The Briefing 10-12-17

PART I The next step in the evolution of the Boy Scouts of America: accepting girls

PART II The words "boys" and "girls" are becoming increasingly ironic

PART III The Pope condemns the death penalty

PART IV The importance of Sola Scriptura asserts itself on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation

The Briefing 10-11-17

PART I Historic College at Oxford says Christianity is just too harmful for freshmen

PART II Why are advertisers turning to porn as a data metric?

PART III A fact checker discovers that America really is an outlier on abortion

The Briefing 10-10-17

PART I When did the Kennedy family change its position on abortion?

PART II Alabama Senate candidate flaunts pro-abortion position. Why are the media ignoring it?

PART III The rise of the occult in headlines from Africa

PART IV What Sally Quinn’s fascination with the occult tells us about high society and ourselves

The Briefing 10-09-17

PART I A clash of orthodoxies: Trump administration's reversal of contraception mandate sets off firestorm

PART II Two different conceptions of how to read a law on display in AG Session’s Title VII guidance

PART III Why rival charges of hypocrisy are sometimes both right

The Briefing 10-06-17

PART I Partisanship comes to late-night: What the turn in comedy tells us about the culture

PART II Dark, anxious, and realistic: Why comedians now want audiences to wince while they laugh

PART III Art as a form of moral subversion: Exhibit about gender aims to upend very idea of gender

PART IV Worldview book recommendation: “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Briefing 10-05-17

PART I After House passes 20-week abortion ban, sanctity of human life could hang by a Senate rule

PART II While upholding sanctity of life with his vote, PA congressman undermines it in personal life

PART III Political hypocrisy on the sanctity of life is not only immoral and humiliating, it’s deadly

The Briefing 10-04-17

PART I How to speak in the aftermath of a massacre, even in a context of controversy

PART II Awkwardness in using the word evil reveals bigger problems

PART III When the Archbishop of Canterbury won’t answer the question, he actually has answered the question

The Briefing 10-03-17

PART I The moral vocabulary of pure evil in the aftermath of Las Vegas

PART II The importance of moral facts, not just moral values, and the reality of evil

PART III Why, in times of trouble, the American people expect their president to quote Scripture

The Briefing 10-02-17

PART I The intersection of natural disaster and political leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria

PART II The looming humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and the ineffectual nature of the United Nations

PART III Achievement and fragility of the nation-state on display as Kurds and Catalans push for independence

The Briefing 09-29-17

PART I A pornographic revolution, Playboy, and the death of Hugh Hefner

PART II The lie at the heart of ‘Banned Books Week’

PART III ‘No problem’ or ‘You’re welcome’? Exploring the link between language and etiquette

PART IV Worldview book recommendation: Wired for Intimacy