Should I Desire That You All Follow My Religion?
(Cross-posted on the Front Page) I would hope not to court much controversy by saying that all of us should live in accordance with the truth. Call it a notion of natural law that...
Category: Hospitality
Does Opposition to Abortion Demand Certainty That the Fetus Is a Person?
My latest on the Front Page. A excerpt: I agree with Ned Resnikoff that the issue of abortion hinges on the question of personhood, but I am not sure the question of personhood as...
Torture Isn’t Complicated
Jon Stewart, the comedic political commentator and host of The Daily Show, has an unfortunate habit of thinking he’s being hospitable to a legitimate opposing viewpoint when really he’s just inclining an ear to...
Thursday Theological Inquiry: God as Self-Emptying
My imagining of God has evolved some over the years as I’ve moved from accentuating figures and terms of power (almighty, omnipotent) to highlighting those of humility (kenosis, self-emptying, weakness). These days I am...
To Hell with the Other
Mitt Romney’s “not elegantly stated” remarks expressed a disposition that’s not exclusive to him or to his base. As I wrote previously, disdain for otherness–a deep-seated and disordering belief that being other is bad–remains...
The Slavery of the Same
Conor P. Williams praised Michelle Obama’s DNC speech for combating the ugly belief that the president is something other than a real American. “It was a speech that demanded the president’s recognition as one...
Wednesday Philosophical Query #3
Today’s proposition comes from Gabriel Marcel: A community is only possible when beings acknowledge that they are mutually different while existing together in their differences. Was he correct? Discuss.
Brief Remarks on Bigotry
Doug Mataconis looks to the definition of a bigot to show that the word does not accurately characterize all opponents of same-sex marriage. He is correct. Bigotry involves obstinate devotion to one’s hatred and...
I’m a Bad American
I make it point to assume initially that Mitt Romney doesn’t believe the words that come out of his mouth, but the convictions he expressed in his VFW foreign policy speech may be just...
Does Justice Demand Health Care?
A few years ago when my wife and I lived in an apartment complex, our next door neighbor, a retired elderly lady, weakly knocked on our door. We opened it to find that she...
