Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Family

March 23, 2018

Love as a tesseract

Earlier this week at Public Discourse I wrote an essay on the dangers of individualism and collectivism, illustrated with literary samples from C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle respectively. I drew the image of an individualist hell from Lewis’ The Great Divorce, citing Napoleon as an eternal exile, not on Elba or Saint Helena but into everlasting perdition. Continue Reading...
March 07, 2018

Give socialism a try? Let’s not.

Elizabeth Bruenig, columnist for the Washington Post, yesterday published an opinion piece entitled, ‘It’s time to give socialism a try’. The title is a bit misleading as the piece makes no positive case for socialism but rather chronicles her own and several others convictions that something in our society has gone terribly wrong. Continue Reading...
January 26, 2018

Jennifer Roback Morse on the economic consequences of family breakdown

The 2018 Acton Lecture series got off to a great start yesterday with an address by Jennifer Roback Morse, a longtime friend and collaborator with the Acton Institute. She addressed how the breakdown of the family unit within culture generates significant problems, both socially and economically, and suggested some ways we can all work to address the issue going forward. Continue Reading...
August 07, 2017

Why the culture matters for economic flourishing

“Moral ecology is the new frontier of political economy: the culture in which the free society thrives — or destroys itself.” –Michael Novak In assessing and addressing the economic issues of the day, we tend to look first to tangible or mathematical solutions, cutting and re-cutting various economic pies as we ponder different policies and pathways to higher employment, better wages, and all-around material prosperity. Continue Reading...
June 20, 2017

Exulting in the monotony of fatherhood

Fatherhood is a wild ride, yet in my own personal reflections on and around Father’s Day, I’m routinely reminded that amid and alongside all the adventure, the challenges of fatherhood mostly play out in the small and intimate moments of daily life. Continue Reading...
June 16, 2017

Let’s bring back the stigma of being a ‘Deadbeat Dad’

“Deadbeat Dads”—absent fathers who don’t provide financial support for their children—are one of the most significant factors contributing to child poverty in America. So why do some single women have children outside of marriage when they know they will receive little to no support from the child’s father? Continue Reading...