When People Greeted Each Other With Courtesy & Purpose

By |2022-07-24T15:36:16-05:00July 24th, 2022|Categories: Christianity, Civil Society, Civilization, Community, John Horvat|

A greeting is an act of humility and a gesture of justice, in which we give respect and honor due to others for who they are. Indeed, greetings constitute the fragrant perfume of a Christian civilization in which these things are valued. We live in brutal times without transitions. Everything must be instant and rushed, [...]

Is There a Future for ‘Chitchat’ Checkouts?

By |2022-03-14T08:13:02-05:00March 13th, 2022|Categories: Civil Society, Community, Economics, John Horvat|

With so much buying happening online or through self-service kiosks, the art of shopping has lost much of its attraction. Some market-savvy executives have noticed this shortcoming and have recently introduced slow checkouts, which turn the routine chore into a meaningful experience. With so much buying happening online or through self-service kiosks, the art of [...]

Unity and Cancel Culture

By |2022-01-22T14:08:08-06:00January 22nd, 2022|Categories: Christianity, Civil Society, Dwight Longenecker, Senior Contributors|

When the headlines scream that a politician or church leader is being “divisive,” and the thought police, educators, and culture warriors demand “inclusivity,” it should cause a pause for thought. What exactly is “inclusivity” and what causes division? Inclusivity is the desire and demand for a unity (and therefore peace) in a nation or population. [...]

Resentment and the Gang of Gollums

By |2022-01-08T12:05:25-06:00January 8th, 2022|Categories: Civil Society, Community, Dwight Longenecker, Morality, Senior Contributors|

If you want to understand 98% of the unhappiness in the world — whether it is on the stage of international politics or the stage of your kitchen or bedroom, or wherever your arguments happen—consider the roots of resentment. By resentment I mean something quite dark within the human heart. This heart of darkness is [...]

The Marxist Worldview Behind the Spending Bill

By |2021-11-28T14:56:00-06:00November 28th, 2021|Categories: Civil Society, Economics, Government, Ideology, John Horvat|

Government programs cannot restore broken families and shattered communities. Only a moral regeneration of non-economic values can do this. The ravages of loneliness, despair, and suicide must be addressed by filling the spiritual voids that haunt people’s lives—and not by issuing government checks. The fight over the latest spending package is raging. Democrats are intent [...]

Franklin Pierce, Political Protest, & the Dilemmas of Democracy

By |2021-11-22T14:23:22-06:00November 22nd, 2021|Categories: American Republic, Christianity, Civil Society, Civilization, Constitution, Democracy, Government, History, Ordered Liberty, Political Philosophy, Religion, Timeless Essays|

Franklin Pierce’s suspicions reflected a tension within the antebellum Democratic Party in relation to slavery—how can we reconcile an advocacy of democratic decision-making with the existence of transcendent moral values, the Constitution with the Bible? On the stump in New Boston, New Hampshire in early January 1852, Franklin Pierce gave a long oration during which [...]

How Metaphysics Can Fix This American Mess

By |2021-10-17T16:45:48-05:00October 17th, 2021|Categories: American Republic, Civil Society, Civilization, John Horvat|

As American society reaches its final stages of decay, the price of denying reality will prove ever greater, awakening people to their folly and ruin. A metaphysical crisis of vast proportions awaits a world that has long ignored existential questions to its peril. These are anti-metaphysical times. Most people don’t realize it because they know [...]

Caring About Home

By |2021-09-21T06:48:34-05:00September 20th, 2021|Categories: Civil Society, Community|

People in my hometown of Galveston, Texas don’t have a superb explanation or philosophy for their city. It’s just their home. It’s a beautiful place with a beautiful history. Statues still stand. The streets are largely clean; the police take care to contain crime to the smallest radius possible. That all is a clear contrast [...]

Time to Return to Medieval Courtesy Books

By |2021-08-29T17:54:53-05:00August 29th, 2021|Categories: Civil Society, John Horvat|

Manners are not artificial rules for controlling people's lives. They are the commonsense guidelines developed over time by Christian peoples to facilitate the practice of virtue. Courtesy books made this process easier since they helped create good habits early in children's souls before vices could gain a foothold. To the "woke" crowd, teaching civility and [...]

Living Room Vexations

By |2021-08-11T21:34:30-05:00August 11th, 2021|Categories: Civil Society, Community, Culture War, Politics|

From innumerable living room debates, I see people not only do not know how to argue, but do not care to. Instead they leap to quarrel, so that interruptions, interjections, a raised rate and volume of speech, heightened emotion, the dismissive sneer, and the personal attack become ‘rebuttal.’ The olden days. We professed rhetoric, always [...]

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