What we're seeing today is a secular liberalism that wants to expand the prohibition of establishment to silence articulate religious voices and disenfranchise religiously motivated voters, and at the same time to narrow the scope of free exercise so that the new secular morality can reign over American society unimpeded.

They say there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. Try as we might, it's virtually impossible to escape the clutches of the Grim Reaper or the Tax Man. Both will get you eventually.

Regardless of where your political sympathies lie, it's undeniable that there is an unhealthy and unholy alliance between well-heeled special interests and politicians and policymakers. It's all well and good to embrace Ms. Rand's philosophy of self-seeking individualism in theory, but when this mentality insinuates itself into the markets unchecked by moral and ethical principles, the results are antithetical to freedom and fairness

You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books…Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak.

Ideas do have consequences, as the recent events in Boston so vividly demonstrate. We in the West need to recognize these truths and acknowledge their implications on our way of life and our ideals. Unless we confront and debunk the very bad ideas that are being advanced against our way of life, we will not continue to stand. Some ideas are not just bad, they are evil, and we must be willing to say so.

Last week, I wrote a column entitled "Brutality in the Brave New World" discussing an appalling movement within the scientific community in which researchers are exploring the "therapeutic" potential of the eggs of aborted baby girls. In a similar vein, a bioethicist writing for the Huffington Post in 2009 famously suggested that pregnant women wanting abortions be paid to remain pregnant longer so that their aborted babies yield more "useful" body parts. In the face of such moral depravity, the only conclusion to be drawn was that mankind has given itself over utterly to the appetites of ambition and avarice, and Heaven help those who find themselves the object of these appetites unchecked by moral standards.

In his seminal work, Nichomachean Ethics, the philosopher Aristotle begins his meditation on the subject of morality and the ultimate end of human life with an observation that certain first principles of ethics are self-evident to a person who has been raised up in a virtuous manner.

This past Sunday, Christians around the world celebrated Easter as a memorial of Christ's resurrection. If Christians are correct about what happened on the first Easter morning, then the resurrection is the single most important event in human history.

There was a time when America was united by a shared sense of national pride and cultural identity. Regardless of what side of the political spectrum one fell on, there was a general sense of pride in being an American and a respect for our foundational institutions.

For people of faith in America, the Obama administration's birth control mandate represents an unprecedented assault on religious conscience. It seems that the President and his surrogates have little appreciation for the role that faith plays in the lives of many Americans, and even less respect for the Constitution's protection of religious liberty.

The question, then, is not whether we should help "the least of these," it's how. When Republicans object to programs touted as beneficial to the poor, they must do a better job of explaining why. Too often, the Progressive approach to social justice fails to solve the problem, and in many cases only makes matters worse.

Health care is about so much more than dollars and cents. In the end, we are talking about human life and the dignity accorded it by our society. If we believe, as our Declaration of Independence asserts, that all men possess inherent dignity as given to them by God, then we cannot embrace a system of health care that assigns life worth based on arbitrary criteria like age, size, location, cognitive ability or any other generic factor.

Most parents would agree that protecting your children from harm and doing everything possible to set them on a path of success and happiness are fundamental parental responsibilities. From the moment our children are born, their welfare becomes an almost singular obsession.

When you hear the name Southern Poverty Law Center, it immediately evokes images of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Freedom Rides... all iconic symbols of the civil rights movement. And rightly so, for these are the events that inspired it’s founding.

The recent spate of mass shootings has prompted President Obama and his allies in Congress to pursue new gun control laws with special urgency.

"Your freedom is likely to be someone else's harm." So says bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Hastings Center, responding to the recent controversy over provisions in Obamacare that penalize smokers.

"Theological courage calls the inner-man to ignore his buckling knees and take theologically driven stances that, while potentially controversial, are righteous in nature." So write Owen Strachen and Andrew Walker in a recent article discussing Hobby Lobby's stance against Obamacare's onerous trampling of religious liberty.

In the wake of the brutal, senseless tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun control debate is once again aflame in Washington, D.C. Advocates of strict gun control laws are taking advantage of the visceral, emotional nature of the event to push their agenda, while the NRA and their adherents have been put on the defensive.

During the 2012 election season the American people were subjected to hundreds of campaign ads. Among these were several geared towards women, and many of these were paid for by Planned Parenthood. According to Planned Parenthood, Mitt Romney was bad for women because he wanted to cut federal funding for the organization, thereby depriving millions of women of "vital services." We heard a lot about cancer screenings in these ads, but very little about abortions.

It's that time of year again, time for fresh starts, optimism for the future, and New Year's resolutions. Unfortunately, there's nothing fresh, optimistic, or resolute coming out of our nation's capital these days. After a months' long game of political chicken, Congress managed to maneuver its way around the worst elements of the dreaded "fiscal cliff" at the 11th hour. What they failed miserably to demonstrate is an ability to address America's dire fiscal situation in a serious manner.