Weekend Roundup [5/22]

Weekend Roundup [5/22] May 22, 2015

Roundup

1) Why Britain Should Leave the EU—Pascal Gobry, The Week

We often like to define ourselves by what we’re against, rather than what we’re for, and elites are no exception. And what many elites are against is nation-states and tradition. Therefore, European and global elites love the European Union and hate anything that stands in the way of its multi-decade project to build a federal European state, including that pesky European tradition, democracy.

2) Heads, LGBTs Win, Tails, Christians Lose—Rod Dreher

You understand, of course, that this is not about getting equal treatment. The lesbian couple received that. This is about demonizing a point of view, and driving those who hold it out of the public square. Just so we’re clear about that.

3) The Legacy of “The Closing of the American Mind”—Wilifred McClay, The Imaginative Conservative

Closing is surely an acquired taste. It may well be one of those books that will always be more admired than read by the larger public. Rarely has a book been more resistant to skimming, or more difficult to paraphrase. Never, I think, has there been a more unlikely manifesto.

4) Why Weren’t Baptists More Enthusiastic Patriots?—Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins, The Anxious Bench

Baptists were ambivalent about the American Revolution. Across America they lamented the tribulations of war, knowing that it smothered revival and paralyzed churches. And they recognized that the same Americans who clamored for liberty from Britain often denied religious freedom to dissenting churches. Could the Baptists trust the Patriot leaders?

5) Big (Phony) Data—Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard

In truth Green’s study tells us nothing about the people who hope to defend traditional marriage. It does speak volumes​—​whole libraries!​—​about the parochialism and ignorance of the social scientists who did the study, their peers who reviewed and published and cited it, and the journalists who swallowed it whole.


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