The ultimate Christmas classic has proved over time to be both prophetic and bitterly realistic. Read More… My Christmas movies series has hitherto considered church (The Bishop’s Wife), work (The Shop Around the Corner), and family (Christmas in Connecticut), munities that constitute America. I’ll conclude with the most famous American Christmas fairy tale of all, Miracle on 34th Street (1947), in which merce, and even marriage are all in trouble, as they are today. The story is straightforward but unpredictable:...

Recent polls suggest church attendance and religious affiliation are declining at an even faster pace than before. But who exactly is answering these poll questions, and how do they understand them? Read More… The latest Pew Research Center survey on American religion reflects a familiar trend in recent years: declining levels of Christian affiliation and growing numbers of religiously unaffiliated (the “nones”). Almost 30% of those surveyed told Pew that they identify with no particular pared to 16% in 2007....

Mary’s call and response is a powerful reminder of how Advent calls us to model her in humble obedience and service, whatever our vocation. Read More… We arrive at the Christmas stable. We have prepared. The Christ child e to us—Immanuel. We begin by taking a step back. The candle that is lit for the final Sunday of Advent reminds us of Mary, the one who brings the Lord into the world. The Protestant Reformers reacted against Catholic overemphasis on...

Christians in the marketplace are motivated by more than profit. They seek also to be worthy of the public trust so as to avoid divine judgment. Read More… One of the more disturbing aspects of the way the market economy works is the ability of, at least some, participants to avoid responsibility for their decisions and actions. The manner in which this works is through the concepts of corporate personality and limited liability. The corporation is deemed to have a...

The effects of the National Security Law are being felt by journalists in Hong Kong, as the city suffers a terrible slide into a totalist state to match China’s. Read More… Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released this year’s World Press Freedom Index, ranking countries based on press freedom, from the most to the least press. In 2002, for example, Hong Kong was ranked 18th. This year, it fell to 80th out of 180 countries, while China landed at #177, only...

Whether the new university “dedicated to the unfettered pursuit of truth” will succeed is anyone’s guess. The real issue is why so many are trashing it before it even starts. Read More… Conservatives tend to be skeptical of the uses of the word diversity, but they love variety. They believe that American higher education is better when you have a rich choice among schools—uniformity being a feature of progressive ideologies—that each has a particular mission and identity. Such variety serves...

Should you tell them or should I? Read More… Presidential summits tend to focus on PR rather than substance. The Biden administration’s “Summit for Democracy” looks no different. Its objectives were worthy. Asthe State Departmentexplained it, President Joe Biden planned to “bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.” However, most of the topics probably...

Don’t believe that increasing the money supply or jacking up federal spending costs nothing. Blaming corporate greed for rising prices is just a diversion from poor economic policy. Read More… Generally, the topic of inflation is considered dry and uninteresting, but it is one that has garnered much attention and debate over the past year. There peting narratives as to what inflation is and why it matters, and even whether the U.S. economy is experiencing inflation or not. Inflation is...

Can a cynical newspaperwoman and a WWII vet live happily ever after a PR stunt? Read More… I continue my series on old Hollywood Christmas movies. After a movie about church as munity, The Bishop’s Wife(1947), and the workplace as munity, The Shop Around the Corner (1940), I turn to a movie about family, the smallest but most munity: Christmas in Connecticut (1945), starring Barbara Stanwyck, one of the great Hollywood stars, Sydney Greenstreet (the Fat Man from The Maltese...

The pany, founded by entrepreneur and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, is in its death throes, another victim of the draconian National Security Law. Read More… A Hong Kong high court has ordered the winding-up of Jimmy Lai’s prominent pany, Next Digital, following a local government petition. The order came from high court master Jack Wong Kin-tong on Dec. 15. No representatives from Next Digital were present at the hearing and pany submitted no objections, according to South China Morning Post....