Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, rightfully takes issue with some statements that appeared in the comments boxes of our threads on Charlotte Allen’s critique of Commonweal. After quoting some of the more outlandish comments–left by readers of the blog, not by its contributors–Bottum writes:

Here’s what Commonweal magazine thinks of us: “Who appointed First Things the guardian of orthodoxy? I wouldn’t want to see Commonweal
start responding to Allen, et. al., as though it had something to prove
to these people. We don’t need their stinking inquisition.”

I had always thought of Paul Baumann and Peter and Margaret Steinfels, and others associated with Commonweal,
as friends and co-religionists with whom I have productive intellectual
and political disagreements. And now I know that they think of me—and
you, all of us—as Nazis and enemies and undereducated fools. It’s a
sadness.

I want to be clear: what Bottum quotes wasn’t written by a Commonweal editor or contributor to the blog, but was posted as an independent response to the blog. I can assure him that neither I nor my colleagues agree with such calumny.