Are We “Designed for Sex?”
This article was originally published in the Fall ’06 issue of Revisions, Sex is Good.
There is nothing like a solid discussion of incest, child pornography, masturbation, homosexuality, casual sex, strap-ons, suicide, and dildos to attract one’s attention. This past September, Dr. Budziszewski, a professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin, gave a talk sponsored by Princeton’s Anscombe Society entitled “Designed for Sex.” Covering everything from middle-aged men looking up child pornography on the internet, to girls cutting themselves over the loss of a sex partner, he considered no abnormal sexual activity taboo. Budziszewski, an accomplished writer and speaker of ethics and natural law philosophy, advocated that a natural law-based sexuality is the best and most fruitful sexuality.
Greenbacks and Grace
This article was originally published in the Spring ’07 issue of Revisions, Can Technology Save Us?
As I entered the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, I came to the conclusion that ripping off my clothes and screaming, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God!” would probably be an ineffective method to reveal a Gospel truth. Forced to attend a fundraiser for the Joffrey Ballet in downtown Los Angeles this past March, I found myself among some of the wealthiest citizens of the great state of California: Dennis Tito, that guy who paid 20 million dollars to go into space, Michael Milkin, the “Junk Bond king” who was sent to federal prison and fined $900 million dollars for an SEC violation, and a whole slew of other Angelinos who showed up in support of the arts. At the time, I wondered if they realized that it is the meek—not those with McMansions and Bentleys— who inherit the earth. Sinfully, my ivory tower was far too high for me to notice the magnitude of my pride, but the concept of “Christian wealth” began to roll around in my spiritually inexperienced mind.