A society’s desire to respect its protectors can help heal cultural and racial divisions. Read More… Memorial Day has historically been a day set aside memorate the millions of Americans fallen in war. Although the day now involves celebrating America’s war dead regardless of color or creed, what many may not know is that Memorial Day’s origins are actually deeply linked to America’s struggle with racism. Although our racial struggles continue, they were once far worse and we would do...

If so many of the catchphrases from George Orwell’s dystopian classic seem cliched today, it’s because there is endless fodder for their application. And while not everything he feared came true, Orwell’s greatness lies not in predicting the future but in changing it. Read More… June 8 marks the anniversary of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. That a greater gap separates us from 1984 than 1984 from Nineteen-Eighty Four’s 1949 publication staggers. The book, at least in terms of pundits’ invoking...

Now that therapy and self-affirmation have e the goals of all storytelling, the only thing to eliminate is any idea of fate, providence, or patriarchy. Suddenly, everything es possible. Especially living nightmares. Read More… I want to put before you three facts of importance for storytelling today, and for our self-understanding, which is what we want out of it. First, fantasy stories now dominate entertainment in Hollywood and beyond. Second, a new generation of Americans is being raised on Marvel...

A bishop in the Lutheran state church in Finland and a member of Parliament may have been found not guilty in a trial that sought to punish them for espousing traditional Christian views, but the battle for freedom of religion and speech in Finland is not over and may have long-standing consequences for liberty throughout Europe. Read More… At the end of March 2022, Finnish member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese...

The indictments highlight the continued efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to squash dissent and the pro-democracy movement of the once-free city. Read More… Five people, including a U.S. resident, have been charged with conspiracy and other charges related to espionage and a transnational repression scheme in a federal court in Brooklyn. The indictment charges Shujun Wang, a U.S. citizen and Queens resident as well as four officials from China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) –Feng He (also known as...

Even when this ethnic and religious minority finds safe haven outside China, the Chinese Communist Party still manages to harass and threaten them. The United States, as well as other nations of goodwill, should not tolerate the exporting of repression by a foreign power. Read More… Under Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has returned to its Maoist past. Both Xi and Mao Zedong promoted party and especially personal rule. Both sought to extinguish even the hint of...

A new book offers a travelogue of Catholic pilgrimage sites that provides a short history of the church’s own pilgrimage through a land it once sought to conquer but then had to modate itself to. Like everyone’s history, it’s filled with heroes and villains. Tread carefully. Read More… Kevin Schmiesing’s A Catholic Pilgrimage Through American History: People and Places that Shaped the Church in the United States is a surprisingly enjoyable book. Surprising, not because I expected his writing to...

British prime minister Boris Johnson has survived a confidence vote in Parliament after weathering months of bad press. He may still be standing, but is he crippled nevertheless? Read More… The vote is in. Boris survived—or did he? The 359 members of the Parliamentary Conservative Party voted by 211 to 148 that they had confidence in Boris Johnson as the leader of the party and prime minister of the United Kingdom. That was a surprise. A much bigger margin of...

George Leef has crafted a work of fiction that chronicles the personal and ideological transformation of a D.C. reporter. But does he convince the reader? Read More… The year 2016 brought the progressive extreme of American politics into national discussion. Bernie Sanders and Democratic socialism became familiar phrases; Elizabeth Warren promised free daycare and free college; Andrew Yang’s one-issue focus made universal basic e seem plausible. What would America have looked like if one of these progressives had won the...

Our social media age seems to promote only those voices who best express outrage, promote fear, and discharge bile. What if there were another way to engage even in highly contentious debate? Read More… This Sunday, May 29, marks 148 years since the birth of English author G.K. Chesterton. Although he was baptized into the Church of England, Chesterton’s family was not particularly devout and his faith didn’t develop until later in life. After his marriage in 1901, he returned...