The word has become a catch-all term to mean “the things that conservatives hate.” However, that does not mean it has lost all usefulness. It is still a good description of a certain strain of progressive liberalism. Still, I have yet to hear a good definition of what that strain is and, more importantly, what to do about it. So, I would like to do that myself.
The abortion conversation has been stuck in the language of rights for some time. One person argues they have a right to abortion, and another argues a child has a right to life. Unfortunately for the pro-life movement, as soon as we get into a discussion of rights, we’ve already lost. The way Americans talk about “rights” has no place in the abortion debate. Rights are a negative claim. They…
If you listen to my podcast or have had the displeasure of speaking to me about politics in the past year, you may have heard me use the term “post-liberalism.” I think the time has come I actually say what that is. When I was in college, I encountered Catholic Social Teaching for the first time. I learned there were a few basic principles: subsidiarity, solidarity, a preferential option for…
My grandfather died this August. I’m not ready to write about my grieving process because I’m not quite sure how one grieves about these things.
The Fall of Robespierre In the second year of the first French Republic on the evening of the ninth day of a month they called Thermidor (July 27, 1794, to use our calendar) the revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was named a fugitive by his own government. The day before, Robespierre gave a speech to the National Convention threatening his enemies and defending his actions during what we now call “the…
If you have read my blog once or twice, you may know social media, particularly Twitter, is a favored scapegoat of mine. I often worry that, despite my age, I come off as an old man yelling at kids on my front lawn. Hopefully I am yelling some salient points. A few months ago, I was halfway through my usual rant about social media with a friend who works on…
Where Are You? I was hired as a Director of Youth Ministry right out of college at a grouping of seven parishes merging into one. When I arrived at the parish, the youth ministries at the parishes that had them were small and fragmented. I was tasked with two things: bring these fragmented ministries together and establish a new youth ministry at the parish. My first week, I sat at…
A while back, I hadn’t been to confession in a month and a half. That might not seem like a long time, but I’m used to going twice a month, sometimes once a week. But for that month and a half, I neglected confession because of my experience with the priest. My Worst Confession That Saturday, I ended up at a parish far from where I lived. I knew all…
This year, I decided to read 100 books in one year. I didn’t announce it because I was worried I’d get halfway through January and forget about it, but here we are: done with the first quarter of the year and I’ve read over 25 books. I’m rereading a few things I want to dive deeper into, but most of these books are new to me and I’d like to…
