To Save Humanity: What I Learned at the “Two Minutes to Midnight” Conference

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists decided earlier this year to adjust the “Doomsday Clock,” the organization’s index of probable nuclear and other dangers facing humanity.[1] Tensions between the United States and nations such as North Korea, Russia, and China, among other factors, prompted the Bulletin to move the Doomsday Clock’s hands to two minutes to midnight—“midnight” … Continue reading To Save Humanity: What I Learned at the “Two Minutes to Midnight” Conference →

Apocalypse Averted: The Brink’s Tale of Near-Nuclear War

The world might have come close to ending in the early 1980s. Tensions had been rising between the United States and the Soviet Union for years, and Soviet leaders were convinced that their American counterparts were planning to launch a nuclear war. The Soviets became hypersensitive to possible warning signs of an impending American or … Continue reading Apocalypse Averted: The Brink’s Tale of Near-Nuclear War →

War Is Not a Family Value: A Conservative Case for Peace

Support for American wars and military interventions, and the massive military establishment behind them, has been a feature of American conservatism for at least the last 70 years. The Cold War and more recently the War on Terror have been embraced by the Republican Party and such conservative publications as National Review, Commentary, and the … Continue reading War Is Not a Family Value: A Conservative Case for Peace →

How to Move from Theory to Practice: Reading A Consistent Life

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 resource is now available for … Continue reading How to Move from Theory to Practice: Reading A Consistent Life →

Tyranny Made Vivid: The Enduring Power of Nineteen Eighty-Four

A famous artistic denunciation of tyranny, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, is now almost 70 years old. Completed by Orwell in late 1948 and published the following June, the influence of Orwell’s novel over the following decades has been tremendous. Probably far more people are familiar with the fictional dramatically repressive, one-party state of Oceania than with … Continue reading Tyranny Made Vivid: The Enduring Power of Nineteen Eighty-Four →

The Wages of War: How Abortion Came to Japan

“I hate Japs. I’m telling you men that if I met a pregnant Japanese woman, I’d kick her in the belly.” — Remark attributed to Admiral William Halsey, commander of US naval forces in the South Pacific during the Second World War[1] “Tsubachan, I’m sorry I couldn’t give birth to you. I would have loved … Continue reading The Wages of War: How Abortion Came to Japan →

Extermination by Hunger: Red Famine’s Story of Lethal Injustice

Joseph Stalin took a fateful trip to Siberia in January, 1928. Stalin, soon to become the Soviet Union’s supreme leader, traveled to the country’s outskirts to identify the causes of poor agricultural production and food shortages. He concluded that Soviet farming was too small-scale: most peasants tended small farms that were not economically efficient, while … Continue reading Extermination by Hunger: Red Famine’s Story of Lethal Injustice →

Finding Common Ground on and Learning from World War II

Writing on the Consistent Life Network's blog, Rachel MacNair recently examined several moral issues related to the Second World War and how we interpret and remember that war today.[1] An observation in that piece that struck me was that when a nonviolence advocate discusses war with someone who supports it, a war supporter who “understands things as … Continue reading Finding Common Ground on and Learning from World War II →

Seeking Peaceful Coexistence: The Varied Ways of Supporting a Consistent Life Ethic

That consistent ethic of life advocates are at odds with more conventional American political categories—conservative, liberal, libertarian—is well recognized. Less often recognized are the ways different consistent life ethic advocates diverge from each other and the tensions this can cause. People can understand the consistent life ethic in different ways and have different reasons for … Continue reading Seeking Peaceful Coexistence: The Varied Ways of Supporting a Consistent Life Ethic →

Pro-Peace from Left and Right

These remarks were given by John Whitehead at the Pro-life March to Abolish Nuclear weapons, held in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2017. The theme of this rally and march, opposition to nuclear weapons from a pro-life perspective, has been at the heart of the Consistent Life Network from the very beginning. We were originally an … Continue reading Pro-Peace from Left and Right →