Thomas More Institute

Category Archives: Culture

Published on
10 June 2013

Innocence, Surveillance and Our Perennial Dilemma

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, Public Policy, Religion

News that the United States government ordered the largest US communications company Verizon to hand over details of communications of all of its customers on a daily basis is as regrettable as it is shocking. That is to say, insofar as it is regrettable it is also shocking but it is not a complete surprise. […]

Published on
13 May 2013

The Properties of Democracy

Posted in Culture, Human Rights, Liberty, Political Economy

In modern Britain the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association are rightly among those most treasured. Following on their heels is the right to property, although at times it seems a rather weaker cousin. Speaking and meeting with others come naturally, but owning property is a bit more involved. If, like most, […]

Published on
5 April 2013

When Discussing Porn Sex-Ed. Should Start with Life

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Marriage & Family, Moral Philosophy

Perhaps the only social phenomena that could be attributed solely to the internet over the last 20 years has been the meteoric rise in the use of pornography. Like all vices pornography is nothing new but the pervasiveness of it online has led to discussions of whether it should be filtered out (censored) at source […]

Published on
14 January 2013

Violence in the Theatre and Real Violence

Posted in Culture, Ethics in the Media, Music & Art

On Christmas Day 2012 Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Django Unchained, made its premiere. The film tells the story of an Afro-American slave in nineteenth-century America searching for his lost wife and of his efforts to achieve legal freedom. The historical background is bloody and the film is, as has been the case with many of […]

Published on
12 December 2012

Contradiction at the Heart of ‘Marriage Equality’ and Sex-Education

Posted in Conscience, Culture, Education, Marriage & Family

At present it looks extremely likely that legislation extending the possibility of legal marriage to same-sex couples will be passed in the New Year, and that in spite of strong opposition from voters, churches and even some homosexual people, too. We have blogged before about ‘gay marriage’ here, here, here and here. One aspect of […]

Published on
22 November 2012

Religion, Secular Politics and Intelligible Values

Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Human Rights, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary, Virtue

Religious experience is, for many sceptical or simply indifferent secularists, something unintelligible. The idea that there is a God who can become a man and forgive sins — even that there is such a thing as God or as sin — is for them unacceptable. Religious people must remember that this is no simple matter […]

Published on
12 November 2012

We Need Saints in the Cabinet, not Vigilantes in the Newsroom

Posted in British Politics, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Ethics in the Media, Liberty, Moral Philosophy

When Philip Schofield passed a list of alleged sexual abusers to David Cameron on camera it was clear the Prime Minister was not pleased. This was not a simple matter of the government or the Tory party facing charges of ‘honours for cash’ or of political ‘u-turns’. The possibility that senior members of the party […]