Free Republic

In sum, cultures that ignore faith and morals can secure neither freedom nor truth and will sooner or later begin to violate the dignity of their citizens. Totalitarian states were the most obvious example of this, but democracies have also fallen prey to the temptations of unrestrained secular ideologies, especially nihilism.The Pope’s refusal to “go along” with the fads of secular, post-modern society was viewed with rage and amazement. It was, many believed, impossible to stop the historical inevitability of trends embodied by so-called “sexual liberation” and the modern cult of victimhood.

The other day, the guy on my local radio station mentioned that The Passion of The Christ was the Number One movie in America. ‘So congrats to Mel Gibson,’ he said. ‘And it’ll probably hold on to the Number One slot until the new Starsky & Hutch opens.’ It’s always useful to keep things in proportion. But, in fact, Starsky & Hutch opened and The Passion cleaned its clock. Last weekend, it took in $51.4 million, as against S&H’s $29.05 million. By then, The Passion’s total gross was up around $212 million. Pace my radio guy, mid-Seventies nostalgia is no...