"It takes a village." Why do people frown on this idea, as though it were some liberal invention? It is actually a very old understanding, rooted in the understanding of Christian community. Perhaps our contemporary western idea of "family" is too rigid, too isolated. Read more

  The topic of victimhood came up yesterday in two entirely separate groups devoted to Catholic feminism. In one group the emphasis was on “badass feminism” – in the other, it was on the irrelevance of words and images.  In both cases there was an insistence that refusing to be a victim is not only an option, but a morally superior option. This viewpoint I find untenable from a philosophical, from a feminist, and from a Christian perspective. Badass feminism... Read more

(image credit: pixabay) There’s been a lot of talk about intersectionality lately, not only in academic circles but in the mainstream corporate and social media. The term, coined by legal professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, refers to the way in which discrimination happens along a number of intersecting lines of power, privilege, and prejudice, and was initially introduced to talk about the particular prejudice directed against black women. The term is popular in identity politics, but has to do with social justice, too,... Read more

  “Moreover, friendship would seem to hold cities together, and legislators would seem to be more concerned about it than about justice.  For concord would seem to be similar to friendship and they aim at concord above all, while they try above all to expel civil conflict, which is enmity. Further, if people are friends, they have no need of justice, but if they are just they need friendship in addition; and the justice that is most just seems to... Read more

Have you heard about this controversial writer? A political exile and vocal critic of several recent popes, she is renowned in literary circles for her poetic innovation in the genre of erotic verse. She rose to prominence as a poet early on, with a series of poetic-philosophical reflections justifying the spirituality of her passion for a married man, as well as her radical new ideas about both language and church politics. Her political activism in opposing church corruption has on... Read more

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles. No nation is the special elect of God, and our identity transcends nationality, so we should know better than to idolize earthly rulers – but faith has relevance in the public square, so we have political obligations. If we... Read more

Earlier I discussed gender bias in voting. Yes, it exists, but there’s a latent hypocrisy in the assumption that this is some exclusively female problem, given that for centuries men were so gender biased as to exclude women from the public sphere entirely. This brings me to my next topic: that hegemonic male gender bias may be less obvious to some because masculine identity is so often elided with human identity. The idea of “man” is connected with the supposedly-gender-neutral-universal MAN,... Read more

I would love to have a woman for president, but am not supporting Hillary Clinton. This is not because she is a democrat; nor because she seems awkward and cold; nor is it even because she is pro-choice.  Party affiliation runs counter to my loyalty to Christ, as well as my freedom as an intellectual.  And, as a woman whose profession involves public speaking (hours a week in the classroom) I ran very early on into the gender prejudices that make... Read more