Self-Defeating Violence: The Case of the First World War
by John Whitehead The United States recently reached the 100th anniversary of American entry into the First World War. Although American businesses had provided arms and money to the Allied nations (which included Britain, France and Russia) in their war against Germany and the other Central Powers, US President Woodrow Wilson had sought to avoid…
Removing Health Care Access is an Act of Violence
by Lisa Stiller Editor’s note: Many pro-lifers are celebrating the fact that a measure ending Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood is included in the American Health Care Act (AHCA) that was passed by the US House of Representatives on Thursday, May 4. Planned Parenthood does a huge number of abortions and is a major advocate…
Unconnecting a Dot?
by Carol Crossed and Rachel MacNair Note: a draft of this post was sent to staffers at Campaign Nonviolence for feedback, and they thanked us and offered no comments. Campaign Nonviolence (CNV) has been a wonderful project, run by the organization Pace e Bene. The Consistent Life Network (CLN), also known as Consistent Life, became…
Three Reasons for Opposing the US Bombing of Syria
by John Whitehead The United States’ intervention in the Syrian civil war took a new turn on April 7, when American ships launched a missile strike on the Syrian government’s Al Shayrat air base. This attack on Bashar al-Assad’s regime marked a shift in US policy—previous American military actions in Syria over roughly the past…
Intolerance Knows No Partisan Boundaries
by Lisa Stiller As a CL board member who has been working to promote CL representation at conferences and festivals—and the vast majority of the time loving it!—I have sometimes been amazed and discouraged at the amount of intolerance found on both the Left and Right. In the spring of 2015, I applied to have…
Noncooperation with Planned Parenthood
by Rachel MacNair As nonviolence advocates, when we take on abortion as one of our issues we naturally want to apply the knowledge about effective nonviolent action to countering abortion practice. A major part of the theory of why nonviolence works is that any kind of power relies on other people cooperating. From independence movements…
Pondering Justice
by Carol Crossed Why is it so difficult to get people to act for justice? There are seven qualities that acts of justice embody. First: Justice is public. You are trying to change the culture; people need to see you. It’s not private. Second: Justice is judgmental. People “admonish the sinner” and “instruct the ignorant.” We…
More than Double the Trouble: Another Way of Connecting
by Rachel MacNair An important idea for understanding how social injustice works is making the rounds. It’s called “intersectionality,” and it’s a specialized way of connecting issues. That makes it right up our alley. Many good examples of intersectionality have been offered, but those of us familiar with the consistent life ethic can offer some…
Progressive Prolifers at the Progressive Magazine 100th Anniversary Celebration
by Mary Krane Derr Note: this was originally published in the Consistent Life Network’s paper newsletter at the time it happened in 2009. It is offered now in the history of our adventures. We weren’t gate crashers. We were there as part of the festivities, sometimes recognized, sometimes not, sometimes welcome, sometimes, not. For starters, take…