The Mystique of the Pro-Life Movement: On Trump and the March for Life
Several years ago Matthew Lee Anderson wrote in these pages that there is no pro-life case for Donald Trump. In many ways the argument has not aged well—Anderson was deeply skeptical that Trump would make good on his promise to...
The Freedom of the Trad
Freddie De Boer has a typically sharp post up at his personal blog analyzing the ‘trad’ trend in some (mostly culturally elite) social circles. Do read the whole thing, but this graf gets at the main critique nicely: Here’s the...
Notes on Christianity Today’s Impeachment Editorial
This is a two-part essay. The first concerns several of the weaker responses to Mark Galli’s recent editorial at Christianity Today calling for President Trump’s impeachment. The latter concerns two of the better critiques and, in particular, one argumentative thread...
Mere Orthodoxy Best of 2019
Here is our annual list of the top pieces we published in 2019 and the general year in writing at Mere O. January Can We Reject Paedobaptism and Still Receive Paedobaptists? Several of our most read pieces this year came...
The 2019 Eliot Awards
Each year in December we publish our Eliot Awards at Mere Orthodoxy for excellence in long-form writing over the past 12 months. You can read our previous editions using the links below: 2018 Eliot Awards 2017 Eliot Awards We will...
Book Review: Kids These Days by Malcolm Harris
For awhile in the Mere O Writers Room we had a quote from one of our members pinned as the channel topic: “It’s hard to transgress liberalism with strippers.” It’s a memorable way of making an important point: Once you...
On The Traditionalists and the Protestants
Ross Douthat had a fascinating interview this past weekend in the New York Times with Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leader in conservative American Catholicism who has been consistently pushed toward the margins of church life under Pope Francis. At the risk...
Thomas Aquinas Reviews Worship Songs: Breathe
Whether “This is the Air I Breathe”? Objection 1: It would seem that God is, in fact, the air I breathe. The Psalmist writes, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Therefore,...
The Democrats (Probably) Won’t Outflank Themselves
The Bulwark’s Jonathan Last is the latest conservative commentator to take up a line that is increasingly popular amongst the Never Trump right: If the Democrats don’t pivot toward the center they’re going to lose in 2020. The argument is relatively...
Reformation Day and the Waning of the Western Church
Reformation Day is a contested event in the church year. That this is so for Roman Christians is to be expected. That it is increasingly so for Protestants as well is lamentable. Part of the reason for that Protestant reluctance...