What Election ’14 Means for Pro-Life

Last updated on: November 5, 2014 at 12:14 pm By Samuel James

Last night the party of President Obama was routed in spectacular fashion, as Republicans gained more than enough to take control of the Senate and fortify their healthy numbers in the House of Representatives. There’s no shortage of reading this morning for the politicos, so I would refer you elsewhere for comprehensive reaction. But I do want to take a minute and contemplate some interesting facts pertaining to the election results and abortion. Pro-life candidates had tremendous success last night.... Read more

Why I Vote Conservative

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 12:59 pm By Samuel James

Election Day is tomorrow for the United States. Federal and state elections will be held all over the country to determine what leadership will look like, at least until the next elections (the Presidency is not up for votes until 2016). Politics is often a lamentable business. Regardless of which party and candidates emerge victorious on Wednesday morning, many Americans will cherish the cessation of political television ads and relentless phone campaigns. Like religion, political worldview is often a topic... Read more

The Christian Ideas of “The Exorcist”

Last updated on: October 31, 2014 at 10:49 am By Samuel James

William Friedkin’s The Exorcist turned 40 years old last year. Like Kubrick’s 2001, The Exorcist, adapted from William Peter Blatty’s novel by the author himself, remains effective filmmaking even as its most stunning moments have lost some of the shock of novelty that first generation audiences experienced. Great movies treat visual effects and set pieces as means rather than ends. The Exorcist is ultimately a film about human ideas, like belief, the problem of evil, and spirituality in postmodern age.... Read more

A Moment of Irony for UC Berkeley

Last updated on: October 28, 2014 at 1:00 pm By Samuel James

You’ll recall that Bill Maher recently drew the ire of some on the Left for asserting that Islam contains a “connecting tissue” to violence, intolerance and illiberalism generally. Several liberals pushed back against Maher; actor Ben Affleck called these sentiments “racist” on Maher’s own show. Some on the right have found themselves in rare agreement with Maher, though I had some thoughts on why conservatives should be careful there. Now, the always entertaining student body at University of California Berkeley has upped... Read more

Asking Her if She Will

Last updated on: October 27, 2014 at 3:51 pm By Samuel James

On Saturday, October 25, 2014, I asked Emily to marry me. She said yes. I know she could do better. I know she could have her pick of guys better looking (wouldn’t have to go far), or with bigger smiles or bigger checkbooks. I know she could have any sort of tender artistic soul, or a natural romantic who bleeds Justin Timberlake lyrics. There’s no sane, red-blooded man on this green planet who would not try to catch her eye... Read more

Speaking To the Age of Fear

Last updated on: October 24, 2014 at 11:46 am By Samuel James

Are we living in a generation of fear? It’s not as simple a question as it might seem. It requires digging underneath the seemingly endless sediment of distraction and medication that frees millions of Americans every day from the task of reflection. Fear, like love, is usually only identified by its extreme manifestations, those things which we call “paranoia.” Yet for many people there seems to be an undercurrent of dread beneath their daily lives. And it could be that... Read more

The Heretic Huck Finn

Last updated on: October 21, 2014 at 5:46 pm By Samuel James

B.D. McClay continues the conversation about A.O. Scott’s essay on the death of adulthood. The accompanying illustration itself is worth a reading of the post. McClay aims to clarify further what is meant by the word “adult.” He spots a promising literary example in Huck Finn, and contemplates that the real test of adulthood is awareness and execution of moral agency: Fiedler (and Scott) both focus on the great refusers of American literature, particularly Huck Finn, who decides to go... Read more

David Brooks On Everybody’s “2 Adams”

Last updated on: October 20, 2014 at 11:31 am By Samuel James

This morning I saw Rod Dreher highlight this speech given this month by New York Times columnist David Brooks. As Dreher says, the entire speech is worth every second you’ll spend reading it. Brooks gives something of a meditation on spirituality and the Christian story of humanity. As is true of his work at the Times, Brooks’ great gift is elevating the reader to moral and philosophical heights with plain but illuminating human insight. His perceptiveness of the spirit of... Read more

A Hill(song) On Which to Die

Last updated on: October 20, 2014 at 3:12 pm By Samuel James

The contrast is striking. Brian Houston, lead pastor of Hillsong, tells The New York Times that his church is in “an ongoing conversation” about homosexuality and same-sex marriage. This might sound cryptic to Houston, but its code has long since been deciphered. “Ongoing conversation” almost certainly refers to a change that has already happened, not one that is to come. The “conversation” meme was co-opted several years ago by the Emergent Church movement to intitate gradual theological reorientation without scaring evangelicals away.... Read more

Brittany Maynard, Rachel Held Evans, and Not Giving Up

Last updated on: October 17, 2014 at 3:07 pm By Samuel James

The saddest thing about Brittany Maynard’s journey towards suicide is not that she is making the wrong choice, though she is. It’s the fact that her choice has made her a cultural celebrity, an adulated icon that symbolizes Western idolatry of youth, vitality, and sexiness. I can’t look at Maynard, beautifully photographed in People magazine, without thinking of the cancer-stricken children at Kosair Hospital here in Louisville. Should they give up too? If Maynard is dying with dignity, are these... Read more