Free Republic

For well over a century now, the idea that something about modernity will ultimately cause religion to wither away has been practically axiomatic among modern, sophisticated Westerners.1 Known in philosophy as Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous story of the madman who runs into the marketplace declaring that “Gott ist tot,” and in sociology as the “secularization thesis,” it is an idea that many urbane men and women no longer even think to question, so self-evident does it appear.2 As people become more educated and more prosperous, the secularist story line goes, they find themselves both more skeptical of religion’s premises and less...

ehudgins@atlassociety.org  April 11, 2007 -- I love opera! Thus recently at the Kennedy Center I saw Die Walküre, the second installment of Richard Wagner's monumental four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, about gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, and mortal human heroes. The music, singing and acting were superb. But the program notes seemed like Al Gore channeling Karl Marx. Consider "dramaturg" Cori Ellison's description (bold in the original) of the opera's themes. First, nature:  "The despoiling of nature through greed and ambition begins even before the stage action does, with Wotan sacrificing his own eye to drink from the Well...

There's a certain aspect of this issue that the article below fails to comment upon, therefore, please read my comments to the article. "Sweden: the world's most modern country? Is Sweden the most modern country in the world? And are Swedes the most insecure people on this planet? These two questions are central to a new series on SVT due to premiere on Wednesday. The programme, 'Världen's modernaste land' (‘The most modern country in the world’), is a reflection on what it means to be a Swede. The presenter, television-friendly linguist Fredrik Lindström, has already notched up two major successes...

In the shadow of Sept. 11, it is time to confront the unsettling truth that radical multiculturalism creates tribes that could destroy the society that produced it.The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world.-- Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, speaking on Palestinian Authority TV, May 13, 2005It is a still a surprising sight on a North American street: A woman covered head to toe in a chaddor, with only her eyes showing above a black veil. Even here, in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, where many recently...

While much of the world was watching the forced conversions of two kidnapped Fox News journalists in the Gaza Strip, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a huge step toward forcing millions of Californians to convert. It's not Islam that Schwarzenegger and the state are forcibly pushing through all schools that accept any public form of financial aid for students. It's paganism. It's the worship of Baal. It's a primitive form of religion that is making a comeback. It's a faith that says sacrifice your sons and daughters on this altar – or else. In case you missed the stunning news, Schwarzenegger...

BOSTON - As postmodern thinking assumes its role as our national identity, we at the Boston Daily Truth are announcing this will be our last issue. After 127 years of bringing you our version of the news, we've decided to call it quits. What's the point in going on? Everything's already been said. There is nothing new under the sun. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Those words, by the way, are from an old book called Ecclesiastes, which like our newspaper, has lost all significance under the weight of postmodern thought. Postmodernism informs us that there is no universal...

If the Mona Lisa is the world’s most instantly recognizable piece of art, then what’s the best-known piece of art to come from America? That’s easy: It’s the painting that won third place in the Art Institute of Chicago’s 43rd annual exhibition on American paintings and sculpture, in 1930. You know the one. You’ve seen it hundreds of times before: American Gothic, by Grant Wood. This fall marks the 75th anniversary of the painting’s bronze-medal performance, and Harvard scholar Steven Biel marks the occasion with a short book on its curious history, American Gothic: A Life of America’s Most Famous...

HENDERSON, N.C. -- People in Henderson are talking about the massive sculpture of a woman's legs, spread open on Welcome Avenue. (cont...)

Generation X Catholics were asked in their teenage days what it was that the church had failed to give them. The most frequent response was that the church had not challenged teens with “a high and heroic ideal.” Such a challenge, as we’ve been reminded these past few weeks, was made with astounding success by the late pope. The Millennial Generation, born in the days of Reagan and John Paul II, is emerging into the world with a conservatism unexpected and nervously opposed by the liberal elite of American culture. But liberalism cannot erase the moral demand it has provoked....

"Only a madman could maintain that the distinction between the honorable and the dishonorable, between virtue and vice, is a matter of opinion, not of nature.” – Cicero in de Legibus The last 40 years or so has seen a dramatic shift in the way people view moral truth. It has been a move away from the idea of morality as a set of objective and universal standards, to the view that moral codes are merely the synthesis of popular opinion. Consider the Episcopal cleric who supported the ordination of homosexual priest, Gene Robinson, as bishop of the Diocese of...

An excerpt from the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman’s 2004 Synod Address, given October 14th. Bp. Ackerman, of the Diocese of Quincy, is a hero to a few here who contribute to this blog, including myself. Here, he identifies a central problem in our culture and our church:Postmodernists think things like reason, rationality, and confidence in science are cultural biases. Truth - whether in science, education, or religion - is created by the specific culture and exists only in that culture. Therefore, any system or statement that tries to communicate truth is a power play, an effort to dominate other cultures....

Telling "Truths"By Lowell PonteFrontPageMagazine.com | June 16, 2003 PONTEFICATIONS  THE CLINTONS WERE OUR FIRST PoMo PRESIDENCY, and their legacy is an increasingly Post-Modernist, Deconstructed America in which fact and fiction, truth and lie, honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong, good and evil are deliberately fuzzed, blurred and rendered irrelevant. In truth, one of the only three statements for which President Bill Clinton will be remembered in the books of quotations is his lawyerly sophism: “It all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” Without ever giving the Clintons their due for this cultural and moral vandalism, the Arts and...

The Maori Party is already driving a larger and considerably more dangerous wedge into the New Zealand Left than anything so far inserted by the National Party. As it grows in strength and consolidates its already powerful grip on the Maori imagination, the Maori Party has the potential to split Labour into two hostile camps, aggravate racial sensitivities within the trade union movement, and push the Greens below the all-important 5% MMP threshold. The Left's vulnerability to the Maori Party is entirely of its own making. From the early-1980s, the critical "sites of struggle" for most progressive political activists shifted...

The Metrosexual Superpower By Parag Khanna July/August 2004 The stylish European Union struts past the bumbling United States on the catwalk of global diplomacy. According to Michael Flocker's 2003 bestseller, The Metrosexual Guide to Style: A Handbook for the Modern Man, the trendsetting male icons of the 21st century must combine the coercive strengths of Mars and the seductive wiles of Venus. Put simply, metrosexual men are muscular but suave, confident yet image-conscious, assertive yet clearly in touch with their feminine sides. Just consider British soccer star David Beckham. He is married to former Spice Girl Victoria “Posh” Adams, but...

We wake up in the morning, and our evil deeds begin before we have time to curse the alarm. As we slept, our refrigerators were hard at work giving Chileans skin cancer. We turn on the air conditioner, and amphibians grow extra limbs. We breathe and contribute to global warming. We put on our clothes and cover the world with sweatshops. We slip on our athletic shoes and tie children to workbenches with the laces. We poison the soil by eating breakfast. We drive to work and drown Pacific Islanders. We go to the doctor and kill animals. We devastate...

Telling "Truths"By Lowell PonteFrontPageMagazine.com | June 16, 2003 PONTEFICATIONS  THE CLINTONS WERE OUR FIRST PoMo PRESIDENCY, and their legacy is an increasingly Post-Modernist, Deconstructed America in which fact and fiction, truth and lie, honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong, good and evil are deliberately fuzzed, blurred and rendered irrelevant. In truth, one of the only three statements for which President Bill Clinton will be remembered in the books of quotations is his lawyerly sophism: “It all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” Without ever giving the Clintons their due for this cultural and moral vandalism, the Arts and...

A single lawn placard, the only one thus far on my side of North High Street, is plainly visible from my front door. As I leave my home in the morning and make my way back in the afternoon, its message never fails to provoke a sense of fleeting happiness; it simply reads in all upper case and navy blue letters: "NO IRAQ WAR." I notice how the letter "O," akin to the shape of an open mouth, encases a single white star, one reminiscent of the Stars and Stripes. According to the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777, it...

MADISON: If it were up to William Bach, Victoria would not be allowed near the Stop & Shop supermarket parking lot. In fact, she'd probably be thrown out of town ...Bendig says most people know little about art, and selecting art requires expertise. An anonymous, highly qualified group of five art professionals...chooses the sculptures. "Anytime you deal with art in the community, it's impossible to have consensus" said architect Duo Dickinson, who called the sculpture a "gift" for the town. "That's part of what makes art great. It makes people think about what is beautiful and what is not beautiful,...

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Country and Western diva Tina C wants to share her grief with the world over September 11 and what better way than a Twin Towers tribute album? As she launches into a chorus of her hit song "Kleenex to the World," shame on anyone who suggests it is all a cheap publicity stunt to sell records and revive a flagging career. That is the acerbic message from English drag queen Chris Green who decided with Tina, his larger-than-life, all-American patriotic girl, to push out the boundaries of taste at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival by...