And his thinking is always brilliant

Yes, Princeton Professor Robert George is a big thinker. The New York Times has noticed, and at a most opportune time.

It starts with a meeting in New York in September, “a gathering of unusual diversity and power,” notes the writer.

Dressed in his usual uniform of three-piece suit, New College, Oxford cuff links and rimless glasses­, George convened the meeting with a note of thanks and a reminder of its purpose. Alarmed at the liberal takeover of Washington and an apparent leadership vacuum among the Christian right, the group had come together to warn the country’s secular powers that the culture wars had not ended. As a starting point, George had drafted a 4,700-word manifesto that promised resistance to the point of civil disobedience against any legislation that might implicate their churches or charities in abortion, embryo-destructive research or same-sex marriage.

Two months later, at a Washington press conference to present the group’s “Manhattan Declaration,” George stepped aside to let Cardinal Rigali sum up just what made the statement, and much of George’s work, distinctive. These principles did not belong to the Christian faith alone, the cardinal declared; they rested on a foundation of universal reason. “They are principles that can be known and honored by men and women of good will even apart from divine revelation,” Rigali said. “They are principles of right reason and natural law.”

And one month after The Manhattan Declaration released to the public, over 305,400 citizens had signed on to affirm them. But that was last check, and the ticker is rapidly advancing. So is the movement Dr. George and his colleagues started.