www.time.com

Some years ago, when FIRST THINGS was new, I met Diane, a young Episcopalian woman affiliated with the Institute on Religion and Democracy. We got to talking about FIRST THINGS, our favorite monthly magazine.

Diane was in the habit of reading the longer articles first, then rewarding herself with Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’ various commentaries in his While We’re At It section.

I jumped immediately to Fr. Neuhaus’ pages. It was like sitting down with an old friend.  He saw right through sham and he consistently skewered woolly-headed thinking with wit and grace.

AP reporter Rachel Zoll, writing for The New York Times tries to get it right today by describing Fr. Neuhaus’ life as moving from left to right:

A native of Canada and the son of a Lutheran pastor, Neuhaus began his own work as a Lutheran minister at St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in a predominantly African-American Brooklyn neighborhood. He was active in…

socrates58.blogspot.com

December 31, 2008

Please forgive this group email, but so many have asked after the health of Richard John Neuhaus that is seemed best to send out this single message to all our friends.

Fr. Neuhaus is in the hospital here in New York. Over Thanksgiving, he was diagnosed with a serious cancer. The long-term prognosis for this particular cancer is not good, but it is not hopeless, either, and there is a possibility that it will respond to the recommended out-patient chemotherapy.

Unfortunately, over Christmas, he was taken dangerously ill with what seems to be a systemic infection that has left him very weak. Entering the hospital the day after Christmas, he was sedated to lower an elevated heart rate and treatment was begun for the infection. Over the last few days, he has shown some signs of improvement, and there is a reasonable expectation that he will recover from this present…

credit: a.abcnews.com

Nathaniel Peters, over at the FIRST THINGS blog site, noticed a New York Times article on infidelity, particularly the rise in women reporting their own infidelity.

But what most amazed Peters was the language used in the NYTimes article:

The noticeable shifts came in men and women over 60 and those under 35. One could say many things about the findings, but I was struck by the tone of a few sentences. One, in the print edition, summarized the article:

“More people are cheating, new studies find, and younger women appear to be catching up with men.”

Another did the same, but in the body of the piece:

“Notably, women appear to be closing the adultery gap: younger women appear to be cheating on their spouses nearly as often as men.”

Notice the language. It’s not that women are as unfaithful as men or that women’s infidelity is rising; it’s that women are “closing the…