Civitas Dei |
|
|
An anonymous blog about faith, politics, sports, and anything else that happens to catch my attention. Why Anonymous? Email Me at civitasdei at charter dot net Blogs o' faith Open Book Mark Shea CT's Weblog Mere Comments Evangelical Outpost Joyful Christian Politics NRO's Corner Dan Drezner Oxblog Talking Points Memo Volokh Conspiracy Kausfiles Prof Bainbridge Instapundit Crooked Timber Political Theory Legal Theory Blog PT Daily Update Mirror of Justice Newspapers New York Times Washington Post Financial Times Atlanta JC LA Times Dallas Morn News
Archives
|
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Working Women: Stuart Buck has an interesting post about the increase in women who are deciding to stay home with their young children. He's interested its effect on GDP (less income, so it will presumably be negative), but I wonder as to why this is happening? Last fall, the NYT Mag ran article (you can find it on Nexis) about all these very well-educated female Princeton grads who had decided to "opt-out" and stay at home for a while with their children. They cited the lack of fulfillment in law firms (shocking!), the difficulty in finding high quality day care, etc. Now, most of these women were married to high-income earning men, so there wasn't much of a financial sacrifice involved. What would be really interesting is if this trend crossed income lines - that is, if families were making financial sacrifices (i.e. moving to smaller houses) to have someone at home. Tuesday, May 18, 2004
The Bishops and Abortion: Rod Dreher has a good column on some of the problems Catholic Bishops have in speaking out against pro-abortion pols when they've been unable or unwilling to teach on abortion themselves: The episcopal crusade for electoral pro-life purity brings to mind a principal overseeing a failing high school, who marches into a classroom demanding that illiterate children who have been taught by incompetents suddenly read a passage from Shakespeare. I suspect, though, that the problem is even deeper than that: the Bishops don't teach the Church's doctrine (or require their priests to do so) at least in large part because they don't believe it to be right. James Davison Hunter once argued that the Catholic Church was better positioned to withstand the corrosive winds of modernity (or post-modernity) than evangelicals (the mainliners are already finished) because they have an ecclesial structure that's undemocratic and resistant to change. That's probably true - as long as the ecclesial leadership is committed to the tradition. (As an aside, I should note that evangelicals are not all that much better on these sorts of issues. As a guy who's still "protest"-ing, I can't remember a single time when I've heard abortion mentioned from the pulpit. I do remember once, a couple of years ago, when I heard a pastor preach against divorce, and my wife and I talked all the way home about how unusual it was, and how brave. Sigh.) The Bishops and Abortion: Rod Dreher has a good column on some of the problems Catholic Bishops have in speaking out against pro-abortion pols when they've been unable or unwilling to teach on abortion themselves: The episcopal crusade for electoral pro-life purity brings to mind a principal overseeing a failing high school, who marches into a classroom demanding that illiterate children who have been taught by incompetents suddenly read a passage from Shakespeare. I suspect, though, that the problem is even deeper than that: the Bishops don't teach the Church's doctrine (or require their priests to do so) at least in large part because they don't believe it to be right. James Davison Hunter once argued that the Catholic Church was better positioned to withstand the corrosive winds of modernity (or post-modernity) than evangelicals (the mainliners are already finished) because they have an ecclesial structure that's undemocratic and resistant to change. That's probably true - as long as the ecclesial leadership is committed to the tradition. (As an aside, I should note that evangelicals are not all that much better on these sorts of issues. As a guy who's still "protest"-ing, I can't remember a single time when I've heard abortion mentioned from the pulpit. I do remember once, a couple of years ago, when I heard a pastor preach against divorce, and my wife and I talked all the way home about how unusual it was, and how brave. Sigh.) The Bishops and Abortion: Rod Dreher has a good column on some of the problems Catholic Bishops have in speaking out against pro-abortion pols when they've been unable or unwilling to teach on abortion themselves: The episcopal crusade for electoral pro-life purity brings to mind a principal overseeing a failing high school, who marches into a classroom demanding that illiterate children who have been taught by incompetents suddenly read a passage from Shakespeare. I suspect, though, that the problem is even deeper than that: the Bishops don't teach the Church's doctrine (or require their priests to do so) at least in large part because they don't believe it to be right. James Davison Hunter once argued that the Catholic Church was better positioned to withstand the corrosive winds of modernity (or post-modernity) than evangelicals (the mainliners are already finished) because they have an ecclesial structure that's undemocratic and resistant to change. That's probably true - as long as the ecclesial leadership is committed to the tradition. (As an aside, I should note that evangelicals are not all that much better on these sorts of issues. As a guy who's still "protest"-ing, I can't remember a single time when I've heard abortion mentioned from the pulpit. I do remember once, a couple of years ago, when I heard a pastor preach against divorce, and my wife and I talked all the way home about how unusual it was, and how brave. Sigh.) The Bishops and Abortion: Rod Dreher has a good column on some of the problems Catholic Bishops have in speaking out against pro-abortion pols when they've been unable or unwilling to teach on abortion themselves: The episcopal crusade for electoral pro-life purity brings to mind a principal overseeing a failing high school, who marches into a classroom demanding that illiterate children who have been taught by incompetents suddenly read a passage from Shakespeare. I suspect, though, that the problem is even deeper than that: the Bishops don't teach the Church's doctrine (or require their priests to do so) at least in large part because they don't believe it to be right. James Davison Hunter once argued that the Catholic Church was better positioned to withstand the corrosive winds of modernity (or post-modernity) than evangelicals (the mainliners are already finished) because they have an ecclesial structure that's undemocratic and resistant to change. That's probably true - as long as the ecclesial leadership is committed to the tradition. (As an aside, I should note that evangelicals are not all that much better on these sorts of issues. As a guy who's still "protest"-ing, I can't remember a single time when I've heard abortion mentioned from the pulpit. I do remember once, a couple of years ago, when I heard a pastor preach against divorce, and my wife and I talked all the way home about how unusual it was, and how brave. Sigh.) Squeak, squeak: Bill Kristol takes a couple of whacks at folks like George Will and Tucker Carlson, who started out as supporters of the war and have now begun to backtrack a bit. Interesting thing, though, is that he goes on to give the administration some advice on what it should be doing and concludes with this: If the president spoke this way and his administration acted in concert--if the president led the country as a fully engaged commander in chief--surely the American people would prefer this to the squeaking of his opponents. If not, then he, and we, are headed to defeat in any event. But at least this path would give victory a chance. Hmmm...this sounds right to me. Bush & co. need to realize that the election won't be won with strategically placed visits or carefully crafted campaign commercials. It will be won if by November things look in decent order in Iraq. Good policy will make good politics. If, on the other hand, Iraq looks like a mess... Peter Singer: A nice review of Peter Singer's "book" on the ethics of George W. Bush. (Nice as in good, not as in laudatory). (Hat tip to Moteworthy) Friday, February 27, 2004
Female Junior Faculty at Harvard I'm sure that all of those defending the exclusion of conservatives from the academy will be sure to suggest that the numbers of female junior faculty at Harvard are merely reflective of women's "intelligence." Thursday, February 26, 2004
Weblog: Four Dozen Nigerian Christians Murdered in Church - Christianity Today Magazine In case you were focusing on more important things, here's something that ought to bring some perspective. |