Internecine Catholic Warfare
Well, "warfare" may be a little strong. But blog headlines have to pull you in. And it could happen. I don't have much connection to internecine Catholic disagreement. I overhear a little of it in First Things, but the value of Ross Douthat is that he is a clear thinker writing mostly without jargon to a non-Catholic audience to whom he pays the honor of speaking as if they can follow his argument with intelligence and interest. If I'm going to be just in my disagreements with the Vatican, I...
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Conference Streaming Live
Yesterday and today I've been watching some of the sessions of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference; they're streaming live. Here's the schedule. The theme is issues of gender and sexuality, which I happen to be writing on at this very moment. Some good stuff. I generally get help from Russell Moore, and he's assembled some leading conservative lights on these issues. There's a lot of pressure on conservative Christianity to adjust its perspective, and we'd better...
The Self-Dynamiting Doctrine of Papal Infallibility
A faithful and intelligent Catholic, New York Times opinion writer Ross Douthat, offers some helpful reflections on papal infallibility: On paper, that doctrine seems to grant extraordinary power to the pope—since he cannot err, the First Vatican Council declared in 1870, when he “defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.” In practice, though, it places profound effective limits on his power. Those limits are set, in part, by normal human modesty: “I am only...
Logos 6
Logos 6 is launching for the public this very instant—8 a.m. Eastern Time. I've been using it for a couple weeks, and I am genuinely impressed. I don't have time to write a great deal, but I must say that Logos has put me in an awkward position: I just concluded publicly, not many months ago, that ministerial students should buy Accordance (by a nose over BibleWorks) and then work on building a Logos library. I'm now prepared to say, Go Logos all the way. All three major Bible software...
What’s the Difference Between Sex and Gender?
The American Heritage Dictionary supplies this usage note for those who wish to distinguish "sex" and "gender." Some people maintain that the word sex should be reserved for reference to the biological aspects of being male or female or to sexual activity, and that the word gender should be used only to refer to sociocultural roles. Accordingly, one would say The effectiveness of the treatment appears to depend on the sex of the patient and In society, gender roles are clearly defined. In some...