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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.

Listening to the Law 

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Public Discourse

Gettysburg and the New “Proposition” of American Politics

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In Lincoln’s day, America’s dedication to human equality was contested, but its embrace of God’s providential role in the world was a given. Now, the reverse is true.
Public Discourse

America’s Moderate Liberalism: Rediscovering Montesquieu, Recovering Balance

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The French philosopher Montesquieu’s principle of moderation taught the founders to reconcile Lockean liberalism, classical republicanism, and Christianity—a balance we could use today.
Public Discourse

When Government Keeps Teens from Seeing the Therapist

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California and New Jersey’s new laws banning talk therapy to address same-sex attraction in minors violate the rights of parents and children to seek counseling that conforms to their values. They also endanger First Amendment rights.
Public Discourse

Presidential Lies and Political Ownership

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When President Obama lied about the Affordable Care Act, he substituted his own self-governance and self-constitution for that of the American people.
Public Discourse

Conservatism and Freedom

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Conservatives need to refine their understanding and presentation of the moral substance of their cause, crafting a message that appeals to both reason and imagination.
Public Discourse

Praying in Greece

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Judicial precedent, historical awareness, and the very nature of prayer all make it clear: legislators have the right to begin their assemblies with a prayer.
Public Discourse

Nature and God in Ethics

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Just as an engineer can work out the purpose of a machine by examining its structure, reason can discover the proper end of human action by examining human nature. Yet there is also a supernatural morality that subsumes and exceeds natural moral standards.
Public Discourse

Memo from Paul Ryan to Georgetown Faculty: Ever Heard of a Tea Party Catholic?

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In most cases, Catholic social teaching provides the correct principles for resolving complex social and economic questions, not specific policy requirements. Nathan Shlueter reviews Sam Gregg’s new book in the voice of Paul Ryan.
Public Discourse

The Global Fight for Children’s Rights: Europe

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Underground movements in England and France are beginning to counter the global LGBT ideology that has entrenched itself in the governments of First-World nations.
Public Discourse

Sexual Radicalism: Imperial Project, Global Goliath

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While US conservatives are distracted by internal debates, the wealthy and powerful international movement for LGBT rights is aggressively targeting nations that are poorer and less powerful.
Public Discourse

An Orwellian Warning for Conservatives

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Supporting crony capitalism weakens the appeal of social conservatism; it is difficult to hold the moral high ground on abortion and marriage while defending exploiters of the poor and oppressed.
Public Discourse

The Problem of Freedom in China

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A growing movement in China seeks to establish freedom through a truly democratic and constitutional government. Cheng Guangcheng’s advocacy is an important step toward curbing the unlimited power of the Communist Party of China.
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

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 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

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

Politics in Witness to Truth

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The political and spiritual journey of a black Catholic staffer at the Democratic National Committee who quits his job in response to the Obama administration’s aggressive pro-abortion tactics and becomes a proud Republican.
Public Discourse

Moral Anthropology, Social Ontology, and Authentic Human Freedom

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The late Jean Bethke Elshtain understood that human beings are inherently relational, arguing that families are essential for human flourishing.

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