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Pillar

Sexuality & Family

The second pillar of a decent society is the institution of the family, which is built upon the comprehensive sexual union of man and woman. No other institution can top the family’s ability to transmit what is pivotal—character formation, values, virtues, and enduring love—to each new generation.

The Cultural Roots of Our Demographic Ennui

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Public Discourse

God and Moral Absolutes

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If appeals to God get ruled out, either by disbelief in his existence or reluctance to rely upon it, then it isn’t possible to demonstrate that there are moral absolutes.
Public Discourse

The Least Evil Option: A Defense of Harry Truman

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Rather than simply denouncing Truman for his decision to employ the atomic bomb, his critics need to confront the harsh reality of war and seriously consider the lack of viable alternatives available to him.
Public Discourse

Contemporary Family Law: Divorcing Marriage from Children

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Family law has changed during the past 50 years to the detriment of child well-being, paving the way for the arguments in support of same-sex marriage. But there is a new strategy available to us to respond to this situation. The second in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

Traditional Family Law: Connecting Marriage with Children

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The Supreme Court was more right than it knew during the past two centuries as it identified the state’s interest in marriage as children and their formation. The first in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

The Most Controversial Decision: Challenging Pro-Life Witness

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The tradition of common morality does not permit us to excuse the atomic bomb as a “necessary” evil.
Public Discourse

Sexual Abuse and Moral Indifference

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The recent scandal at Penn State has brought to light more than just sexual abuse and its cover-up; it has exposed the indifference that cultural norms have groomed in some of our young adults.
Public Discourse

Moral Absolutes and the Moral Life

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Moral absolutes are not “mere” restrictions on our actions. Nor should they be suspended even when upholding them might bring about grave consequences. They are essential for protecting human wellbeing.
Public Discourse

Child Sexual Abuse and the Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court has helped to foster a culture that encourages the sexual exploitation of children.
Public Discourse

A Modest Proposal to Reduce Unnecessary Divorce

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A new proposal for reducing unnecessary divorce gets to the heart of the problem: the current system seeks to meet a divorcing couple’s every need—except for time and education on reconciliation.
Public Discourse

The New Singleness

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The decline of manhood and norms around sex, marriage, and family produces for young women what may in fact have to be endured. But it shouldn't be celebrated.
Public Discourse

The Scientific Revolution and Contemporary Ethics

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Modern science does not require us to abandon notions of nature and human nature upon which so much of traditional ethics depends.
Public Discourse

Pornography, Public Morality, and Constitutional Rights

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Every member of the community has an interest in the quality of the culture that will shape their experiences, their quality of life, and the choices effectively available to them and their children.
Public Discourse

Punishment: Political, Not Metaphysical

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The presumptive starting point in the natural law and, more specifically, Christian tradition is one of absolute opposition to intentional killing of beings created in the image of God, for which exceptions must be earned; but the traditional justifications for such exceptions fail.
Public Discourse

Punishment, Proportionality, and the Death Penalty: A Reply to Chris Tollefsen

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While not explicitly denying the principle of proportionality, Tollefsen implicitly rejects it, leaving his argument not only counterintuitive but incoherent.
Public Discourse

Post-Kinsey: Is There Anything Normal About Pornography?

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An “adaptationist” approach to pornography is dangerous because it ignores widespread research showing that pornography harms society at many levels.
Public Discourse

Abortion, Divorce and “Same-Sex Marriage”: No Blood, No Foul?

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Political legitimization of “private” sexual and marital choices causes much public harm. We have been personally harmed by the regimes of abortion and easy divorce.
Public Discourse

Capital Punishment, Dignity, and Authority: A Response to Ed Feser

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Nothing that a man does can change his nature as man, and so, considered in himself, it will always remain wrong to kill him. This should be the final judgment of practical reason when brought to bear on the question of capital punishment.
Public Discourse

In Defense of Capital Punishment

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If one accepts the legitimacy of punishment and the principle of proportionality, then it is impossible to claim that capital punishment is intrinsically wrong.
Public Discourse

Capital Punishment, Sanctity of Life, and Human Dignity

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Intentional killing is always wrong, and support of capital punishment often stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of human dignity.
Public Discourse

End Child Pornography: Enforce Adult Pornography Laws

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Ending child pornography is as much a matter of vigorously prosecuting those who distribute adult pornography as it is a matter of prosecuting child pornographers. Presidential candidates should pledge to initiate adult pornography criminal cases and fund research into the adult-child pornography link.
Public Discourse

Defend Marriage: Moms and Dads Matter

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Presidential candidates in the next election should uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Public Discourse

Pornography and National Security

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The frequency with which terrorists are found with pornography raises important questions about the possible effects of pornography on our national security.
Public Discourse

One Man, One Woman, and the Common Good: Marriage’s Public Purpose

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The state should uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, because the state’s interest in marriage is fundamentally about public, not private, purposes for marriage. Adapted from testimony delivered before the United States Senate.
Public Discourse

Philosophy, Marriage, and Moral Grandstanding

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In a discipline whose point is dispassionate reasoning and discourse, some would shut down debate and silence dissenters on a deep and complex moral-political issue. And the view they would anathematize, far from irrational, is more coherent and more compelling than their slippery and ill-defined 'default'.
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