Ryan T. Anderson, Public Discourse

Ryan T. Anderson

Public Discourse

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • Public Discourse
  • National Review
  • First Things
  • Wall Street Journal
  • The Daily Signal
  • Heritage Foundation
  • The Stream
  • LifeSiteNews.com
  • The Hill

Past articles by Ryan:

Why the Arguments about “Bodily Autonomy” and “Forced Birth” Fail to Justify Abortion

Examining the bodily autonomy argument for abortion highlights a crucial pro-life point: abortion is wrong not only because strangers shouldn’t kill each other but also and especially because parents have special obligations to their children, and it isn’t governmental overreach to require parents t → Read More

We Must Acknowledge That Abortion Harms Women

A piece in the Atlantic gets the debate wildly wrong. → Read More

Anthropological Fallacies

Body-self dualism, and its social manifestation in expressive individualism, underlie the rejection of our given human natures. Rather than seeing ourselves as somehow inhabiting bodies that are used as mere instruments, we should see ourselves as incarnate, bodily beings embedded in communities and → Read More

No, Overturning Roe Would Not Establish Theocracy

A law forcing Jews to attend Mass or Protestants to keep kosher would be imposing religion on others. Pro-life laws do no such thing. → Read More

How the Person Became a Self

In Strange New World, Trueman uncovers and describes the underlying social and intellectual forces that explain why his grandfather would have rejected sexual reassignment without a second thought but President Biden can declare that “transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.” → Read More

An Open Letter to HHS Secretary Becerra on Ending the Covid-19 Public Health “Emergency”

Human flourishing requires both public health and individual liberty and an appropriate balance between these goods when they conflict. We know that human beings flourish in community; we are social by nature. As such, we should not be surprised that government Covid-19 regulations mandating school → Read More

From the Archives: Mary Eberstadt on What Plagues the West

“Post-revolutionary men and women are living in ways that are profoundly unnatural for the ineradicably social creatures that we are; and many are suffering as a result, at times without even knowing the name of what ails them. This preoccupation, and the desire to do something about it, continues t → Read More

“He Knows What He Is About”: Living a Life that Matters

How does each and every one of us live a life that matters, that makes a difference, that has meaning, purpose, and value—and that ultimately will be a happy life in the rich sense of the term, that will be blessed? This essay is adapted from a commencement address delivered at The Mount School, a h → Read More

Called to Courage

If we have a calling in life, it is because someone has called us. God calls each of us by name to a specific path of holiness and service to others. Important as professional success may be, the only success of ultimate importance is holiness. The only real tragedy in life is not to have been a sai → Read More

America, Liberalism, and Catholicism

Resist the temptation to outsource your thinking to a team or a party. Rooting for a team is appropriate in sports, and partisan politics may be a necessity of a political system like ours, but both are detrimental to the intellectual process. Catholics should not think of discussions about the Chur → Read More

Amazon Won’t Let You Read My Book

An enterprising state attorney general might want to look into why it was withdrawn from sale now. → Read More

When Amazon Erased My Book

Three years after publication, in the same week that the House of Representatives plans to ram through the Equality Act, Amazon has erased my book opposing gender ideology from its cyber shelves. → Read More

Religious Liberty Isn’t Enough

Cultural conservatives also need to defend our views, which are scientifically sound and popular. → Read More

Refreshing, Rejuvenating, and Improving Our Public Discourse: 2020 Book Recommendations

Reading recommendations from The Witherspoon Institute staff. → Read More

Pope Francis, Civil Unions, and Moral Truth

More deeply understanding the truth about marriage and human sexuality will help all of us flourish. And that is what a pastor like Pope Francis desires. We can understand—indeed we share—the frustration of our fellow Catholics with the ways in which the Holy Father conducts interviews and the ways → Read More

Protect Good Medicine, Stop the Censorship of Good Counseling

The law must protect the freedom of parents to seek, children to receive, and doctors to practice good medicine. The law must protect the ability of doctors and families to help children feel comfortable as what they actually are—namely, male and female children—not to radically and irreversibly tra → Read More

Mary Eberstadt on What Plagues the West

“Post-revolutionary men and women are living in ways that are profoundly unnatural for the ineradicably social creatures that we are; and many are suffering as a result, at times without even knowing the name of what ails them. This preoccupation, and the desire to do something about it, continues t → Read More

Religious Liberty Is Important, But It’s Not Enough

The religious liberty triumphs of the past several days are important, but they’re not enough. Not nearly so. We need to contend about the truth of the matter. Through legislation and litigation, we need to make it clear that it’s lawful to act on the convictions that we are created male and female → Read More

Justice Gorsuch’s Misguided Sex Discrimination Opinion Fails Logic Test

The logic of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion on sex discrimination makes no sense once you get beyond “trans” gender and consider contemporary gender theory. → Read More

The Supreme Court’s Mistaken and Misguided Sex Discrimination Ruling

Justice Gorsuch’s position would either require the elimination of all sex-specific programs and facilities or allow access based on an individual’s subjective identity rather than his or her objective biology. When Gorsuch claims that “transgender status inextricably bound up with sex” because → Read More