seems to have borne some resemblancernto the Jewish neoconservatives of a laterrnera in his lack of interest in religion. Ofrncourse, J Shot An Elephant is not meantrnto be a theological treatise or statementrnof belief, but rather the story of an influentialrnpopular writer in a time whenrnconservatives still had some say in thernnation’s cultural institutions. Ryskind...
3046 search results for: American+Religion
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Let’s Not Forget Our Racist Past!
My reaction to crazy, infuriating things that woke leftists do is often softened and even evaporates when I notice how the conservative establishment responds to the same situations. I am certainly no fan of Jussie Smollett and was as offended as most non-woke Americans by his shenanigans in Chicago in 2019, when he pretended that...
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Theses and Antitheses
human eye, or maybe in war,nsoldiers become accustomed tonfaces in pain. But not I. Thesenwere children’s faces . . . filthy,nhungry, bruised, scared, oilnstained, burned. But alive.nAs are Nelson’s fictional creations, at anfar remove from the unfeeling, unreflective,nwraith-like ciphers who inhabitnso much of American writing. His storiesnare an antidote to despair, a propernrestoration of some...
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A Sad and Maladroit Fiesta
A Sad and Maladroit FiestanMorris Dickstein: The Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties;nby Christopher ManionnWien I told a friend who raised hernchildren during the sixties that this booknwas a cultural history of that period, shenreplied: “It must be pretty short.” Andnshe would have been right, had the authornwritten just that. Instead, MorrisnDickstein, who...
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Reform From Within
Across Serpukhvskaya Street from my apartment is a vintage Soviet-style “Palace of Culture,” its blank concrete walls topped by an immense neon sign. Ten years ago it offered lectures on class consciousness to factory workers; now it houses a discotheque, which plays American rock music until 6 A.M. Ten years ago an order from the...
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Cultural Revolutions
“Jewish memory” can cover everythingrnfrom the city plan of Flatbush in 1950 tornthe recipe for Mrs. Bernstein’s kreplach.rnNor do I exaggerate the militantly secularrnreading. We are asked for “socio-historicalrnstudies of Jewish women,” butrnnot for papers on women in Judaic lawrnand theology. If the chairmen wanted tornadvertise that they have tin ears for religion,rnthey could not...
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nightmare society in which a tyrannicalnBig Brother government monitorsnthe very thoughts of its every citizen.nHe thus proves that he never readnOrwell, and that the name is evoked onlynto satisfy his narcotic need for vitriolicnanti-Americanism:nHe since has held important positionsnon Time, Collier’s, New Republic andnThe New York Times. He worked asnstaff aide to senators and governors,nincluding...
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Democracy: The Enlightened Way
Before American readers embark on this inquiry into the particular democracy that was born in France with the French Revolution, I should warn them that they had better be prepared to enter a world of ideas so removed from reality as to make it almost impossible to believe there were people who actually took those...
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Obscurely Called: Richard Wilbur at Eighty
With its deft rhymes and dazzlingrnturns of phrase, “Praise in Summer”rnseems at first glance a confection ofrnwords as airy and elusive as the poems ofrnWallace Stevens, who had a substantialrn(and perhaps unfortunate) influence onrnWilbur’s youthful work. Readers ofrnWilbur’s early books tended to regardrnhim, in the words of the Oxford Companionrnto American Literature, as “classic, urbane,rnoften...
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ChroniclesrnA M A G A Z I N E OF A M E R I C A N C U L T U R E PERSPECTIVErnDefending the Family From Its Defendersrnby Thomas FlemingrnFamily values versus family autonomy.rn10rnVIEWSrnFamily Formation in Americarnby Virginia Deane AbernethyrnRevitalizing the American family.rnFamily Policy Is Not Welfarernby Jean-Didier LecaillonrnLessons from the French...
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The New Environmentalism
More change has occurred in the environmental movement during the past ten years than in its entire previous history. Its thrust has become less ideological and more pragmatic, less New Age and more scientific. It is increasingly grounded in the databases of atmospheric science and the genetic models of conservation biology. The practice of conservation...
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The Reagan Coalition
Italy experienced a revolutionary election on March 27, 1994, an election in which many Italian voters could make a difference. This mood of optimism and engagement stood in stark contrast to the many elections that have left Italians so disillusioned in recent years—local administrative elections, national elections to two houses of Parliament, and even international...
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Transcendence of Mere Opinion
Thomas Mann: Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man; Frederick Ungar; New York. The true artist living in a time dominated by politics finds himself traversing a path that is both arduous and dangerous. He begins with a search that is committed to life rather than to just the intellect; that search is replete with ambiguity and...
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Civil Rights or Property Rights?
So this is the real use of our “civil rights” laws, supposedlyrncharged with protecting the rights of the “oppressed”: as a bludgeonrnagainst a lowly waitress, who dared protest her humiliahonrnat the hands of rude customers.rnT he followers of Martin LutherrnKing, Jr., succeeded wherernLenin’s heirs failed.rnDenny’s management denied the claims of the complainants.rnSteve McManus, senior vice...
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Reinventing the Wheel
Two Jesuits have recently written books on social ethics, the humane economy, and on liberating the poor. I know what you’re thinking: two more liberation theologians using Marxist criteria for their analysis, and ruthlessly criticizing the free market. Think again. Prevalent opinion traditionally associates the Society of Jesus with all forms of cabals, while a...
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incarnations were visible and decipherablenin its pages. In the not-too-remotenpast, we witnessed how, by the end ofnthe 1960’s and the beginning of then1970’s, Harper’s fell into hands of youngnphony men who wished, at any price, tonmuster and demonstrate the righteousnliberal anger—and the more they tried,nthe more their products came across asnboring, stilted, and commonplace. Theyntackled...
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Tradition, Old and New
“Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3). Jesus had many negative things to say about the dangers of placing excessive emphasis on tradition; in the passage quoted above, he goes on to cite the prophet Isaiah, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of...
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Demolishing Taboos
Demolishing TaboosnMaurice Clavel: Ce que je crois;nAndre Glucksmann: Les mattres—npenseurs; Bernard-Henri Levy: Lanbarbarie a visage humain.nby Thomas MolnarnrVs everybody knows by now, thennouveaux philosophes in Paris may benthe factor blocking communist/socialistnvictory at the polls, come March. Theirncase is the latest in the series of intellectualnconversions away from Marxismnto… one-does-not-quite-yet-know-what,nbut at any rate a more decent...
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Eastern Europe Versus the Open Society
Excerpts from a speech to the H.L. Mencken Club, Baltimore, October 23, 2010 Two weeks ago the first “gay pride parade” was staged in Belgrade. Serbia’s “pro-European” government had been promoting the event as yet another proof that Serbia is fit to join the European Union, that is has overcome the legacy of its...
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On Reparations: John F. Kennedy vs. Robert F. Kennedy
When did the civil rights movement go off the rails? The answer is when proponents went from justly demanding equal rights to unjustly demanding equal results. As to exactly when this occurred, that’s more difficult to answer. But consider statements, made five years apart, from the Kennedy brothers, John F. and Robert F. Neither brother was...
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The Crime of History
He who writes a nation’s history also controls its future—so wrote George Orwell. During the Soviet reign over Eastern Europe, every citizen knew who was in charge of writing history, especially that dealing with the victims of World War II. Anyone professing to be a Slovak, a Croat, a Ukrainian, or a Russian nationalist was...
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Papagueria: II
Past Robles Junction where the road coming north from Sasabe meets Highway 86 we crossed onto the Papago reservation heading west toward the Indian capital of Sells, no lights ahead save the constellation of the Kitt Peak Observatory lifted high against the night sky by the bulk of the Baboquivari Mountains, and almost no traffic....
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The Murderers of Christianity
Sunday, on the eve of All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaida stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared,...
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ChroniclesrnA M A G A Z I N E OF A M E R I C A N C U L T U HErnPERSPECTIVErnLand Without Justicernby Thomas FlemingrnRendering ever}’ man his due.rn10rnVIEWSrnDeformations of Justice by PhiHp JenkinsrnThe presumption of innocence and other fair)’ tales.rn”Social” Justice Is Not Justice by Antony FlewrnThe mirage of John Rawls.rnOPINIONS...
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Polemics & Exchanges
Letters to the editor on the subject of post-war Germany, "effeminate cruelty," George Santayana, and the competing influences on human behavior of genes and culture.
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The Hundredth Meridian
place. He disappeared into the night,rnand at once a tribal patrol car slippedrnfrom behind us and proceeded to thernend of the street, made a U-turn, andrndrove by the house again. Albert returnedrnempty-handed and got back inrnthe Land Cruiser. “Drive away now,” hernwhispered. “Hurry—hurryl” When wernhad gone a couple of hundred yards hernsaid, still whispering, “Now...
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The Pilgrimage of Malcolm Muggeridge
evitability of World War II, and he spent the whole war in intelligence.rnHe was given the Legion of Honor, the Croix dernGuerre, and several British decorations (though he maintainedrnthat “the two most ridiculous activities I’ve ever been engagedrnin have been war and sex”).rnIn the I950’s, he wrote from all over the world, editedrnPunch, and took...
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Cor Ne Edito
have the eternal and universal attraction of story as does thenballad. For this reason the great mass of the popular songs ofnmedieval times are lost to us, or — as Sir Edmund Chambersnputs it— “There must have been popular songs … forn[Chaucer’s] Absolon to sing to his rudible, but edacious timenhas reduced them to tantalizing...
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Polemics & Exchanges
toiroRrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnilieodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, Jr.rnEDITORIAI: ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTINC; EDITORSrnHarold O.]. Brown, Catherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnChristine Haynes, F. Christian Kopff,rnj.O. Tate, Clyde WilsonrnCfJRRESPONDING I:DI TORSrn6(7/ Kaijffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, John Shelton Reed,rnMomcilo SeliernEDITORIAL SECRETARY’rnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPliBLlCA’TlON DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute,rnEditorial and Advertising...
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For Keeps!
But the seeds of this expanded use of eminent domain werernthere from the beginning. The construchon of roads and canalsrn(and, later, railroads and the Interstate Highva Sstem) wasrnnot an unadulterated public good, and not simply for the reasonsrnthat Bill Kauffman oudines in his book. With Good Intentions?rnReflections on the Myth of Progress in America. In...
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On Traditionalists
I had already read Robin Anderson’s biography of Pope Pius VII, but if a book review or anything else has Thomas Fleming’s name on it, I read it. Alas, no more than nine lines into his review (“The Church Militant,” Reviews, August), I was startled by the first of several attacks on Catholic traditionalists that...
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Good Manners, Good Literature
For this very welcome and unexpected award, I thank The Ingersoll Foundation and all concerned. When I was in high school, there were certain books that I carried around in order to impress people with my literariness. One was the Collected Poems of Hart Crane, whom I didn’t altogether understand, but whose words made me...
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Looking Backwards
“Whose picture is this, Daddy?” The little blond girl is 11 years old, and, as she flips through the iScraps, her smooth round face shows the first twinge of the questioning mind that will disturb the complacency on which all future happiness depends. “That’s my grandfather.” “Your grandfather? He doesn’t look a bit like us,”...
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In Focus
wisdom, follies, triviality and grandeur—na universal phenomenon of prime magnitudenand overwhelming attractiveness.nMr. Fecher renders justice to such anconception of Mencken’s presence in thenAmerican culture. DnDevine’s WarningnDonald J. Devine: Does FreedomnWark? Liberty & Justice in America;nGreen Hill Publishers, Inc; Ottawa, Illinois,nRallying from Irving Kristol’s admonitionnthat the intellectual battle overncapitalism’s moral legitimacy will decidenits fate, Donald Devine...
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The Enigmatic Professor Strauss, Part II
One can safely claim that Leo Strauss was an enigmatic man, since he prided himself on being enigmatic. He raised the art of double-talk to the dignity of a requisite for any serious philosophizing: For him, it took stupidity or insignificance for a (self-proclaimed) philosopher to be able to afford to write or speak in...
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After the Avalanche
VIEWSrnAfter the AvalanchernThe Reemergence of Colleges in Christrnby James PatrickrnWhen C.S. Lewis wrote that there was more distance betweenrnus and Jane Austen than between Jane Austenrnand Plato, he was remarking on a cataelysm that colleges andrnuniversities had not escaped. The cliarters of colleges foundedrnbefore the Age of Jackson reiterated the claim that the purposernof an...
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In a Motel Parking Lot, Thinking of Dr. Williams
341 CHRONICLESnprofessors who do not wish to give sonmuch as tlie appearance of being outnof step with the times; and 60’s radicalsnwho claimed immunity for their lawbreakingnby virtue of their opposihonnto the war in Vietnam.nHaving done time at the UnitednNations, Berns is also instructive onnthe inanities of pacifism and on Russiannshamelessness. And he presents ancoherent...
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Sympathy for the Devil
His writing these last 40 years amounts to little more than a succession of malicious ad hominem attacks on people he disagrees with. His appeal is to those with a dirty mind, who want society to be as dirty as he is, and who are glad to erode barriers of decency. There is a coy...
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A Dirge for Bosnia
321 CHRONICLESnWherever the Bosnian Serbs went, the Bosnian Croats andnthe Bosnian Moslems went the other way. Fascism, communism,ndemocracy, even Christianity and Islam were justnnames. Balkan ethnic identity—tenuous, often imaginarynand hence imperishable — was all.nIn Hercegovina, families like the Sokolovici had split intonSerbs, Croats, and Moslems, depending upon when certainnrelatives had changed their faith. Initially Serb,...
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Priests and Pedophiles
For all the media attacks, the Church has remained remarkablyrnresilient and has even won political successes, forrnexample through its leadership of the pro-life movement. Itsrnopponents had therefore to be even more resourceful in seekingrneffective weapons for sabotage. One problem they facedrnwas that many of the traditional rhetorical devices of prejudicernno longer worked, because of changing...
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Bucking the Tide of Progress
Sen. Jesse Helms’ announcement in August of his retirement at the end of his current term was an opportunity for vituperation on the part of the left-wing media that has so detested the North Carolina conservative throughout his entire 30-year political career. “It is alway’s tempting,” moaned the New York Times lead editorial the day...
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Solzhenitsyn at Large
Solzhenitsyn at LargenEdward E. Ericson, Jr.: Solzhenitsyn:nThe Moral Vision; Wm. B.nEerdmans; Grand Rapids, Michigan.nVladimir Lakshin: Solzhenitsyn,nTvardovsky and ‘Novy Mir’; MITnPress; Cambridge, Massachusetts.nby John W. CoopernWh en the pagan Mongols sweptninto Russia in the 13th century, RussiannChristianity already had a three-hundred-year-oldnheritage rich in piety,nmonastic charity and missionary spirit.nInstead of discouraging the faith, thenMongol conquest deepened the...
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Letter From the Southwest
habit of referring to Richmond as “ournnation’s capital” lets you know exactlynwhere the Partisan is coming from.nPersonally, I’d enjoy the magazinenmore if its editors would stop givingntheir Scalawag Award to friends ofnmine, but the Partisan may be valuablenthe way an old musket is valuable: as anreminder of valor long ago, in simplerntimes, and maybe still...
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Family: Morticia of the Homestead
human rights abuses in the UnitedrnStates, a call that received support fromrnonly China, Cuba, and Sudan, whoserngovernments are not normally known forrninterest in civil liberty. Afterward, JoernAgue, then a racial justice officer withrnthe NCC and now a board member ofrnthe CDR, declared that white supremacyrnis “running wild” in America, whose atmospherernhe likened to Nazi Germanyrnright...
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Polemics & Exchanges
EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnEXECUTIVE EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnAaron D. WolfrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESIGNERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilip Jenkins, j.O. Tate, MichaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrn]anet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, AndreirnNavrozov, ]acoh NeusnerrnFILM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnFOREIGN-AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja TrifkovicrnLEGAL-AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnRELIGION EDITORrnHarold O./. BrownrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnPUBLISHERrnThe...
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On the Mountain Meadows
I was very disappointed to see William Grigg’s “Frontier Taliban” (Reviews, December 2002) in Chronicles. Mr. Grigg either is laughably ignorant of the history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre or is content to promote Will Bagley’s agenda, put forth in his book, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Mr. Bagley...
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Old Adam, New Eve
Feminist writers sometimes give us the impression that the nonworking mother is a rare bird like the Bach man’s Warbler—sighted (not very reliably) once a decade or so in a corner of I’on Swamp in the South Carolina low country. The ladies magazines do occasionally report on rumors that some professional women like Janet Fallows...
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In Focus
The Name GamenJack Matthews: Sassafras;nHoughton Mifflin; Boston.nThere are certain figures, bothnreal and fictional, whose namesnseem directly related to onendescriptive word or phrase.nVincent Price, after decades ofnplaying the most despicable ofnvillains, has come to personifyn”evil.” Huck Finn means “mischievousness”nand “boyhood.”nAnd John Wayne, of course,nevokes “grit.”nJack Matthews uses a w^ord tondescribe his protagonist: Sassafl:^.nNot to be confused...
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The Enigmatic Professor Strauss, Part II
Where are today’s Platos and Aristotles? On this question, for once, Strauss announces that he “won’t beat around the bush in any respect”—and, actually, he doesn’t. As he states flatly: “Since a very, very early time, the main theme of my reflections has been what is called the Jewish question.” His interest does not stem...
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Arguing With Jesus
viction and utter faith in the Tightness ofrnits actions.”rnThe hero’s perspectives on both thernmoral and material deprivations of lifernunder socialism and on the complexitiesrnof the human condition are deepenedrnby a prolonged academic trip tornthe United States (where the authorrnhimself spent a considerable amount ofrntime). Presumably, this visit contributesrnto the insight that “one would never findrnfreedom...