Scandal of Particularity has a good discussion on whether Christians ought to vote. The post links to a forum on the Ekklesia project where the issue is debated vigorously, as well as an essay by evangelical scholar Mark Noll on why he will not be voting for president. There are two arguments at work here,…

The London Spectator interviews conservative philosopher Roger Scruton: Two issues stand out. ‘Europe — our legal autonomy, our right to govern ourselves’, and ‘immigration — our right to control our own borders, and to demand cultural assimilation of people who settle here. If the Conservative party were to make those its central policies, it would…

I care far more how humanity lives than how long. Progress, for me, means increasing goodness and happiness of individual lives. For the species, as for each man, mere longevity seems to me a contemptible ideal. — C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

A Christian case for the humane treatment of animals: …human abuse of their authority over animals is not sinful because of the suffering it causes animals but, rather, because of its rejection of God’s created order. The sin that takes place in modern factory farms today is not against pigs and chickens, but against God—for…

From Jane Galt: Smart growth is great if you are an upscale professional, preferably without children, who can score a relatively large apartment fairly close to work. It’s a lot less fun for the majority trying to cram your family into four or five rooms. Smart growth is great if you are savvy enough to…

I have always been something of a contrarian. I don’t say this to brag, since I don’t regard it as necessarily a good thing. But I think it’s safe to say that people who know me well would agree that I frequently take certain positions partly out of a desire to disagree with those around…

Writing at Godspy, a French immigrant offers her take on the political divisions in the U.S.: Instead of entrenching ourselves deeper into opposing sides and blaming the other one for every wrong, I wonder if our faith could be the agent that promotes bridge building and better understanding. I’m pretty sure that’s what Jesus meant…

Brendan O’Neill: On both sides of the Atlantic there’s a large portion of moralising in the panics over obesity, school dinners, junk-food-guzzling and the rest. What is presented as straightforward medical concern for our health and wellbeing is often really a judgement on lifestyle and behaviour – and especially the lifestyle and behaviour of a…

What would I give to hear an American president make a Monty Python reference in a major speech! This is from Tony Blair’s speech to the Labour Party conference: And the daftest thing said about New Labour is not the usual “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Like someone I met at the…

It’s only natural that we humans would seek to evade moral obligations in a variety of ways. After all, they’re irksome, they interfere with our plans and projects, and they may even require a large measure of personal sacrifice. So we rationalize, we make excuses and look for ways to get out of them. This…