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Society

Items on national and international social issues and reforms

A dangerous obsession: ‘Lofty talk about "social justice" or "fairness" boils down to greatly expanded powers for politicians, since those pretty words have no concrete definition. They are a blank check for creating disparities in power that dwarf disparities in income—and are far more dangerous.’ First in an important five-part series of columns starting December 26, 2006. (Thomas Sowell, Creators Syndicate)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Dogma Without God: Fallen angels assault heaven at Christmas: “Atheists and the unchurched undervalue the extent to which they are getting a free ride on the social strength that religious-based virtue provides. It's one thing to write in a book that we don't need them. But I'd rather not run the real-world experiment of navigating without them.” (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal)

Tue 02 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Anthropologist Foresees a Christian Renaissance: “French anthropologist René Girard, one of the most influential intellectuals of contemporary culture, thinks that a Christian Renaissance lies ahead. In a book published recently in Italian, "Verità o fede debole. Dialogo su cristianesimo e relativismo" (Truth or Weak Faith: Dialogue on Christianity and Relativism), the anthropologist states that 'we will live in a world that will seem and be as Christian as today it seems scientific.' ” (ZENIT news service)

Mon 18 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

A Conversation with British Philosopher Roger Scruton: Roger Scruton, a new Trinity Forum Senior Fellow and "England's most notorious philosopher," sits for an interview with Canada's CBC Radio on December 10, 2006. (link to audio) (RealAudio from Sunday Edition, CBC)

Tue 12 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Good Book Business: “There is also concern that Bible publishers, for all their marketing ingenuity, have outsmarted themselves. Tim Jordan said, ‘There’s been research that has shown that half the people who come into a Christian bookstore intending to buy a Bible, with money in their pocket, leave without one, because they get overwhelmed.’” Also: “The problem, as she sees it, is that ‘instead of demanding that the believer, the reader, the seeker step out from the culture and become more Christian, more enclosed within ecclesial definition, we’re saying, “You stay in the culture and we’ll come to you.” And, therefore, how are we going to separate out the culturally transient and trashy from the eternal?’” A good discussion. The ESV blog link has other commentary. Worth pondering. (Daniel Radosh, The New Yorker (via ESV Bible Blog))

Tue 12 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Deadly Atheism?: Speaking of atheism: “Take a look at Russia, however, and you see a country with decades more experience of atheism than Western Europe, and a far more advanced case of demographic decline. To be sure, there are plenty of confounding factors that need to be acknowledged and accounted for. But as a candidate for the case that atheism has serious real-world costs, Russia is at the top of the list.” There's a link to a 2003 National Interest article that may be of interest too. (Stanley Kurtz, The Corner on National Review Online)

Wed 06 Dec 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Give us this day our daily organic loaf and forgive us our cheap flights: “The eco-religion has as many rituals as the old faiths, only more fashionably look-at-me. Not for the green faithful the privacy of the confessional box or the pew; we are supposed to show off our piety in the recycling box or the organic produce aisle. What’s more, it is a state religion, backed by all parties in our eco-theocracy, soon to be able to charge a modern tithe through new green taxes.” Don't miss the four horse-persons of the eco-apocalypse. (Mick Hume, Times Online)

Tue 14 Nov 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

What Married Women Want: The happiest married women in this study are those with emotionally involved husbands, but particularly those “who have husbands who are good breadwinners,” perhaps because they “have the freedom to decide what they want to do, whether that's to stay home with their kids, whether that's to work part time, or whether that's to pursue work that might be more meaningful but not particularly remunerative. . . . It's not necessarily all about traditional roles, per se. It's about having the financial security as a wife and maybe mother to act in ways that you think are best for you and for your family.” Might one then conclude that happiness is more likely when we have the freedom and encouragement to participate in sectors other than just the marketplace? (W. Bradford Wilcox, interviewed in Christianity Today)

Mon 13 Nov 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Religion Digs in Its Heels: “[Peter] Berger jokes that his research projects should be subtitled ‘Max Weber is alive and well and living in Guatemala.’ Indeed, Guatemala has the largest share of new Protestants in the world. And just as Max Weber, author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, would have predicted, this spiritual transformation is having profound cultural and economic effects on Guatemalan society. It may do more for modernization than the World Bank ever could.” (Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Media Services)

Wed 08 Nov 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

We’re all big babies: “Once one has embraced the 'isms' that characterise the Baby Boomer's creed of modernity—individualism, relativism, voluntarism—and lapsed into the hooting, crooning self-validating babyhood that inevitably follows, then one is beyond criticism.” Plus: How to be an Adult. (Michael Bywater, Telegraph.co.uk)

Wed 25 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments