Sed Contra and Scandal of Particularity both have follow-up posts on the Rod Dreher article mentioned here yesterday. Hugo Schwyzer has a good post on “supply” versus “demand” approaches to reducing abortion. And check out Beliefnet’s Steven Waldman’s blog from the GOP convention covering the religion-and-politics beat.

I admire the boldness with which these persons undertake to speak of God. In addressing their argument to infidels, their first chapter is to prove Divinity from the works of nature. I should not be astonished at their enterprise, if they were addressing their argument to the faithful; for it is certain that those who…

Bill Vallicella has an incisive post on the meaning and importance of reverence, a concept that has fallen into much disrepute in our culture. Postmodern culture despises the idea that we owe anything or anyone reverence, because it flies in the face of the kind of debased egalitarianism, unthinkingly embraced by many, that flattens distinctions…

One of the institutions conservatives want to conserve is the family. They rightly observe that intact families are a necessary condition for any stable and healthy social order. So why do conservatives tend to support policies that undermine the stability of families? That’s what Rod Dreher wants to know: I stand with the late Russell…

David Brooks lays out an agenda for a re-invented GOP.

Plot your place on the political map (via Naked Villainy). Looks like I’m a shade to the right of Tony Blair and a bit of an idealist. (Though, why are Stalin and Hitler classified as “idealists”??)

(The continuation of a long-neglected series. See Part I here and Part II here.) To deal with evil requires understanding and dealing with the sources of evil. Christians believe that human evil is rooted in a primal turning away from God. In rejecting God, we set the stage for all kinds of evil (cf. Romans…

Alan McCann at Via Fortunata takes issue with my post on St. Thomas and private property. He accuses me of “uncritical leftist thinking” in drawing the conclusion that Thomas would have endorsed a role for government in ameliorating the plight of the poor: This is typical of a lot of uncritical, leftist thinking within and…

Though I opposed the Iraq war, I’ve always tried to take seriously the arguments of the war’s proponents. Nor do I assume that war advocates were arguing in bad faith or from ulterior motives. I’m not a pacifist, nor am I reflexively opposed to the use of American military power. In thinking about these matters…

An excellent illustration of the differences between libertarians and conservatives is supplied by this essay from Orthodox theologian David B. Hart in last month’s First Things: The only sound premise for a people’s self-governance is a culture of common virtue directed towards the one Good. And a society that can no longer conceive of freedom…