traditional pillars of religion that support a view of God as transcendent Creator remain unshaken by the discoveries of modern science.
Public Discourse

Learning about Love: How Sex Ed Programs Undermine Happy Marriages

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Contemporary sex education prepares young men and women not for the fullness of friendship, intimacy and love, but for casual relationships and recreational sex.
Public Discourse

Between Magisterium and Magistrate: Notre Dame’s Choice on Marriage’s Meaning

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Notre Dame’s acceptance of the same-sex marriage movement’s rhetorical paradigm has made our nation’s flagship Catholic institution impotent. Yet there is an opportunity for the Notre Dame community to model ways to promote the good amid the crumbling ruins of institutional integrity.
Public Discourse

The Hidden Costs of Legalized Suicide: What We Can Learn from Brittany Maynard

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We ought to demonstrate compassion for Brittany Maynard, but we must not allow our compassion to obscure the nature of her choice—or the consequences that legal acceptance of a legal right to kill has for those left behind.
Public Discourse

I Lost My Daughter to Suicide: A Nurse’s Response to Brittany Maynard’s Campaign for Assisted Suicide

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Do assisted suicide supporters really expect doctors and nurses to be able to assist the suicide of one patient, then go on to care for a similar patient who wants to live, without this having an effect on their ethics or their empathy? Do they realize that this reduces the second patient’s will to live to a mere personal whim—one that society may ultimately see as selfish and too costly?
Public Discourse

How Sex Difference Makes a Difference: A Reply to Ilya Somin

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Courts heighten scrutiny of policies that classify people by sex and other “suspect” traits. But laws defining marriage as a male-female union are different in structure. The very form of policies based on the male-female pairing—unlike every other classification—demonstrates their connection to the common good. So courts shouldn’t subject them to the special scrutiny applied to other laws that classify by sex.
Public Discourse

Conservatives, America, and Natural Law

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For conservatives, a retreat into self-imposed isolation isn’t a responsible option. We need more conservatives publicly witnessing that humans are wired to know and freely choose truth, and that this has implications for the political order.
Public Discourse

Putting to Rest a Bad Argument: Marriage Law and Sex Discrimination

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The Supreme Court closely scrutinizes policies involving racial, sexual, and other “suspect” classifications. But unlike almost every other classification imaginable, marriage laws use a criterion necessarily linked to an inherently good social purpose that we didn’t just invent. This criterion isn’t truly suspect and shouldn’t get heightened scrutiny.
Public Discourse

China’s One-Child Policy: Massive Crimes against Women, Supported by the Obama Administration

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Under the Obama Administration, the United States is breaking its own law by giving taxpayer money to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports the One-Child Policy. It is also failing to implement immigration and visa bans for those who have been complicit in forced abortions and sterilizations.