Ryan N. S. ToppingJune, they say, is the month for weddings. If you’re involved in one this summer, as mother, father, bride, groom, or friend, you’re probably buried in lists. There are: the cakes to be baked, the flowers to be cut, the guests to be fed, the speeches to write, and (some of) the aunties to avoid. … Read more
If you’ve been with us for the first two parts here and here, you’ll recall the three waves of attack against the family—(1) the assertion that marriage enslaves, (2) that children are a burden, and (3) that sexual difference is a fiction. How to respond? I’d like to conclude our short history by reflecting not … Read more
The second wave also accepted the Marxist premise that justice demands strict material equality. Next, the wagging finger turned from men to children. If women wish to have sex with men (so the thinking went), they should not be punished with unwanted offspring. For the most part, artificial contraception was seen as the first ring … Read more
The progressive cultural elite has long perpetuated prejudices against the family that, unchallenged, lead to its ruin. Among several I cite three: (1) the assertion that marriage makes men and women less free; (2) the assumption that children are a burden; and (3) the insistence that sexual differentiation is a fiction. These three ideas represent, … Read more
In 430, as the Vandals laid siege to his city and to his people, Augustine lay dying. “In his last illness, he himself acted in this way. He had the penitential psalms of David written down and fixed to the wall, so that though in bed sick he could see and read them, while weeping … Read more