If You Thought the Crusades Were Evil, Think Again

If you think you know enough about the Crusades you’re probably wrong. As a matter of fact, what everyone “knows” about the series of historical events known as the Crusades may not be true. In fact, from the many popular notions about them, let’s pick four and see if they bear close examination. The four myths to be dealt with are the following:

1. The crusades represented an unprovoked attack by Western Christians on the Muslim world.
2. Western Christians went on crusade because their greed led them to plunder Muslims in order to get rich.
3. Crusaders were a cynical lot who did not really believe their own religious propaganda; rather, they had ulterior, materialistic motives.
4. The crusades taught Muslims to hate and attack Christians.

And here is how they can be demystified. A very useful read well worth the time.

Are Appeals to Natural Law and Right Reason Still Effective?

Samuel Gregg in Crisis Magazine :

...The American Founding was suffused with the language of virtue. Alongside this went a conviction on the part of many Founders that there was a natural law that all humans could know. Hence someone such as Alexander Hamilton didn’t hesitate to affirm in his Farmer Refuted that “upon this law, depend the natural rights of mankind.” To which Hamilton immediately added: “the Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which, to discern and pursue such things.

It’s not an easy reading, but it is worth the effort—and your time will be well spent!

Once the Spirit Comes to Dwell in Someone

Isaac of Nineveh wrote in the seventh century: “Once the Spirit comes to dwell in someone, the latter will not be able to stop praying, for the Spirit will never stop praying inside him. Thus, whether he sleeps or wakes, prayer will never be absent from the person’s soul. Whether she is eating or drinking, or sleeping or working, the sweet fragrance of prayer will effortlessly breathe in his heart. Henceforth he no longer prays at fixed times, but continuously.”

A Republican AND Conservative Wave

Tuesday was not just a Republican wave, it was also a conservative wave. All across the country, conservative incumbents and challengers, won in races that they were supposed to lose. Conservatives won in gubernatorial races on down the ballot U.S. House races and state legislative races...

A short and clear synthesis (at Human Events, by Ron Pearson and Trevor K. Smith).