There has been a spate of books recently about ‘Christian nationalism’. I believe that while I am undeniably a ‘social conservative’, and I make no apologies for that, I am not a ‘Christian nationalist’. There is a difference, and I […]
Marriage
Does the Working Class Think It Can’t ‘Afford’ to Raise Their Children in a Christian Environment Any More?
In recent years we have heard how Christianity, and even Pentecostalism, seem to be losing their grip on the working classes, at least in white American communities. Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, Charles Murray, who wrote Coming Apart, and […]
The Problem with ‘Straight Pride’
A few cities have recently talked of having ‘Straight Pride’ parades. Whether their purpose is celebration or mockery I can’t say. Whatever the intention, I don’t know whether I could participate. About 95% of the population is ‘straight’ by nature, and […]
Heterosexual Cohabitation and The Church – After Obergefell
The historic church, evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox, has taken a dim view of ‘cohabitation,’ which used to be called ‘shacking up’ or ‘living in sin.’ The faithful churches in fact generally try to deny the Sacrament to those in cohabitation. […]
Surveying Marriage vs. Cohabitation: Not a Binary Choice Any More
I have been following the Institute for American Values, led by David Blankenhorn, and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, led by W. Bradford Wilcox. They have been working, among other things, on the fortunes of children born […]
Living with Same Sex Marriage
Several of the Federal circuit courts have found that the Fourteenth Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in 1868, requires the states to validate same sex marriage as equal with opposite sex marriage. Of course, I think this would […]
Why June 28, 2014, is a Really Big Anniversary
First of all, it is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke (i.e., Crown Prince) Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. This led, of course, to the Great War and a series of wars and cold wars that lasted for much of […]
The Shoe Is On The Other Foot?
A United Church of Christ is, it seems, suing the state of North Carolina because its ‘religious liberty’ is being denied because it cannot pronounce a same sex couple married under state law. The UCC should have the right, I […]
Two Theories of a Lasting Marriage
Reading the Sunday New York Times always fertilizes the imagination, for good or ill. Today they had a psychologist named Eli J. Finkel writing about how since 1965 we have been in the era of the “self-expressive marriage,” which is […]
Declining Birth and Marriage Rates Threaten Whom?
Jonathan Last says declining birth and marriage rates are “a threat to the right’s political survival”[?] More likely the left’s political survival; the right is making such babies as are being made, and all they have to do is educate […]