Austin Ruse rightly praises Ryan Anderson’s new book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement, due out February 20. The book is an authoritative compendium of arguments on transgenderism, exposing much of the “science” and “medicine” that pretends sex is a state of mind. My favorite argument from Anderson’s forthcoming book is, however, what I [...]

“The primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children; its secondary end is mutual help and the allaying of concupiscence.” (Canon 1013, 1917 Code of Canon Law) Anyone familiar with the history of contraception and the Church in the 1960s will know the name of John T. Noonan. His singular 1965 work [...]

For decades, now, Christians have worried about the progressive push to strip naked the public square by forcing religion into the shadows of a private sphere. Recent events have made clear that this is not the case. Everything is public and political to the secular left. All aspects of our lives are fair game in [...]

In 1968, Pope Paul VI predicted that the widespread adoption of contraception would effectively sever the procreative and unitive purposes of sex in the popular mind and consequently lead to profound moral and sociological changes (see Humanae Vitae 17). British philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe likewise argued that accepting the liceity of contraception would leave no principled [...]

Someone presumptuous enough to recommend some readings for those attending the 2015 Synod on the Family could undoubtedly put together an impressive list of books on marriage and sexual morality. Arguably, at the top of any such list belongs Karol Wojtyla’s classic work called Love and Responsibility. An appreciation of marriage as an indissoluble conjugal [...]

Marriage requires sex. This seems to be the sine qua non of marriage even in a world where the definition of marriage has been broadened in ways never imagined even a generation ago. And indeed marriage does require sex because sex is unitive in a unique way and marriage is about union. A shake of [...]

I was recently asked to sit before college undergraduates on a panel of philosophers, theologians and counselors tasked with discussing the impact of pornography on our culture. Specifically, I was asked to reflect on the widely confirmed fact that regular porn use deadens the male libido, that men who use pornography find themselves unable to [...]

The great NFP debate would be greatly helped by some serious reflections on ends: teleology, as the philosophers like to say. On one side stand the Providentialists.  At their more strident, they accuse NFP users of a “contraceptive mentality.”  Just because periodic abstinence (the means) is legitimate doesn’t mean that its every use is appropriate.  Some [...]