I HI: AMIKK N I’KOSC IMIMnThe Center on Religion andSocietynOn March 5 and 6, 1984, ThenRockford Institute hosted three receptionsnin New York City to announce anmajor new cultural initiative, the foundingnof The Center on Religion andnSociety. Addressing the foundationnexecutives, media representatives, andnreligious leaders in attendance, InstitutenPresident John Howard explained thatnthe new Center, based in New York,nconstituted “a natural expansion” of thenInstitute’s efforts “to understand thencultural ferment and the societal fragmentationnof the past 25 years,” and “tonidentify the threads of common interestnwhich might be woven into a new morenlivable and hopeftil civilization.” As such,nthe Center will seek “to restore religiouslyngrounded values as the compassnfor guiding personal and public decisionsnin our society.”nNamed as director of the Center wasnIntfaeMailnRev. Richard Neuhaus, prominentnLutheran pastor, theologian, and writernand former Senior Fellow at the Councilnon Religion and International Affairs.nRev. Paul Stallsworth, a Methodist pastornwho formerly worked as research assistantnat the American Enterprise Institute,nserves as assistant director of the Center,nand Peter Berger, professor of sociologynat Boston University, serves as seniornconsultant. Also assisting as consultantsnare a panel of 11 other Center Associates,nincluding nationally prominent scholars,ntheologians, commentators, and religiousnleaders from various denominations.nIn their reception remarks. Rev.nNeuhaus and Dr. Berger spoke of thencurrent ‘XM/?Mrfe«mp/’embittering andndividing the American society and ofntheir plans for making the Center anneutral forum for the rediscovery of thencommon ground shared by the apparendyndivergent segments of the Judeo-nChristian spectrum. These plans includenVfhy Are They Lying to Our Children? by Herbert I. London; Stein & Day; New York. Dr.nLondon points out that school children are being taught that Uncle Sam isn’t a gaunt character, butna glutton whose appetites will destroy the Earth.nSoviet Policy Toward Western Europe: Itnplicationsfor the AUantic Alliance edited bynHerbert J. Ellison; University ofWashington Press; Seattle. Im^ine having a vampire as annext-door neighbor.nScenesfrom Provincial Life and Scenesfrom Metropolitan Life by ^’illiam Cooper; E.nP. Dutton; New York. Not all serious novelists threw away character, plot, setting, values…nA Guide to Chaucer’s Language by David Burnley; University of Oklahoma Press;nNorman, OK. Puts the form into its context; a Sake and curteis effort.nProblems & Prospects of Presidential Leadership in the Nineteen-Eighties, VolumenIII, edited byjames Sterling Young; University Press of America; Washington, DC. On thenfendango of foreign policy.nSelf Inquiry by M. Robert Gardner; Atlantic-Litde Brown; Boston. One man’s effort to trulynknow himseff through the analysis of anecdotes.nVietnam asHistoty: Ten Years after the Paris Peace Accords edited by Peter Braestrup;nUniversity Press of America; Washington, DC. A clear response to the thinking that leads tonleftist docudramas and fictional frauds about the subject.n36inChronicles of Culturennnscholarly research, public events,nconferences, publications, and an annualnErasmus Lecture on the role of religionnin America. The Centerwill soon publishna monthly newsletter, “The Religion &nSociety Report,” which will be availablenby subscription. DnSemifinalsnAt the time of this writing, Mr. Mondalenhas won, roughly speaking, Iowa,nGeorgia, and Alabama, and Senator Hartndid the same in New England andnFlorida. What interests us is whom it willnbe easier—^the former or the latter—^fornPresident Reagan to beat in November.nMr. Mondale spouts checked and discreditedncliches. Sen. Hart does the samenwith unchecked and yet uncompromisednplatitudes. So, it would seem, Mr.nMondale should be more of a pushover.nBut, we suspect, the Mondale fans wiUnturn in force to support an eventuallynnominated Hart: Where would they gonotherwise, this union label or another?nThe Hart aficionados (a lot of screams atnevery gathering), in case he were deniednthe nomination, may respond by effectivelynsulking and griping that theirnpapier-mache idol had not been given anchance, and just not go to the votingnplaces to manifest their malaise. So, asnalways with predictions, we knownsomething—^but so little, so littie — DnReagan’s LotnComputers and computerized mindsnalike are feverishly at work in dailies andnweeklies, grinding out mechanized andnbanal ruminations about the forthcomingnelection. Routinized, if not ossified,nthe calculation industry, which originatednin the naive sham “science” ofnpolling, oflfers six-figure income to halfeducatednentrails readers, called “expertncolumnists” for the readers’ sake.nTheir methods of guessing, predicting,nor forecasting the future is as old and asnflawed as all of those similar practicesnsince the invention of sorcery—all then