The postmodern world is fond of congratulating itself that, owing to the withering away of ancient superstitions and the final triumph of science, religious warfare of the 16th and 17th centuries can never be renewed in Western societies. What can we possibly be thinking? Religious warfare has not only reestablished itself: it’s doing so in [...]

Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in the May 1988 print edition of Crisis. It has been edited for brevity. Many people have asked me what it was like to live through the nomination and hearings of my husband, Robert Bork. I usually answer that it was like being besieged in a battle where the reinforcements [...]

In case you haven’t noticed, the United Kingdom is going through a collective political meltdown. The 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union proved to be the pulled thread that is unraveling the seemingly seamless garment of the British constitution. Now as the shrewd observer will know, unlike the U.S. Constitution, the British [...]

From the beginning of Donald J. Trump’s quixotic presidential campaign, political and media elites have attempted to browbeat the “dangerous” new nationalist movement like an unruly child. First, it was National Review’s “Conservatives against Trump” symposium, which excommunicated its Trump-voting readers for their infidelity to the dogmata of movement conservatism. Now a similar proclamation has [...]

In 2013, Pope Francis sonorously and rightly enjoined the bishops of the world: “Avoid the scandal of being ‘airport bishops’!”  An almost obsessive compulsion of some prelates to travel beyond their own dioceses evokes the absenteeism of the Middle Ages, when many bishops and abbots were seldom seen among their own people. The Pope travels [...]

Debates are about making points, yes, but they’re also about comportment. The exchange between Sohrab Ahmari and David French, which took place at the Catholic University of America last Thursday, centered on just this point. It was a debate about debates—namely, “How do we best engage with our opponents on the Left?” As it happens, [...]

In early August, the Freedom from Religion Foundation—secularist bullies who go around the country seeking especially to pressure local governments to eliminate anything that even remotely suggests a favorable official view of religion—suffered an unaccustomed defeat in the courts. They usually get cash-strapped local governments to do what they want by threatening legal action, whose [...]

Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in the November 2001 print edition of Crisis. In 1789 George Washington prayed in St. Paul’s Church, on what we now call lower Broadway, on the day of his inauguration as the first president of the United States. The churchyard was already old. On September 11, 2001, several new [...]

“If someone calls it socialism,” said Rev. William Barber at the August meeting of the Democratic National Committee, “then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must then promote socialism, because Jesus offered free health care to everyone, and he never charged a leper a co-pay.” Barber’s statement brought secular progressives to their [...]

[This is part two of Michael Warren Davis's two-part reflection on the Ahmari-French debate on the future of Christian conservatism. Read the first part here.] The second major point of contention between Sohrab Ahmari and David French is on the question of civility. To again quote from Mr. Ahmari’s first shot across the Frenchists’ bow: [...]

There’s something precarious in writing an article about a debate. One runs the risk of demonstrating why one wasn’t invited to take the stage. Still, Thursday’s exchange between Sohrab Ahmari of The New York Post and National Review’s David French ought to be weighed carefully by every Catholic journalist, statesman, lawyer, activist, and voter. These [...]

In three amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court filed last month, the bishops and Catholic educators—together with other major religious groups—urged the Court to uphold the meaning of “sex.” It’s one little word. But if the Court gets it wrong, our religious freedom could be quickly eroded. And while all Catholics and Catholic institutions [...]

Evanston, Wyoming, is a town of 12,000 people in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, approximately 80 miles east of Salt Lake City. It was founded in the late 19th century as a railroad town. Its economy was built on ranching and mineral extraction. Folks in Evanston are mostly Mormon, but the town has [...]

Recent clashes between former Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and supporters of Pope Francis are a sort of microcosm for the divisions that turn the faithful against each other around the world. Writing in the August 30 issue of Foreign Policy, Mattia Ferraresi opines: It is a tale of two Catholic churches. One is [...]

Financial analysts are swooning over the Corporate Roundtable’s new “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” signed by 181 CEOs, including those of Walmart, JP Morgan, and AT&T. These executives have pledged to “lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.” Ric Edelman, chairman and co-founder of Edelman Financial [...]

This past June, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis opened a huge can of worms when it asked two Catholic schools within the diocese—Cathedral High School and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School—not to renew the contracts of two male teachers who had, in flagrant violation of the Church’s teachings, been married in 2017. This should have been a [...]

Mark this date on your calendar: November 19, 2023. This date would sound the timer for the disestablishment of the People’s Republic of China if the Chinese Communist Party has the same life span as its late Russian cousin. Russia was a Communist dictatorship beginning with the Bolshevik coup in November of 1917 until December [...]

Support for large-scale immigration has risen dramatically in America over the past 25 years, especially among Democrats and younger people. Attitudes among Republicans and older folks have remained more stable, although they have drifted somewhat in line with the general trend. What’s striking is that the widening gap between Republicans and Democrats on this issue [...]

Do you know those people who constantly demand special treatment? The ones who need all kinds of strange allowances, affirmation, appreciation, and recognition—all for just being them? Maybe they’re hypochondriacs. Maybe they’re always shifting their dietary restrictions, despite not having any food allergies. Or maybe they’re old-fashioned compliment-fishers. These people are drains on their families, [...]

The writer Dawn Eden Goldstein has been going hell bent for leather against Cardinal Raymond Burke. Her efforts reveal more about Dawn than they do about His Eminence. Ms. Goldstein charges Cardinal Raymond Burke with questioning the validity of the conclave that elected Francis as Pope—and, therefore, whether Francis is really the pope. In the [...]