Hard to tell

The big question about politics in the Middle East is: has 9/11 so changed the American public that isolationism is no longer an option?

For love

Fr.Samir has a forceful editorial on freedom of conscience in Islamic countries.

Security vs. freedom

T. Dalrymple confirms our previous impression of the events in France.

A country in denial

This piece on the situation in France rings true. European decadence is also visible in its educational system.

I have full awareness of what I have chosen

This guy does not sound particularly crazy.

No fathers

This piece about marriage among African-Americans makes you think that the notions of freedom and civil rights can become very hollow if they are separated from the deeper question of the education of a people.

Consistory,

The Boston Globe has some nice pictures of Cardinal O'Malley

Good statistics

The Weekly Standard correctly notices the cultural significance of monasticism.

Martyrdom

The New Republic has a good piece on the terrible situation of Christians in Iraq. One wonders though whether the greatest danger is not external, but the temptation for the Church to assume a purely defensive posture that neutralizes what is really its only asset: that it carries something radically different to a world dominated by violence.

How forceful

The US intervenes in favor of Abdul Rahman asking that his trial be handled in a "transparent way" (followed by a "transparent execution"?)

Always bigger

John D. Barrow won the Templeton Prize.

Defying the stereotypes

The Economist is intrigued by Sen. Brownback.

Projection

Jeff Jacoby tells it as it is.

Progress I

It appears that Gary Wills has finally written something we can agree with:

"Wills rejects the familiar distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. If the first Christians had not been radically tranformed by the resurrection - if Jesus had simply been a passing mystical figure - then you and I would not be thinking about or reading about Jesus at all....`The only Jesus we have is the Jesus of faith. If you reject the faith, there is no reason to trust anything the Gospels say.'"

Progress II

An update on Bush's initiative to support faith-based social works.