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Rod Dreher

Writing in The New Criterion, Anthony Daniels reviews a new Ayn Rand biography, concluding that Rand was not without talent, but was a particular kind of Russian-bred monster. Excerpt: In her expository writings, Rand’s style resembles that of Stalin. It is more catechism than argument, and bores into you in the manner of a drill.…

Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins, who is openly pro-choice, makes a good and important point about masculinity, athleticism and virtue: Here’s what we do need a lot more of: Tebows. Collegians who are selfless enough to choose not to spend summers poolside, but travel to impoverished countries to dispense medical care to children, as Tebow…

In an effort to bring young men to church, some Evangelical ministries and churches are embracing Mixed Martial Arts. Excerpt: Mr. Renken’s ministry is one of a small but growing number of evangelical churches that have embraced mixed martial arts — a sport with a reputation for violence and blood that combines kickboxing, wrestling and…

The most depressing bit of news out of Washington I heard recently was that the president couldn’t get Congress to come up with a bipartisan commission on debt reduction. The Republicans refuse to talk about tax increases, and the Democrats refuse to talk about cutting social spending. Result: gridlock. David Sanger writes that America’s spendthriftiness,…

Big new federal study finds that abstinence education can work. Excerpt: In the first carefully designed study to evaluate the controversial approach to sex ed, researchers found that only about a third of 6th and 7th graders who went through sessions focused on abstinence started having sex in the next two years. In contrast, nearly…

So says the Canadian philosopher (and 2007 Templeton Prize winner) Charles Taylor, whose masterwork “A Secular Age” I’ve just started. What follows is a passage from an interview Taylor did a couple of years ago, in which he pointed out that the New Atheism is the secular equivalent of Christian fundamentalism, an intense rear-guard action…

Just got back from a good lunch with a local Orthodox priest who is also a trained physicist, and who has a passionate interest in the dialogue between religion and science. I’m thinking about how one thing I love about the Templeton Foundation is how it’s a place where you can ask the big questions…

Marc Ambinder thinks the senior aides who covered up for the sleazy John Edwards during the presidential campaign should be publicly shamed. Why? Because of the stakes involved in allowing someone as reckless and character-deficient as Edwards compete for the presidency. Excerpt: A screen too tight drives good people out of politics and sucks in…

Social scientist Elizabeth McAlister writes about the real-world effect of voodoo religion on the ways Haitians explain — and make — the material world around them. What I found most interesting about McAlister’s post, which appears on the social science blog The Immanent Frame, is how accurately political and economic machinations are accounted for in…

You know what male teen-and-tweenagerhood smelled like in the 1980s? Polo by Ralph Lauren. It was widely believed by us male types to render girls sexually powerless before our fragrant selves. It was also an aromatic class marker, in the sense that the A-class males wore Polo. Do boys still wear Polo? Does anybody? All…
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