I know mine to be a minority viewpoint in this regard, yet I hold to it nevertheless: Religious indoctrination in youth Is the best predictor For apostasy and atheism in adult life. The evidence for that is little short of conclusive. Saying so shocked a great many of my Catholic readers. I put …
Category: family matters
Mar 23 2025
Barren Trees
Today, the third Sunday in Lent, we read from Luke chapter 13: There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered …
Jan 08 2025
Keeping House
Joy Pullman’s excellent article on home cooking and family health got me thinking about some other consequences of American women’s transition from homemakers to office workers. In particular, I noticed a correlation between the departure of the homemaker and the amount of time minor children spend outdoors. Both mothers-as-homemakers and kids playing outdoors have …
Dec 04 2024
The Pardon, One More Time
I should stop thinking about this. I really should. Because the consequences will be wider and harsher than anyone has yet had the courage to mention. A pardon says, sotto voce, “Yes, you’re guilty and I know it, but I’m going to let you off.” The acceptance of a pardon says, in equally hushed tones, …
Nov 17 2024
The State Of Fear
“The State is based on threat.” [Illuminatus!] A great many people believe that government is there to “protect and serve.” After all, doesn’t it say that on the sides of the police cars? But the messaging on a package need not conform to its contents. In this case, the message is diametrically opposed …
Nov 14 2024
I Don’t Care Whether She’s Got ANY Degrees
Melania Knauss Trump is head and shoulders above “Dr.” Jill Biden: “After receiving the horrific news of the tragedy in Pennsylvania, Jill Biden took the initiative to contact me directly. I do not know, however, if her concern was genuine, since, just days before, she had called my husband “evil” and a “liar.” …
Oct 09 2024
“It’s Not The XXXs Any More”
Apparently, that’s Kamala Harris’s response to questions about her bizarre family life: In an interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast published Sunday, Harris implied that criticism of her family life was the result of conservative prudishness, saying that “this is not the 1950s,” according to The Hill. Now, it’s worth noting …
Aug 29 2024
The Anti-Children Crusade
Depending on which sources you choose to believe, on or around the year 1212 A.D. there was a “crusade” made up largely of children. Supposedly it was a peace-minded movement to travel to the Holy Land and convert the Muslims there to Christianity. No, it didn’t work. Indeed, a great many of the participants …
Dec 04 2023
The Loss Of Simplicity
[I’m still afflicted by some sort of upper-respiratory torment, and expect to spend the day under about a dozen blankets, so have a reprint from Eternity Road of fond memory. It first appeared there on July 28, 2007. Sadly, some of the embedded links no longer work. Sixteen years is long enough to lose …
Oct 15 2023
Marital Matters
This might become an occasional feature at Liberty’s Torch. There are few things that interest me more than the pressures on marriage and families today. The rise of militant feminism has exacerbated the natural tensions that will always exist between men and women. Yea verily, even when he’s an actual man and she’s an …
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