The Deserving and Undeserving Poor vs. the Worthy and Unworthy of Life: How Both Major Political Parties Pick and Choose Who They Help and Whom They Kill
by Jacqueline H. Abernathy, Ph.D., M.S.S.W Catholic social activist Dorothy Day once said, “The Gospel takes away our right, forever, to discriminate between the deserving and undeserving poor.” As I look at the current political landscape, I can see how this quote is far more dynamic than I once thought. The two parties…
Common Sense Is Not So Common
by Josephine Garnem As Matthew quotes Jesus, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You…have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!” (Matthew 23: 23-24, New American Bible)…
War Hysteria and Post-Dobbs Reactions
by Rachel MacNair The backlash to the overturn of Roe was predictable. I wrote a piece on the psychology behind Explaining Belligerency awhile back, and that’s a major way of explaining it on this issue and many others. That helps account for not just what we’re going through now, but the bits of belligerency…
Bigotry against Babies with Down Syndrome
by Sarah Terzo Worldwide, most babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome are aborted. US statistics vary, but one study put the overall number at 67%. People Who Want to Abort Babies with Down Syndrome Give Their Reasons Rayna Rapp, who aborted a baby with Down syndrome herself, interviewed parents who were waiting for the…
Presenting about Abortion: Sharing Experiences
by Fr. Jim Hewes In the early 1970’s, I was on the speakers’ bureau of the Rochester Right to Life Committee, giving talks to many groups in our area. ;where I began the presentation by showing slides/photos of the developing pre-born child. Today, with not only the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but the deep…
The Logic of Escalation: Nuclear Threats in Belarus and South Korea
by John Whitehead Twice this year, within the span of roughly a month, two powerful nations issued threats based on their nuclear weapons arsenals. The first was Russia, which is stationing nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus and training Belarusians in how to use them. The second was the United States, which is sending a nuclear-armed…
Better Living (for men) Through Surgery (for women)
This was first published in Sisterlife, the newsletter of Feminists for Life of America, Fall 1989. It was reprinted in the book ProLife Feminism: Yesterday and Today. by Leslie Keech (1954-1989) We are all used to it by now: the media establishment portraying prolifers as insensitive, sexist clods, while…
Insights from Mennonites
compiled by Rachel MacNair Mennonites are one of the historic peace churches. Membership in the church can be used as evidence for conscientious objector status to the draft in the United States. The “New Call to Peacemaking” was a cooperative project of the three such churches (including Quakers and Church of the Brethren). From Article…
Displaced and Brought Together by War: The Tale of Giovanni’s Island
by John Whitehead The many ways war and its aftermath can devastate people’s lives, but also the bonds that can form among those enduring such hardships, is the subject of Giovanni’s Island, an animated movie produced by Japanese studio Production I.G. Although originally released in 2014, the movie became available in North America for…
Medicine’s Movement towards Abandonment
by Jim Hewes We trust ourselves to a doctor because we suppose he/she knows his/her profession. We judge they would not act as they do unless the remedy were necessary, and we must rely on their knowledge and skill. Yet both the medical community and the larger society are moving towards a place of…