From Ethika Politika, our friends, and around the web. Compiled by David Mills.
Editorial
Is (Ayn) Randianism an ideology in the same swamp as anti-Semitism or is it one of those ideas one can respect while rejecting sharply? David Mills asks in Do Not Speak Well of Randianism, and argues that it's the first.
From Ethika Politika
No Benedict Without Benedictines. Community can be very oppressive and very hard to escape, a problem the modern West thought it solved by developing liberalism, argues Jeff Guhin, but now we know what we've lost. And being all liberals now and unwilling to return to the communities envisioned by the Benedict Option, can't easily get back.
Unmarried Childbearing and Infertility. Looking at young men who father children without marrying their mothers, as described by David Lapp, Michael Bradley finds their attitude to fatherhood admirable, even if they present their children with a difficult life. He notes that the bourgeois couples who marry but refuse children are not necessarily more admirable for being married.
Last week, as part of The Whole Story, we published a series of reflections on parenthood prompted by an Atlantic review of the book Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed, a collection of essays about elective childlessness and the cultural narratives surrounding it.
To Want or To Welcome? How, asks Monica Sikorski, can we define our preferences when it comes to the inimitable world that is every person, each of whom begins as a little child? It's never simply a matter of wanting a child, or wanting a childless life.
A Heart Divided: Why I Chose Children. Rachel Meyer and her husband planned to wait to have children. Then they married, and it seemed natural their love and our commitment to bear fruit in new life, and unnatural to prevent it.
Parenthood: It Builds Character. When she found a person who nourished her intellect and creativity just by talking to her, Kathryn Wales thought, “This is where babies come from.”
Parenting When It's Hard. Unprepared for the dullness, grossness, and frustration of caring for an immature human being, Emily Lundley once told her infant "You're the worst boss I ever had."
The Extraordinary in the Ordinary. Raising children draws you outside of yourself, Angela Engelsen explains, and shows you that your capacity for and to love is hemmed-in by your failings — but also helps you learn to love.
Taking a Chance on Someone New. In a letter to a friend, P. J. Vivolo explains why the supposed stigma against the willfully childless does not move her to pity. Or maybe it does, because life doesn't get any more real than life with family.
From Our Writers, Editors, and Friends
Chase Padnusiak's The Value of a "Liberally" Catholic Education from The Intercollegiate Review.
David Mills' In Praise of Minimalism from Aleteia.
From the Archives
Dylan Pahman's Scapegoats of Christian Social Thought
Timothy Kirchoff's Is Francis Building Benedict's Church?
Other Articles on Our Concerns
Ross Douthat on Caitlyn Jenner and the American Religion from The New York Times.
Grant Gallicho's Goodbye, Christians from Commonweal.
Oliver Olivarez's Don’t Use My Pain as a Weapon: Infertility and Same-Sex Marriage from Public Discourse.
David Cloutier's Why Climate Change is Not a Prudential Judgment from Commonweal.
Arthur C. Brooks' The Thrill of Political Hating from The New York Times.
