The big news, of course, is the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell; there’s a nice reflection on the man and his work by Joseph Bottum over on the First Things blog. Really, by this time, the Rev. Falwell was about 20 years past his period of broad cultural relevance, though he continued to be important as the founder and patriarch of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University; but all in all, for all the points where I disagreed with him and the times when he made me cringe, I’d still have to say that our nation is better off because he lived, and that from where I stand, it looks like God used him in powerful ways. Rev. Jerry Falwell, RIP.
On another note, there’s an equally good tribute to the philosopher Charles Taylor, written by Dinesh D’Souza, on the tothesource website, on the occasion of Dr. Taylor having been awarded the Templeton Prize. If you haven’t read Taylor, and you’re up for a good deep read, you ought to–probably starting with his magisterial Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Meaty stuff, and very, very important.