The Value of an Autistic Life

Last updated on: August 24, 2013 at 1:00 pm By Julia Smucker

If there were a prize for the most egregious affronts to human dignity, the anonymous letter sent to the family of a 13-year-old autistic boy in Ontario last week would doubtless be a top contender. The writer, who signed the letter “one pissed off mother”, did not stop at complaining very rudely about the boy’s presence in his grandmother’s neighborhood where he often spends his summer days, but went on to thoroughly disparage his overall worth, ultimately suggesting that the family “move or euthanize him”. ... Read more

Enough Killing of Innocents: A Consitent Life Quote for LifeMatters

Last updated on: August 23, 2013 at 10:30 am By Julia Smucker

This weekend, the consistent life publication Life Matters Journal is hosting a “blogfest” in response to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s “AbortionMatters blog carnival”. While clearly responding to a polemical position, this is not about perpetuating divides but attempting to bridge them: demonstrating that it is not only possible but indeed more consistent to be both pro-woman and pro-life, that concerns for universal human dignity and protection of the vulnerable underlie and connect a host of “issues” that are artificially separated and polarized... Read more

A Metal-edged Feast of the Assumption

Last updated on: August 14, 2013 at 8:51 pm By David Cruz-Uribe

In honor of the Blessed Mother on the Feast of the Assumption, and a pointed response to the commbox critics who find Christian Rock an oxymoron: Maria Maiestatis by Fratello Metallo, an Italian Capuchin friar. A happy and blessed Feast day! Read more

Daniel Dennett Presents: An Argument Against Naturalism

Last updated on: May 3, 2017 at 7:01 pm By Brett Salkeld

I was recently stunned to find, in an interview with Daniel Dennett published in Third Way (July/August 2013, p. 14), the following exchange: Interviewer: What might constitute an insuperable problem for naturalism, then? Dennett: Well, I thought of one thing in a little reverie just yesterday. If you take all the integers – one, two, three, four – starting with zero and you arrange them in a sort of a square spiral and you put a red circle, say, around... Read more

Who is responsible for the living wage?

Last updated on: August 13, 2013 at 11:44 am By Morning's Minion

The right to a just wage, or a living wage, is one of the cornerstones of Catholic social teaching. Blessed John XXIII probably put it best when he said that “the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage... Read more

Al-Qaeda and the Christian Moral Imagination

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 3:00 pm By Julia Smucker

The following is intended primarily as a thought experiment. As such, I think it reasonable to request from the outset that it be given some thought. Since I am addressing a highly charged subject that may evoke a variety of passionate responses, I invite those wishing to comment (and yes, this goes equally for those who agree with me as for those who don’t) to give at least five minutes of serious reflection – I mean genuinely reflecting, not just reacting –... Read more

Some Thoughts on Guns

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 5:54 am By Matt Talbot

I thought I’d share some thoughts about guns and our society. If this post seems a bit muddled or indecisive, it’s not an accident — it reflects some real ambivalence I have about this. Some of that ambivalence comes from the makeup of my extended family. (more…) Read more

Words Worth Waiting For

Last updated on: August 5, 2013 at 2:46 pm By Julia Smucker

This morning, I went to daily Mass at a parish close to where I am currently house-sitting. As the Mass began, it became vaguely apparent that something was not quite as expected. A bit of a pause just before the sign of the cross, and a longer one between the Son … and Holy Spirit. I actually wondered for a minute if the priest had momentarily forgotten who the third person of the trinity was. And then I noticed him... Read more

Secular and Religious Violence

Last updated on: August 2, 2013 at 3:16 pm By Morning's Minion

Over at America, William Cavanaugh has a thought-provoking essay on the nature of violence. His musing is prompted by the coverage of the Chechen background of the Boston bombers – a coverage that plays up Islamic violence and plays down nationalistic violence. As Cavanaugh puts it: “There will be no debates over the fanaticism caused by devotion to the idea of a Chechen nation, nor the violence caused by Russian insistence that Chechnya remain a part of greater Russia. Why... Read more