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The Biden Administration and Russia: Steps to Build a More Stable Relationship
by John Whitehead Among the many challenges Joseph Biden will face as the new president of the United States is how to handle the American relationship with Russia. US-Russian relations have now deteriorated to a level of mutual hostility comparable to that during the Cold War. Hostility between nations is always a serious concern for…
Pandemics Related to Christmas
by Rachel MacNair Widespread plagues have been a part of the human condition throughout history. Therefore, it stands to reason traces of them can be found in a holiday season often used to help people cope and be resilient. It’s a Wonderful Life When George Bailey was still a boy, one of the ways…
The 2020 Election: If You See Something, Say Something
The author prefers to be anonymous. A reminder: The Consistent Life Network doesn’t necessarily endorse everything said in its blog, since we encourage individual writers to express a variety of views. This is especially so when analyzing elections. If you see something, say something. That’s the mantra for those who want to work for social…
Justice Littered with Injustice: Viewing Just Mercy in a Charged Moment
Editor’s note: to see this movie free in the month of June, 2020, go to Just Mercy – Watch for Free by Julia Smucker The film Just Mercy (Warner Brothers, 2019) follows attorney Bryan Stevenson’s early career as founding director of the Equal Justice Initiative, providing legal counsel to inmates on Alabama’s death row. In…
Specialization or Generalization? The Many Ways of Following the Consistent Life Ethic
by John Whitehead The Consistent Life Ethic (CLE) movement is very diverse. It includes people of different philosophical or partisan backgrounds, with different understandings of the CLE and different preferred activist strategies. One aspect of this diversity is varying approaches to specialization, that is, focusing on a particular life issue of the CLE. Some CLE…
On Praying for the Military
The following is a letter CLN board member Julia Smucker addressed to her church at the request of one of her pastors after raising these concerns in person. As a nonsectarian organization, we welcome perspectives from various faiths, as well as secular ones, that affirm consistent-life principles. Since attending my current church, I…
Rehumanize International – 6th Annual Conference
The 6th annual conference of our member group, Rehumanize International, happened October 18-20, 2019, in New Orleans. Consistent Life Network was a co-sponsor, and several of us attended. Sessions offered from CLN officers included: “Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress, Moral Injury, & the CLE” (Rachel MacNair) and “Apocalypse Never: Why We Must Reject Nuclear Weapons” (John Whitehead)….
Win-Lose is a Mirage
by Bill Samuel, Consistent Life Network Board member As I was taking a morning nature walk, I was thinking of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s insight in Braiding Sweetgrass of people loving the land and the land loving us back. The reciprocity is vital regardless of whether you are comfortable with using the emotional term “love” to…
Misogyny vs. Patriarchy
by Rachel MacNair Before I get into why I think it’s important to understand the difference between misogyny and patriarchy, I want to explain how they fit into the Consistent Life Network’s set of issues. We identified six issues of violence involving socially-tolerated killing of human beings, as listed on this banner: Each of the…
Book Review: “Resisting Throwaway Culture”
by Mary Lou Bennett Resisting Throwaway Culture: How a Consistent Life Ethic Can United a Fractured People, by Charles C. Camosy. Anyone living in the United States today is acutely aware of the pain and decay that permeate society as a result of contemporary moral issues. With such awareness, feelings of sadness, despair, and disbelief…