Edwin Benson 
On December 12, 2024, The New York Times published a piece titled “It’s Time to Talk About Pornography, Scholars Say.” It cited a sobering 2023 survey showing that almost three-quarters of American adolescents under seventeen have viewed pornographic materials. Much of the piece talked about the harmful, misleading and unrealistic nature of … Read more
Articles about the decline of Christianity abound, most of them based on some form of public polling. For instance, in January 2024, the Pew Research Center posited that twenty-eight percent of American adults are “religiously unaffiliated,” up from sixteen percent in 2007. Why is the Bible Gaining Popularity? So, the recent news … Read more
As a priest, missionary, pastor and bishop, Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860) frequently confronted anti-Catholic persecution. Catholic thinker and man of action Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira made many commentaries on this aspect of American history and the role of Saint John Neumann in fighting against this persecution. The Brazilian author of … Read more
A new clean energy source could be the single most significant news story of the century. Unfortunately, eco-activists are not interested. Three researchers at the University of Nebraska may have discovered enough energy to end the world’s dependence on oil. The critical element is hydrogen gas, and massive ready-to-use deposits may run … Read more
In the minds of many, Sam Walton was the epitome of “The American Dream.” He was born on March 29, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, attained the rank of Eagle Scout, and served in World War II before he purchased a small Ben Franklin store in Arkansas. He opened the first Walmart in … Read more
Leftists have a disquieting tendency to assert the importance of their untested (and sometimes even disproven) ideas. No body of knowledge avoids being sucked into this vortex. Rocks and Gender Theory? A shocking example is the book Geologic Life: Inhuman Intimacies and the Geophysics of Race. The author, Kathryn Yusoff, is a … Read more
In August 1851, Pope Pius IX elevated Bishop Francis Kenrick from the Diocese of Philadelphia to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Upon arrival, the new archbishop began going to Father Neumann for confession. The two men were acquainted, but the archbishop grew increasingly impressed with the immigrant priest’s intelligence, ability and energy. When … Read more
The left is unfurling another weapon in the culture war, and it must be disabled before it can do real damage. That weapon is known by a word so new that many word processing programs see it as a spelling error—debanking. Misusing a Legitimate Tool The idea began as a way to … Read more
John Neumann arrived in America on June 2, 1836, and left on June 28 for his first priestly assignment near Buffalo, New York. During the whirlwind month between arrival and assignment, he walked much of the city without a guide or map, met Bishop John Dubois, was accepted as an aspirant to … Read more
Without question, 2024 is a bad year to be a liberal. If you want confirmation, cast your thoughts back fifty years to a bad year to be a conservative, 1974. Even though the U.S. had abandoned the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement still dominated the media. The Watergate Scandal eroded Richard Nixon’s … Read more