The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) wrote the following verse, expressed here in English prose: “O, would some Power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us! It would free us from many a blunder and foolish notion.” The gift he was...
We’ve all heard enough ethnic jokes to know that they can be hurtful because they are usually based on stereotypes—that is, on overgeneralized, often derogatory, and even scurrilous characterizations of entire groups of people. But in the year 2000...
At the beginning of Lent, those to be received into the Catholic Church at Easter are elected by the bishop for the Easter sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist. These Elect, as they are now called, begin their final period of...
