Movies with Racism Themes: “Gosnell” and “The Hate U Give”
by Rachel MacNair A note at the beginning of the movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer lets us know it’s based entirely on court transcripts and eyewitness accounts, being as true to events as a movie can attempt. The Hate U Give, on the other hand, is fiction. Yet it’s clearly based…
How to Move from Theory to Practice: Reading “A Consistent Life”
by John Whitehead Let’s say you’ve succeeded in winning someone over to the consistent life ethic. This person now wants to defend human life against abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, war, and the myriad other threats to life. Now the question arises, “What should I do to promote the consistent life ethic?” A valuable new…
The Impact of Abortion on Child Abuse
by Rachel MacNair Here’s the reasoning for an assertion that abortion availability helps reduce child abuse: Abuse can be caused when children were born unwanted and are therefore resented. There may be fewer births in those groups most likely to engage in child maltreatment. And here’s the reasoning to think abortion availability helps increase child…
The Redemptive Personalism of Saint Oscar Romero
by Julia Smucker On the day before he was killed, Oscar Romero, who on Sunday October 14 will be officially declared a saint in the Catholic Church, delivered an impassioned plea to members of the Salvadoran army: Brothers, you are a part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos,…
The Referendum on Abortion in Ireland: The Violation of Rights
by Maria Horan “The [Irish] State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” Inserted into the Irish Constitution on the 7th…
How Abortion is Useful for Rape Culture
by Rachel MacNair During this time of uproar over an allegation against Brett Kavanaugh of committing attempted rape when he was 17, I’d like to remark on the connection of the violence of rape with the violence of abortion. I see it much differently from many of the pundits. It’s a mark of social progress…
Answering Objections to the Consistent Life Ethic from Mainstream Pro-Lifers
by John Whitehead Advocacy for the consistent life ethic (CLE) requires making the CLE more comprehensible and appealing to those with very different philosophies. Consistent Life Network Vice President Rachel MacNair offered valuable guidelines for discussions about the CLE in her blog post, “Tips on Dialogue.” Taking a cue from her post, I offer thoughts…
Media Stories on Abortion Access
The PBS NewsHour ran a 10-minute story called Even with Roe v. Wade intact, many states have aggressively restricted abortion access (September 7, 2018). We offer below a letter in response from one of our board members, and then some comments on this kind of story from another board member. Since the episode and a…
Tips on Dialogue
by Rachel MacNair Many times you’ll find yourself with opportunities to dialogue with individuals or small groups who aren’t familiar with the consistent life ethic. When these people are open-minded, these dialogues can feel very productive. When they’re not quite open-minded, the dialogues are still important in the long run. We can run ads and…
How to Value People Like Mister Rogers
by Andrew Hocking NOTE: Fred Rogers continues to receive media attention beyond the documentary discussed here. Tom Hanks will be portraying Mr. Rogers in an upcoming movie, “You Are My Friend” The new documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, reveals how Mister Rogers valued others. If you’ve never watched his television shows, you can…