British MP Jo Cox’s assassination has produced an outpouring of grief. It has also led many to praise her devotion to humanitarian causes and those suffering. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power spoke at a celebration of her life earlier today: Nobody was a stranger to Jo Cox. Survivors of rape, child soldiers, owners… Read More Jo Cox Championed Refugees, Syrians
I’m neither a conservative nor a Republican. But as a citizen, I believe that the United States would benefit from having a better Republican Party and conservative movement—one more committed to human dignity and the common good. Our system does not function well with divided government and extreme polarization. The ideological purification of both parties… Read More David Brooks’ New Traditionalism and a Better GOP
In their campaigns for the presidency, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have held up stability as their preeminent goal for the Middle East and argued against efforts that would undermine autocracy in the region, even to the point of opposing the replacement of the Assad regime, which has committed mass slaughter and countless other… Read More Propping Up Autocracy Will Bring Neither Justice Nor Stability to the Middle East
I received my copy of The Catholic Catalogue by Melissa Musick and Anna Keating on Fat Tuesday. Earlier in the day I googled “shrove” to see why it is sometimes referred to as Shrove Tuesday. I didn’t realize that I would have the field guide to such questions in my hands a few hours later.… Read More The Catholic Catalogue: Living a Catholic Life in the 21st Century
This has been a particularly brutal month around the world with major terrorist attacks shattering lives in numerous cities from Ankara to Brussels. In Lahore, Pakistan: On Easter Sunday, a crisp spring day, some of the city’s Christian population mingled with their Muslim neighbors, celebrating in a neighborhood park — taking their kids on rides… Read More A Most Violent Month: Terrorism Rocks the World
There is a divide in this country between those who believe that charity and philanthropy are all that is demanded of Christians in addressing poverty and those who believe that Christians are called to support both charity and justice, demanding action from not only individual persons and civil society, but government, as well. The fact-less,… Read More Addressing the Diaper Gap: Responsible Government, not the Nanny State
After nearly five years of civil war, precipitated by Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, and perhaps 470,000 deaths, the US House of Representatives passed a war crimes resolution aimed at holding Assad and his allies accountable for their war crimes, as well as a genocide resolution that identifies Christians as victims of ISIS’s… Read More In Response to the Crimes of Assad and ISIS, the House Passes Genocide and War Crimes Resolutions
