Patriotism, that is love of country, is for Christians an obligation that flows from our love of neighbor. Such love, like all loves, must be chaste not promiscuous. Chaste love doesn’t overlook shortcoming in the beloved. But neither does it make even the most serious moral failures the sum total of the beloved. In the service of fostering a chaste …

…they must also be morally good themselves. Virtue is no guarantee that a political leader undertake effective, prudent and just public policies. The variable are often so complex that even the virtuous and knowledgeable politician may find him or herself only guess as to the best course of action. The difficulties inherent in both doing good and being good, however, …

Jason Breen at 200-Proof Liberals (Racism and Sexual Assault: Why Don’t Universities Choose to Shut Down?) writes that If we learned that 31.6% of students at Smiling Faces Daycare Center were sexually assaulted while there, we wouldn’t insist they hire a few more feminist scholar daycare workers or do more sexual assault programming. We would insist that the institution be …

You might have some imperfect obligation to speak out against some issue. (It can’t be a perfect obligation, can it? Does anyone think you are literally obligated to speak out for or against some issue at all times you’re awake?) Even if so, it doesn’t follow that other people have permission to make you speak out on demand. For instance, even if …

Follow the science, follow the data, can’t simply be limited to the findings of epidemiology. This listening not only to economists, political scientists and other social scientists but also philosophers and theologians especially those who specialize in morality and public policy. Following the science also means understanding, as the article below points out, the correlation between political orientation and risk …