Posts by Elijah Rex Newcomb

In our semiquincentennial year, it would be wise for us to reflect on and consider what makes us who we are. What are our unique virtues? What are the lessons we must learn from a past that no other nation on earth has shared?

What is needed now is a recovery of a preference for politics in the local – where you know people face-to-face, where you can have an immediate impact. The place you actually live.

I believe the reason fasting has a spiritual effect is that it forces us into a posture of humility, repentance, receptivity, and gratitude. I think this is why fasting makes prayer more effective. And this is why fasting will save the world.

The growing interest in Catholicism among young men should be taken seriously. In many cases, it reflects a desire for historical rootedness, a more embodied faith, and a tradition that feels connected across time.

Free markets are only a good idea insofar as the people participating in them love one another. In other words, free markets function best when grace undergirds economics.

A man who refuses to examine his life should not be surprised by what it becomes.

The problem with our elites today is that many have abandoned the Western tradition. Instead, they study figures who scorn the very foundations of American common life. In fact, many of today’s politicians are brilliant managers of power because that’s all they believe in. They do not know the first thing about aiming that power at the good, the true, and the beautiful.

You cannot conserve a forest that no longer exists.

For nearly 80 years, conservatives have warned about the ideological capture of American higher education. And yet, each successive generation of conservative leaders continues to attend the same establishment schools, only to denounce them upon graduation.

Those who openly support abortion have no hesitation in ending innocent lives to achieve their goals, whether winning Golden Globes or getting promoted at work.

The death penalty is just war in microcosm. Men like Robinson have declared war on society and the common good, and it is the state’s role to suppress their sin by any means necessary for their own sake as well as for others.

Thus, in the service of true free speech, the freedom to proclaim the truths Kirk defended, those who celebrate his death must be summarily and unceremoniously dismissed. It is not censorship. It is public hygiene.