fbpx
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Rss
Search
Close this search box.
Pillar

Politics & Law

The third pillar of a decent society is a just system of politics and law. Such a government does not bind all persons, families, institutions of civil society, and actors in the marketplace to itself as subservient features of an all-pervading authority. Instead, it honors and protects the inherent equal dignity of all persons, safeguards the family as the primary school of virtue, and seeks justice through the rule of law.

Ideas vs. People?

By
Read More

Learn more about Politics & Law: get your free eBook today!

Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Subscribe
Public Discourse

Three-Parent Embryos: Harming Women to Save Lives

By
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

The Implications of Extending Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

By , and
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

By
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

God, America, and Rights: How Chris Cuomo Gets Rights Wrong

By
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo recently argued that rights are a simply matter of “collective agreement and compromise.” His remarks are evidence of a desire on the part of America’s intellectual and cultural elite to divorce America from its traditional political identity and from the notion that politics has any connection to God.
Public Discourse

The Death of The Rule of Law in Alabama

By
The constitutional crisis now unfolding in Alabama is a direct and foreseeable result of Judge Callie S. Granade’s orders.
Public Discourse

Abraham Lincoln as Plutarch Might Have Seen Him

By
Thanks to its sympathy and its moral seriousness, Richard Brookhiser’s new biography of Abraham Lincoln is a fine study of statesmanship.
Public Discourse

Constitutional Conservatism Rejects Judicial Supremacy

By
Conservatives should defend the Constitution and the rule of law, but they should not defend judicial supremacy. The Constitution—not the Supreme Court—is our country’s highest authority.
Public Discourse

Is Christian Teaching on Sexuality Psychologically Harmful?

By and
For parents with LGBT children, Christianity offers an alternative to false dilemmas of affirmation or abandonment.
Public Discourse

Eight Hundred Years of Prayer: Lawyers, Faith, and the Common Good

By
It isn’t too late for America’s noble experiment to succeed. But that depends on the courage and commitment of American people of faith. Adapted from a homily delivered on January 15, 2015, at the Red Mass of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Public Discourse

Challenging Unjust Laws Takes Prudence, Courage, and Common Sense

By
In the real world, human goods are often in conflict with one another. This reality forces us to make difficult choices and trade-offs that cannot be eliminated or adjudicated by following simple rules.
Public Discourse

Resist or Accommodate Evil: There is No “Third Way”

By
When conscience flirts with the idea of accommodating an unjust law, it must politely, yet firmly, reject the sirens of seduction.
Public Discourse

Reconsidering Locke and the Origins of Modernity

By
In a new book, Steven Forde offers a compelling portrait of a “non-Lockean” Locke who is neither morally corrosive nor oblivious to the tension between individual rights and the common good and whose philosophy develops in response to the new empirical science that shattered the classical and medieval worldviews.
Public Discourse

Charlie Hebdo, Intolerance, and the Problem of Double Standards

By
The terrible massacre in Paris could be a “teachable” moment on the meaning of tolerance, but it will require soul searching by America’s cultural leftists.
Public Discourse

Charlie Hebdo and #MuslimApologies

By
In the wake of Islamist attacks, non-Muslims express concern and confusion not because they are indifferent, but because they are afraid. They want to understand. Muslims have an opportunity to embrace this opportunity for understanding.
Public Discourse

The Mario That Might Have Been

By
With his intelligence and his oratorical gifts, Mario Cuomo could have been the true champion of the little guy—the littlest of all—if he had kept the Democratic Party from becoming captive to the abortion interest.
Public Discourse

Joyous Surrender: A Rhapsody in Red (and Green)

By
Christmas isn’t tasteful, isn’t simple, isn’t clean, isn’t elegant. Give me the tacky and the exuberant and the wild, to represent the impossibly boisterous fact that God has intruded in this world.
Public Discourse

Christianity and American Political Thought

By
A new book examines the philosophical and religious roots of American government. Amid scholarly disagreement, one thing is clear: America is a nation founded upon the truth of human freedom and equality—whether one arrives at this truth by way of Calvin or Locke.
Public Discourse

Gay Weddings and the Shopkeeper’s Dilemma

By
One option for pro-marriage business owners: obey the law and serve gay weddings, but make it known publicly that you believe that the law forcing you to do this is unjust, needs to be changed, and is obeyed only out of your respect for law and the democratic process.
Public Discourse

Catholic Higher Education in Ruins

By
The dream of a sex-positive socialist Catholicism based on Marx and liberation theology tells kids to stop complaining when they suffer the consequences of adults’ sexual selfishness. Sexual radicalism and extreme pro-LGBT advocacy have no positive role to play in Catholic higher education.
Public Discourse

Conservatism after Obama

By
Instead of simply reacting to modern liberalism’s advances, it’s time for conservatives to consider what their own fundamental transformation of America would look like.
Public Discourse

Thomas Aquinas in China

By
Thomas Aquinas’s commitment to the importance of reason and its universal role in defining what it means to be human makes him an attractive thinker for contemporary Chinese scholars.
Public Discourse

Why Republicans Need to Change the Way They Talk about Immigration

By
By purifying their party of imprudent rhetoric, Republicans will be better able to identify adequate immigration policies, win the respect of Latino citizens, and form a reasonable response to the president’s recent executive action.
Public Discourse

What It Means to Listen: Free Speech from the Perspective of the Abrahamic Religions

By
The Abrahamic religions provide a radical interpretation of the importance of speech: it is the primary way in which God reveals himself. Because persons of faith believe that God has spoken, they are called to develop and deepen their capacities for listening. This aspect of free speech is often overlooked when concentrating on laws about what can or cannot be said.
Public Discourse

The 1950s, Principled Pluralism, and the Future of America

By
A new book by George Marsden offers a fresh analysis of American culture and religion in the 1950s. It also presents a way forward, based on the concept of “principled pluralism.”
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Rss
Public Discourse © 2024 | All Rights Reserved

Get your free eBook for The Human Person

"*" indicates required fields

Get your free eBook for Sexuality & Family

Get your free eBook for Politics & Law

Get your free eBook for Education & Culture

Get your free eBook for Business & Economics