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Public Discourse

Religion and the Foundations of Morality

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We don’t need to know that God exists to know good from bad. It is enough to know human nature—what kind of being we are and what kind of actions will bring us to fullness of being.
Public Discourse

Drunk, But Not on Whiskey

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We have the worst of both worlds: a Prohibitionary State that gives license to all kinds of evil, but that regulates and restricts actions that are not evil, to manage the chaos that results from the license.
Public Discourse

Come Out and Celebrate?

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National Coming Out Day’s emphasis on “celebrating” students’ self-identification as LGBT undermines Notre Dame’s pastoral responsibility to help students develop an integrated sexual identity and a true understanding of human dignity.
Public Discourse

The Next Human Rights Revolution

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Renowned human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng calls on American citizens to recognize that China’s barbaric violations of human dignity threaten justice on a global scale. Americans must take practical, immediate actions, no matter how small, to abolish these atrocities.
Public Discourse

Faith and (Dorm) Life

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Faith-based dorms at secular universities offer a positive alternative to the indoctrination and debasement present on many campuses.
Public Discourse

Same-Sex Marriage Makes Liberal Judges Irrational

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A New Jersey judge’s contorted and nonsensical decision that the state is responsible for the federal government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage highlights the irrationality that permeates the campaign for “marriage equality.”
Public Discourse

NoFap: One Small Step for Man

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NoFap, an anonymous online community devoted to helping its “Fapstronaut” members overcome their addictions to masturbation and pornography, lends credence to traditional moral teachings and offers important insights for defenders of sexual morality.
Public Discourse

Internet Pornography & the First Amendment

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Current jurisprudence protecting pornography as “artistic expression” contradicts the Founders’ understanding and the underlying purposes of the First Amendment’s protection of speech, and it fails to protect Americans from the social and personal trauma caused by pornography. The second in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

The New Narcotic

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New neurological research reveals that porn is as potently addictive as heroin or cocaine.
Public Discourse

A Married Mom and Dad Really Do Matter: New Evidence from Canada

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A new academic study based on the Canadian census suggests that a married mom and dad matter for children. Children of same-sex coupled households do not fare as well.
Public Discourse

Freedom and Civility

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Law cannot replace a nation’s customs, manners, and traditions. Rather, it should strengthen them by corroborating and invigorating the ways of a people.
Public Discourse

Going the Distance for Children

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Adults are bending time and space to satisfy their desire for children by adopting long-frozen embryos.
Public Discourse

Higher Education, Social Capital, and the Path to a Better Life

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Higher education is not a guarantee for success. Young people need not only a high quality education and strong economic opportunities, but also the integral social bonds that come from a society that defends freedom of religion and association, as well as healthy marriages.
Public Discourse

The Pragmatic Eudaimonist: A Response to David Tubbs

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David L. Tubbs’ criticism of pragmatic liberalism reveals that he misunderstands both the necessary complexity of constitutional law and its relation to civil society.
Public Discourse

Saving Our Locker Rooms

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We need to offer cogent, rational arguments against non-discrimination laws that would de-segregate single-sex personal facilities.
Public Discourse

The Moral Structure of Pedophilia

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In contemporary America, condemnation of pedophilia rests on sentiment and not on moral reasoning. Nobody can simultaneously explain why pedophilia is so vile and uphold the first commandment of the sexual revolution: Fulfill thy desires.
Public Discourse

Rehabbing Authenticity in an Ideological Age

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We can only define ourselves authentically in terms of, in Charles Taylor’s words, a “backdrop of things that matter”—a set of values that transcend our arbitrary choices. The second of a two-part series.
Public Discourse

Authenticity and the End of Rhetoric

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Our current jargon of “authenticity” is an affront to political friendship—it demands that others always capitulate to our claims, and makes not doing so tantamount to harm. The first of a two-part series.
Public Discourse

The HHS Mandate, Hosanna-Tabor, and the Question of Religious Organizations

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The Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC shows that we need a workable legal framework for self-proclaimed religious organizations to claim protection under the Free Exercise Clause.
Public Discourse

The Perils of Liberal Moralism: On Syria and Thomas More

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Our president’s assumption that he should punish Syria for a moral, but not legal, transgression undermines international law.
Public Discourse

Illusions of Unity? Mind, Value, and Nature

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Is it wrong to study the natural sciences using a metaphysical framework that sees unity in reality?
Public Discourse
  • Islam

Islam and Women: Surveying the Academic Debate

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Because there is no central authority in Islam and many ambiguities exist within the Quran, the status of women in Islamic societies depends greatly on historical and cultural factors.
Public Discourse

The Reluctant Eudaimonist: The Flaws of “Pragmatic Liberalism”

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Robert Miller’s pragmatic liberalism fails to strike a satisfactory balance between Aristotelian-Thomistic eudaimonism and American liberalism because he does not defend the universality of moral principles.
Public Discourse

Millennials and Marriage

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Young Americans have come to believe that they can only achieve “good” marriages through professional success and economic prosperity.