William Murchison

William Murchison is a corresponding editor of Chronicles and the author of The Cost of Liberty: The Life of John Dickinson (ISI) and Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity. William Murchison, syndicated columnist and longtime commentator on religious, cultural, and political affairs, has contributed to many national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Weekly Standard, and First Things.

Latest by William Murchison in Chronicles

Results: 148 Articles found.
  • What the Editors Are Reading: January 2021
    Reviews
    January 2021

    What the Editors Are Reading: January 2021

    Reviews of classic books, including William McNeill's 1963 expansive history The Rise of the West and William Alexander Percy's memoir of the American South, Lanterns on the Levee.

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  • What the Editors Are Reading
    Reviews
    September 2020

    What the Editors Are Reading

    The Age of Empire: 1875-1914 (1987) by Eric Hobsbawm, and Essays in the Public Philosophy (1955) by Walter Lippmann.

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  • Ain't It the Truth?
    Blog
    December 4, 2019

    Ain't It the Truth?

    The Anglican Church of Canada clutches its throat at the prospect of—Lord have mercy—shutting down its ministries and works 20 years from now. You know—putting up the "Closed" sign, the public demand for said ministries dwindling more with every passing year. So sharply have Anglican membership rolls declined since 2000 that, according to an internal study, naught but the buildings will remain in 2040.

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  • After the Great Orange Whale
    Blog
    November 13, 2019

    After the Great Orange Whale

    "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord"—a pretty flat declaration as reported by the Apostle Paul, leaving few gaps for politicians to fill at their own discretion. But you know politicians. Here we go with the impeachment hearings, an intended spectacle meant more as payback to President Donald Trump for winning the election than as a high-minded act of democratic reprobation.

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  • And I Solemnly Promise You
    Blog
    November 6, 2019

    And I Solemnly Promise You

    Beto O'Rourke's pullout from the presidential race leaves the Democrats with, oh, a mere dozen and a half or so candidates available to run the country. The country's corresponding task is to keep awake for the remainder of the race. The pressing question is, or should be, what goes on here? What's the mission—to can President Donald Trump or to move us in new, as yet hazy, directions? Or both at the same time?

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  • What in Heaven's Name Goes On?
    Blog
    October 15, 2019

    What in Heaven's Name Goes On?

    At its best, Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke's high-octane assault on religious freedom calls for brandy and an extended lie-down in a dark room. That's the best that can be said of it. Its worst has to do with the disdain a midlevel presidential candidate exhibits for supernatural religion.

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  • The Moral Tale of Two Cities
    Blog
    October 9, 2019

    The Moral Tale of Two Cities

    The "progressive," so to speak, vision of politics and public life envisions tighter and tighter government control over economic life, along with looser and looser controls over human behavior. I think you'd refer to the overall design as a paradox: a clash of methods and objectives.

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  • Impeachment: The Hearsay Conundrum
    Blog
    October 2, 2019

    Impeachment: The Hearsay Conundrum

    There's so much to say about Nancy Pelosi's impeachment gig that one hardly knows where to start. But here's a live possibility: We start with Sen. Lindsey Graham's characterization of how this game is to be played. We're trying to "try the president of the United States based on hearsay," the South Carolina senator says–that is, on the claims of unidentified actors and agents for whose credentials Pelosi isn't prepared to vouch publicly.

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  • Now the Left is Quick to Convict
    Blog
    September 26, 2019

    Now the Left is Quick to Convict

    We can't seem to have a news event (and everything that happens in our capital city is a capital-E event these days) without the searing cry in the background, drowning out all other discourse: "Impeach! Impeach!" You might call it an echo of the old exhortation, "Hey, somebody get a rope!"

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  • Main Street U.S.A.
    Blog
    September 10, 2019

    Main Street U.S.A.

    We the People... The world, my friends, is going to... and that's just the point: We don't know where in the world the world is going. Only that it's moving at a high speed, in ways likely to upset existing orders.

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  • The Wisdom of Federalism
    Blog
    August 22, 2019

    The Wisdom of Federalism

    "How Much Damage Have Republicans Done in the States?" Gosh! Worlds of damage, you'd imagine, if you're a typical client of The New York Times nursery school system, where more and more government is good and less and less government is very, very bad—evidencing a failure on your part to appreciate the joys of governance by one's betters.

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  • Editorials
    September 2019

    What the Editors Are Reading

    During Russell Kirk’s fruitful lifetime I regularly took his sage advice concerning books I ought to read. Dr. Kirk had seemingly perused everything worth perusing. Thus, on his say-so in 1968, I read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested T. S. Eliot’s The Idea of a Christian Society (1939).

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  • Reviews
    August 2019

    Wake-Up Call to the Scared Bunnies

    A MarketWatch story this summer let us in on why millennials stash so little cash in 401(k) accounts. Like, given climate change, what’s the point? “The weather systems are already off,” a woman named Lori Rodriguez told a MarketWatch reporter, “and I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to be a little apocalyptic.”

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  • March On
    Reviews
    February 2019

    March On

    What you might find on a long walk, a determined walk, a walk of exploration, you never know, of course, until you take the next step. And the next; and the next—in Rory Stewart’s case, across the constantly revelatory terrain of the borderlands shared since Roman times by England and Scotland.

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  • Baby, It's Crazy Outside
    Blog
    December 19, 2018

    Baby, It's Crazy Outside

    As Cole Porter slyly reminds us: "In olden days a glimpse of stocking / Was looked on as something shocking / Now heaven knows / Anything goes. . . . " Well, you know, depending on the state of Puritan politics at a given moment. The Puritan habit of scolding—and gazing sourly upon—others for improper behavior is a human constant.

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  • The Empty Plinth
    Reviews
    January 2019

    The Empty Plinth

    With the Midterm Elections safely behind us, should we count on the left to renounce the fun of castigating nonleft types for their racism, sexism, and hetero normativism? Not on a bet.

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  • Come, Ye Thankful People
    Blog
    November 21, 2018

    Come, Ye Thankful People

    The civic peace of America, such as it is, balances on a knife blade. But one interesting thing about God is His reputation for cleansing minds and clearing away intellectual clutter such as right now overwhelms the world.

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  • Dirty, Dirty Dirt
    Blog
    September 20, 2018

    Dirty, Dirty Dirt

    "Dirt is dirtier than clean is clean," observes one of John O'Hara's characters—a history professor, I think—remarking on the human race's observed partiality for darkness and grime in their news diet, rather than sweetness and light.

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  • Of Guilt and the Late Confederacy
    Blog
    August 15, 2018

    Of Guilt and the Late Confederacy

    Anti-Confederate liberals (of various races) can't get over the fact that pro-common-sense liberals, moderates and conservatives (of various races) can't go over the fact that rhetorical agitation over race has led us down a blind alley.

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  • The Socialist Surge That's Not Coming
    Blog
    July 26, 2018

    The Socialist Surge That's Not Coming

    One of the really cool things about democracy is that voters tend to get what they want—which, um, can also turn out to be one of the really uncool things about democracy. A thing of real terror, if you want the truth.

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Results: 148 Articles found.



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