A recent op-ed in the New York Times reminded me of how policymakers, journalists, and activists can be selective in the injustices they pay attention to and how this selectivity can attract criticism. How useful is this criticism, and what can we learn from it? I think criticism of such selectivity can be worthwhile and … Continue reading The Consistent Life Ethic and the Problem of Selective Concern about Injustice
Category: Consistent Life Ethic
A Complex Man’s Complex Legacy: What the Movie ‘Rustin’ Leaves Out
The great civil rights activist and thinker Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) has received renewed attention thanks to the recently released movie Rustin. The movie is an engrossing look at Rustin’s role as an advisor to Martin Luther King and as the organizer of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC. Rustin organized one … Continue reading A Complex Man’s Complex Legacy: What the Movie ‘Rustin’ Leaves Out
A Plea for Quiet—and for Peace: Consistent Life Ethic Themes in ‘Fahrenheit 451’
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian science fiction novel, turns 70 years old this October. The novel has been described as being about censorship, which is an accurate but limited characterization.[1] The book contains other themes, some of which may interest consistent life ethic activists. The novel imagines a future United States in which owning … Continue reading A Plea for Quiet—and for Peace: Consistent Life Ethic Themes in ‘Fahrenheit 451’
In Defense of Detachment: The Different Approaches to Protecting Lives
A commitment to the consistent life ethic is a commitment to protect people’s lives against violence or other threats. This essential commitment is present among all varieties of consistent life advocates and their different approaches to the ethic. Sometimes, though, consistent life advocacy can involve a more personal, concrete, and emotional type of commitment. People … Continue reading In Defense of Detachment: The Different Approaches to Protecting Lives
“Is One Life Issue More Important Than the Rest?”: A Question That Might Not Need an Answer
Consistent Life Ethic activists generally have varying interpretations of the Ethic. Some take an absolutist stance on nonviolence, others allow exceptions to strict nonviolence. Some tend to specialize in working against a particular threat to life, others tend to work against multiple threats.[1] Another difference among Consistent Life Ethic activists (which relates to the specialization … Continue reading “Is One Life Issue More Important Than the Rest?”: A Question That Might Not Need an Answer
Wasting Money on Instruments of Death: Nuclear Weapons in the 2022 Budget
The Biden administration’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022 contains much to disturb peace activists. The budget continues the long-standing pattern of grotesquely large military spending, with $715 billion allocated to the Defense Department.[1] Further, the budget specifically continues to fund lavishly the most extreme instruments of death, nuclear weapons. Peace activists need to work … Continue reading Wasting Money on Instruments of Death: Nuclear Weapons in the 2022 Budget
Making a Nonviolent Revolution: Review of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know
Certain historical episodes of nonviolent resistance to injustice are famous: the Indian struggle for independence; the American civil rights movement; and the Arab Spring uprisings come to mind. However, many people who are aware of such episodes are not familiar either with the larger history of nonviolent resistance or with how such resistance can be … Continue reading Making a Nonviolent Revolution: Review of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know
A Global Effort to Protect Life: The UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons
Honduras became, at end of October, the fiftieth nation to ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[1] The Treaty, which was finalized in the summer of 2017, has been signed by 84 nations.[2] Now that 50 of those nations have ratified it, the treaty will officially enter into force as international … Continue reading A Global Effort to Protect Life: The UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons
Dialog on Life Issues: Avoiding Some Obstacles to Communication
An essential part of consistent life ethic advocacy is learning how to talk about the ethic or specific life issues to people with differing views. In a recent post for the Consistent Life Network blog, Josh Brahm of the Equal Rights Institute (ERI) offered some good tips for constructive dialog.[1] I have further thoughts on … Continue reading Dialog on Life Issues: Avoiding Some Obstacles to Communication
The Danger That Faces Us All: Hiroshima and Nagasaki after 75 Years
The nuclear age turns 75 years old this summer. Over seven decades have now passed since the first test of a nuclear weapon in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, and since the first use of nuclear weapons in wartime, against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (on August 6) and Nagasaki (on August 9). … Continue reading The Danger That Faces Us All: Hiroshima and Nagasaki after 75 Years
Peacemaking for Life 