Religion Dispatches
…o-American model—its political culture, even now, is closer to that of the European social democracies—its structures of governance are points of pride. And yet, as an experiment in Jewish power, unique after two millennia of persecution and exile, Israel has reached an impasse. An intensifying conflict of values has put its democratic nature under tremendous stress. When the government speaks daily about the existential threat from Iran, and urge…
Read More…ere heady days indeed. Overnight, dissent became a front-burner issue. Any number of episcopal conferences mentioned its possibility and legitimacy. The American bishops in their pastoral letter, “Human Life in Our Day” (Nov. 15, 1968), even laid out the norms for licit dissent. Expression of dissent is in order “only if the reasons are serious and well founded, if the manner of the dissent does not question or impugn the teaching authority of th…
Read More
…the will of citizens “free to choose our path in life.” Not impeded by a “European-style social welfare state” which Romney insists Obama is aiming for. At the presidential forum at Aloma Baptist Church on Saturday, Gingrich seemed to forget about happiness, focusing instead on the alleged sins of the “secular left.” Gingrich reiterated his support for a federal statute that would grant fertilized eggs equal protection rights under the 14th Amend…
Read More…minds, for them. Against Obama, the “elites,” the radical secularists, the European-style socialists, the anti-colonial Kenyans, the shari’ah law fifth column, the media, John King, Juan Williams, and all the food stamp “thems.” Go read Jamelle Bouie’s account in The American Prospect. He’s been on the trail for the long haul, and has been doing some very keen reporting: I managed to grab a nice spot at the base of the platform where Gingrich woul…
Read More…America from secularism, why is his hero a militantly secular founder of a European one-party state? In his victory speech tonight, Gingrich presented two Americas. His was the America of the Founding Fathers, and Obama’s was the America of socialist radicalism. But Ataturk didn’t represent tradition. He represented a violent, sudden, and power-hungry break from the past; Gingrich makes much of his status as an historian, a claim many deride or di…
Read More
…ranging to murder the warrior husband of his desired inamorata. The great European-American epic poets and novelists who inherit both the Hellenic and Hebraic traditions tend to favor the Hebraic mode of shadow and inference. They are not especially interested in presenting us with any “pure” types: in giving us unalterably evil or incorruptibly good characters who never vary, never change it up. RD’s editors will go nuts if I adduce, at length,…
Read More…miracles might be that no one has yet come up with a highly self-punishing bestselling Christina the Astonishing Diet, promising long life on the strength of her example. Except then I realized that none of Christina’s austerities require a lot of disposable income or trips to Whole Foods, so that’s probably why. So never mind. Would she be at Occupy? Oh, Christina. You of the sensitive nose and the unwillingness to be near human stank. Here you’r…
Read More
…e scale of change and demand something different. Considering how volatile European and American politics have become, and how frequently we now see street protests and even supposedly stable and demure countries, how much more so these new democracies? And, I might add, the Freedom and Justice Party, like Turkey’s AKP, is a conservative, free-market party; they may, in this climate, simply be best suited to govern, although Egypt—like Turkey—enjo…
Read More…o jumbo deals involving the Muslim world. Both will help them compete with European Airbus while sustaining or creating thousands of American jobs—up to an estimated 127,000. That’s Muslim money buying American goods, creating American jobs. That’s us benefiting from growth in the Gulf and Southeast Asia. That’s the world growing together. The Muslim world’s democratic convulsions—Indonesia preceded the Arab world by roundabout a decade—are respon…
Read More…along comes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech to the European Friends of Israel Conference: I have some bad news for you: Jose Maria, you’re in the caliphate. They talk about a new caliphate. There’s anyone here from Romania? Borderline. Sweden? You’re out of it for now. They say they can’t possibly mean this, it cannot be that in the 21st century people speak of caliphates, of new-found empires, of an ideology that is suited…
Read More