RR Reno “Diversity” is one of what Richard Weaver called “god terms.” It’s a word like “inclusion” and “empowerment” that’s meant to conjure an unquestionable good that puts an end to questions and criticism. Nobody can be against diversity. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/02/its-the-culture-stupid Read more

RR Reno With the announcement of his resignation, Pope Benedict signals the end of the heroic generation. No longer will the Catholic Church be run by a man who was a participant at the Second Vatican Council, the three years in the life of the Church that have defined so much of the last fifty. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/02/benedict-and-the-next-pope Read more

Something startling is happening in the Muslim world — and no, I don’t mean the Arab Spring or the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. According to a leading demographer, a “sea change” is producing a sharp decline in Muslim fertility rates and a “flight from marriage” among Arab women. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-a-demographic-shift-in-the-muslim-world/2013/02/08/54ce7bf0-7152-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html Read more

Robert Lopez Conferring marriage on same-sex couples means some children will never be able to invoke the words “father” and “mother” in order to describe the household that their parents are now allowed to describe as a “marriage.” In order to grant validation and prestige to mom and mom or dad and dad, the kids lose access to the value of celebrating a maternal and paternal line of ancestry. Come Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, they will not be equal... Read more

David Virtue Here’s an interesting headline from the National Review magazine: Evangelical Catholics: The future of the Catholic Church.”Lukewarm Catholicism has no future; submitting to the transforming fire of the Holy Spirit is no longer optional,” George Weigel writes in his new book, Evangelical Catholicism. We live in a time when “religious faith, commitment to a religious community, and a religiously informed morality can no longer be taken for granted. . . . Evangelical Catholicism calls the entire Church to... Read more

In his first official day as leader of the Church of England, the Rt Rev Justin Welby is expected to say that marriage should remain “between a man and a woman”. As MPs prepare for the vote on gay marriage on Tuesday, Bishop Welby will give his first interviews after being officially confirmed in the post at a ceremony in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=17167#.URbMw_LHHEc Read more

Matthew Franck In the latest proposed version of the HHS mandate, the government presumes to say which employers get religious freedom and how much they get, but all religious employers are obligated to live out their beliefs and should have the freedom to do so. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/02/7883/ Read more

The nation’s falling fertility rate is the root cause of many of our problems. And it’s only getting worse. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323375204578270053387770718.html#printMode Read more

Even if all the market reforms of the Washington think tanks, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes Magazine were enacted, we’d still need to kiss the Great American Economy goodbye. Below the level of economic policy lies a society that is producing fewer people capable of hard work, especially married men with children. As the retreat from marriage continues apace, there are fewer and fewer of these men, resulting in a slowly, permanently decelerating economy. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/02/7821/?utm_source=RTA+Fagan+Marriage+Family+Economy&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

A behind-the-scenes look at the Israel Museum’s massive exhibit, opening next week, on the hated Roman monarch who ruled Judea on behalf of Rome http://www.timesofisrael.com/herod-gets-his-15-minutes/ Read more