The language of our emerging digital culture suggests adventure, daring, and unprecedented novelty, while we sit comfortably at our desks, alone, communing with our computer screens. Are we being taken in by our own metaphors?
Books, Arts and Culture
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Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Is God a Republican?: Why Politics Is Dangerous for Religion
The Christian Coalition has made a dangerous gamble by associating faith with the Republican Party. If God blesses us only as Republicans or Democrats, both politics and religion are in trouble.
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Can the Churches Save the Cities?
“Faith-based activism” is very much in vogue, and some church-run programs may be effective at alleviating urban ills. But funding these programs with government money raises troubling constitutional issues. Is there a reasonable middle ground?
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State of the Debate: Defining Democracy Down
Must the Catholic Church admit women as priests? Must families with children or pets be allowed to live in every homeowners’ association? These questions are even more complicated than they first appear.
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Fighting the Establishment (Clause)
The Rutherford Institute portrays itself as merely interested in defending the rights of religious Americans. A closer look reveals a more sweeping and questionable agenda.
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The Politics of Sanctimony
George W. Bush and God Himself are on notice: “The Democratic Party is going to take back God this time,” Gore operative Elaine Kamarck announced a few months ago as the vice president made his play for the Almighty. He declared his disdain for “hollow secularism,” his support for state funding of sectarian social service […]
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The Tocqueville Files: The Other Civic America
Despite fears of civic decline, the United States remains the country with the highest rate of volunteering. The explanation may be America’s web of religious affiliations.
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Unholy Alliance
I t is easier to believe that God is in heaven and all’s right with the world than it is to imagine an irreverent politician questioning whether there is a God in heaven or any benefit to prayer. Even political theorists and commentators, right and left, are apt to shrink from criticizing religious belief or […]
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On the Politics of Virtue
THE LIBERAL VIRTUES Stephen Teles T he welfare state and the advocates of “virtue” have few friends in common. Those on the right want to save virtue from the welfare state, while those on the left want to protect the welfare state from the rhetoric of virtue. An exemplar of the latter tendency is James […]
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The Corrosive Politics of Virtue
Decrying moral failure is an old American tradition that goes back to the Puritans. But the moral diagnosis is wrong — and it brings pernicious political consequences.
