“The single most important fact about the early twenty-first century is the rapid aging of almost every developed nation other than the United States: Canada, Europe, and Japan are getting old fast, older than any functioning society has ever been and fast than any has ever aged. A society ages when its birth rate falls …
21 Questions for a Prospective Wife
Given the nature of the case, these are not necessarily questions that someone might ever get to ask. A young man is coming to a father because he knows his own intentions, and he is inviting questions. He should be surprised if the young lady’s father had no questions. He is asking to be asked; …
A Crisis That Does Not Need a New Federal Agency for It
“So this is a doomsday book with a twist: an apocalyptic scenario that can best be avoided not by more government but by less—by government returning to the citizenry the primal responsibilities it’s taken from them in the modern era” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. xxix).
21 Questions for a Prospective Suitor
A father in my congregation has asked me what sort of questions a father should be asking a young man who wants to court his daughter. It is one thing to affirm that fathers should be active in protecting their daughters, but it is quite another to figure out what sort of specific questions are …
Just Do the Math
“Demographic decline and the unsustainability of the social-democratic state are closely related. In America, politicians upset about the federal deficit like to complain that we’re piling up debts our children and grandchildren will have to pay off. But in Europe the unaffordable entitlements are in even worse shape: there are no kids or grandkids to …
Don’t Sugar Coat It. Just Tell Us.
“Let me put it in a slightly bigger nutshell: much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most European countries” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. xiii).
No Voice
“Islamists control nearly every major American Muslim organization, as well as a large and perhaps growing majority of mosques, weekly newspapers, and communal organizations. As a result, they dominate the discourse. In contrast to countries like Turkey and Egypt, where a lively debate takes place between moderates and Islamists, the former hardly have a voice …
Winning Through Intimidation
“During the decade since 1989, militant Islamic efforts to silence those who critique Islam or Muslims have had impressive results . . . More impressive than these acts of terror, however, has been the way Islamists have changed the discussion of Islam around the world. In Muslim-majority countries, it has become virtually impossible to comment …
What is the Recruitment Pool?
“The inescapable and painful fact is that only Muslims are tempted by militant Islam. This creates a moral, legal, and political challenge. While anyone might become a fascist or Communist, only Muslims become Islamists. And if it is true that most Muslims are not Islamists, it is no less true that all Islamists are Muslims” …
Imitation on the Sly
“In their effort to build a way of life based purely on the Shar’i laws, Islamists strain to reject all aspects of Western influence—customs, philosophy, political institutions and values. Despite these efforts, they absorb vast amounts from the West . . . Even Ayatollah Khomeini, who was more traditional than most Islamists, failed in his …