On Abortion, Uncompromising Values, and the Value of Compromise
Perhaps one day moral clarity on this issue will be found or the values of the American people will align more neatly. Until that day arrives, if ever it does, let the people themselves reach across the proverbial aisle so that they may reach one another.
Voting for a President Won’t Save the Republic
A democracy is not kept by filling in a ballot bubble once every four years. It’s kept by responsibly and virtuously exercising our freedoms in our homes, communities, and institutions day by day.
The Miraculous Phenomenon of Post-Hurricane Weather
When Christ died on the cross, the disciples did not know he was going to rise again. But for Christians today, we see the full picture, and these are not meaningless tragedies.
The Final Word was Right
If there ever comes a true accounting of the costs we’re racking up for making, using, and discarding our mobile (de)vices, we will be obliged to admit that there has been no net gain. The withdrawals from the account exceed the deposits in both number and in sum.
What Plays in Peoria
You don’t have to be normal. You don’t have to be weird. You just have to be a person – which is a moral ideal, not a fact of nature – and let the chips fall.
Gendered Worlds: Our Need for Belonging and Usefulness
If we choose to befriend our many obligations—to connect with other people, to love, to serve, to create, to borrow, to lend, to repair, to celebrate, to support—instead of buying a product or a service—then we are cultivating fertile ground for a healthy form of gendered cooperation to (perhaps) re-emerge.
Home Libraries Will Save Civilization
It is a reality not frequently enough acknowledged: like so many other things in life, the love of reading is caught, not taught.
Modern Architecture Erodes Community: What We Can Do About It
The future of our built environment is in our hands. We can reject the alienation of modernism and instead foster spaces that cultivate connection, celebrate history, and create a sense of belonging.
Real Communities and Democratic Theory
If we don’t experience full, unqualified “concrete, historical community,” then we won’t experience full, unqualified “genuine deliberation.”
Southern Appalachia is a Place
These questions would cause little debate or consternation without the importance of place tethering them. And, despite the erasure of communitarian mindsets and regional identity, place still matters.