Latest Articles
Compromise, compromise
The debt-ceiling fight is about politics, not policy. But count on the news media to conflate the two—in service of the trope that everyone just needs to meet in the middle of wherever they are right now.
Marketing plan: A mainline church in the Bible Belt
I used to receive postcards from conservative churches
advertising their upcoming sermon series. Why, I asked myself, don't mainline
churches advertise like this? That question led
to an experiment.
A time to spend
"In these tough times, Americans are tightening their belts—and their
government needs to do the same." This bipartisan applause line is pithy, full of populist empathy and easy to
understand. It's also exactly wrong.
Compass and yeast
Thomas Merton's conversion to Catholicism is among the most celebrated of the last century. But to which kind of Catholicism did Merton convert?
Unexpected grief: Elegy for a border collie
On February 23, Libya was convulsed in civil revolt. Oil prices spiked, and stock values plummeted. Meanwhile, in
New Jersey, a dog was euthanized. God
forgive me, but it is this last event that I will remember.