SPIRITED THINKING SINCE 1888
Ken Craycraft

The Texas Heartbeat Bill and Abortion Politics in the U.S.
September 15, 2021
It is too soon for abortion opponents to celebrate a complete victory in Texas
Belief and Unbelief on the Margins of Greeneland
September 02, 2021
It is only the fundamentalist who never struggles with questions of faith, and it is questionable whether that is really faith, rather than ideology.
An English Court Rules, a Swedish Hospital Listens, Halts Dangerous Gender Dysphoria Treatments
July 11, 2021
A hospital famous for its treatment of gender dysphoria has stopped treatments that try to change children’s bodies from one sex to another. And the United Kingdom High Court of Justice is one reason it did so. The court found that the evidence that the treatment worked is “poor” at best and “non-existent” at worst.
The Grand Inquisitor and Independence Day: A Catholic Question About the 4th of July
July 02, 2021
Independence Day began as a commemoration of the North American British Colonies’ declaration of their independence from Great Britain in 1776. It has become a cypher for a kind of freedom markedly different from the mere enjoyment of citizens’ right “to alter or to abolish” their existing government and “to institute new government.” It seems more
The Catholic Problem With Pride Month
June 30, 2021
How does one fulfill the gospel mandate to join the suffering of a person who doesn’t think she’s suffering? That’s a question Pride Month, now ending, raises for Catholics. The month proclaims pride not just in an identity, but in behaviors. It’s a question we have to answer. We are called to accompany and console
If the Eucharist isn’t Political, to Hell with It
June 22, 2021
St. Ambrose barring Emperor Theodosius from Milan’s cathedral, by Anthony van Dyck, c.1619 (Public Domain)   The “Statement of Principles” that about sixty Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives released on June 18, criticizing the U.S. Bishops for being, well, shepherds of their flock, is a model of disingenuous prevarication. The Statement claims
U.S. Abortion Law is About to Get Murkier
June 03, 2021
Group photo of the Justices at the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021. (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)   In May 2021, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear yet another case testing the limits of a State’s ability to regulate abortion under Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that
I Was So Much Older Then
May 24, 2021
Bob Dylan during a press interview28th April 1965. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) Bob Dylan turns 80 Fifty-five years ago 16 May1966, Bob Dylan released his most critically acclaimed album ever, Blonde on Blonde, the third album in fourteen frenetic months of astonishing artistic creativity. With Bringing It All Back Home (March 1965) and Highway
Stuff that Works: Remembering Guy Clark
May 17, 2021
Guy Clark at the Newport Folk Festival, 2009. Photo by William Wallace from Austin, TX, USA CC BY 2.0   American singer-songwriter Guy Clark passed away five years ago this month, on 17 May 2016, at the age of 74. I have used this space to extol other Americana musical artists, including Townes Van Zandt,
Materials Strewn on the Floor: Casting (for) Words for a Conversation
May 02, 2021
A member of the Minnesota Freedom Fighters stands guard during Daunte Wright’s funeral in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 22, 2021. (KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)   Can one affirm — without reservation — that vestiges of racism and racist social and political structures are manifest in authentic present disadvantages for people of color, and also sincerely
Transgender Newspeak
April 14, 2021
Andrew Sullivan suggests “A Truce Proposal In the Trans Wars” in a recent post at his blog, The Weekly Dish. As usual for Sullivan, the piece is thoughtful, circumspect, and very smart. After a survey of the current terrain in public disputes about transgender issues, Sullivan proposes a series of compromises between opposing camps in
Missing John Prine
April 07, 2021
At the recent Grammy Awards celebration, John Prine’s song, “I Remember Everything,” won the prizes for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. Prine was not available to accept the trophies, as they were presented almost a year after his death from Covid-19. As we are well into the first anniversary of Covid-related
Standing firm and holding fast
August 26, 2021
The wisdom of Evelyn Waugh provides theological sustenance in these fractious times
Centesimus Annus After 30 Years
May 04, 2021
Like the sabbath, the economy is at the service of the human person, not vice versa. Thus, the measure of a moral economy is the development of the full human person.
The Politics of the Passion
March 30, 2021
Pilate came to flex imperial muscle. With a little shock and awe, he came to Jerusalem to remind the Jews that their primary identification was as Roman subjects.
Obituary: Fr Paul Mankowski, fighter, scholar and friend
September 29, 2020
Fr Paul Mankowski SJ, who has died at the age of 66, was a Jesuit priest of immense erudition. A linguist and literary critic, and an extraordinarily insightful analyst of the ills besetting the Church in his time, Fr Mankowski was also an inveterate controversialist who combined Midwestern frankness with his keen intellect and profound
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