Props where they're due

I am not alone in finding Ross Douthat variously tiresome or mockable, and I almost didn't want to link to this piece because, come on, he's using Rod Effing Dreher as a voice of authority. But this is a good line:

To the trends weakening institutional faiths across the Western world — the rise of spiritual individualism, the influence of the so-called new atheism, the gap between traditional Christian sexual ethics and present-day realities — the Roman Catholic Church has added scandals, sclerosis and a communications strategy apparently designed to win the news cycles of 1848.