We arrive at the Christmas stable. We have prepared. The Christ child is come to us—Immanuel.
We begin by taking a step back. The candle that is lit for the final Sunday of Advent reminds us of Mary, the one who brings the Lord into the world. Continue Reading...
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December 21, 2021
Take recent polls about COVID hastening the demise of American religion with a grain of salt
The latest Pew Research Center survey on American religion reflects a familiar trend in recent years: declining levels of Christian affiliation and growing numbers of religiously unaffiliated (the “nones”). Almost 30% of those surveyed told Pew that they identify with no particular religion, compared to 16% in 2007. Continue Reading...
December 20, 2021
The University of Austin is scaring all the right people
Conservatives tend to be skeptical of the uses of the word diversity, but they love variety. They believe that American higher education is better when you have a rich choice among schools—uniformity being a feature of progressive ideologies—that each has a particular mission and identity. Continue Reading...
December 17, 2021
Christmas in Connecticut: the holiday movie that promises you can’t have it all
I continue my series on old Hollywood Christmas movies. After a movie about church as a community, The Bishop’s Wife(1947), and the workplace as a community, The Shop Around the Corner (1940), I turn to a movie about family, the smallest but most natural community: Christmas in Connecticut (1945), starring Barbara Stanwyck, one of the great Hollywood stars, Sydney Greenstreet (the Fat Man from The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca), and Dennis Morgan. Continue Reading...
December 17, 2021
Hong Kong high court initiates final stages of Next Digital’s demise
A Hong Kong high court has ordered the winding-up of Jimmy Lai’s prominent media company, Next Digital, following a local government petition.
The order came from high court master Jack Wong Kin-tong on Dec. Continue Reading...
December 16, 2021
Inflation is real and we’re experiencing the costs and consequences
Generally, the topic of inflation is considered dry and uninteresting, but it is one that has garnered much attention and debate over the past year. There are competing narratives as to what inflation is and why it matters, and even whether the U.S. Continue Reading...
December 15, 2021
Advent lifts the veil of judgment and mercy in the divine economy
One of the more disturbing aspects of the way the market economy works is the ability of, at least some, participants to avoid responsibility for their decisions and actions. The manner in which this works is through the concepts of corporate personality and limited liability. Continue Reading...
December 14, 2021
Hong Kong drops 62 places in “press freedom” by country
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released this year’s World Press Freedom Index, ranking countries based on press freedom, from the most to the least press. In 2002, for example, Hong Kong was ranked 18th. Continue Reading...
December 14, 2021
China and Russia don’t know why they were excluded from the “Summit for Democracy”
Presidential summits tend to focus on PR rather than substance. The Biden administration’s “Summit for Democracy” looks no different.
Its objectives were worthy. As the State Department explained it, President Joe Biden planned to “bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.” Continue Reading...
December 13, 2021
The social responsibility of business is still to its business
Most people have intuitions about moral issues of consequence, but we often find it difficult to put these intuitions into words. Something seems to us to be right or wrong, but we struggle to express our ideas accurately and to explain why our intuitions are reasonable and compelling. Continue Reading...