Stoicism vs. Scientology? The movie Gladiator sold $35 million worth of tickets its first weekend, May 5-7, four times more than any other movie. It took first place again on May 12-14, grossing $24 million, twice as much as Battlefield Earth, the film starring Scientologist John Travolta and based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Where do we go to understand contemporary problems of marriage and the family? Leading academic and media institutions are supposed to be our country's designated hitters, regularly batting policy initiatives into the bleachers, but most, captured by feminism, now swing and miss.

Few people really believe what many professors and pundits proclaim, that men and women are essentially the same except for some reproductive equipment. Few, however, are willing publicly to offer the biblical alternative and take the abuse that such proclamation brings.

My sense is that WORLD is getting, from those trying to apply the Bible to news events, more thoughtful questions and fewer angry outbursts than we received a few years ago. I'd like to address some of those serious inquiries in this space occasionally, starting with this question from one reader: "The issue that has always seemed contradictory to me is that the same people who are pro-life for babies seem to be pro-death for adults (the death penalty). How does this work?"

We're ready to start reviewing applications for the second WORLD Journalism Institute summer program. The students who are accepted will have lots of reading and writing to do over the rest of the year. They'll also have four weeks of classes, discussions, and special activities like whitewater rafting. There's still a little more time to apply, and we want the best: godly men and women with talent and boldness.

As liberal publications like The Washington Post, Newsweek, The New Republic, and many others have attacked me this month for emphasizing the importance of male leadership, I have relished Joachim Neander's "Praise to the Lord" hymn from 1680. I reported last December how those saddened by much more than a hostile press have been able to testify to this: "How oft in grief hath not He brought thee relief, spreading his wings to o'er shade thee."

The autopsies of the McCain campaign are now appearing, and some reporters who were lapdogs while it lasted are beginning to tell tales. But the pundit who best provided a backdrop for this year's Republican contest was one who died in 1995 after a 70-year career.