Jim Wallis and Chuck Colson have a column in Christianity Today urging both conviction and civility in our public discourse. Their remarks are offered in the wake of the Tucson shootings, and I think they get it just about right. Here’s a snippet: “We affirm the politics of conviction. Conviction is not inconsistent with civility, which is far deeper than political niceness, indifference, or weakness. We recall the example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who could never be accused of a lack of passion; yet he persisted in the non-violent treatment of his adversaries, hoping to win them over rather than to win over them. “Where moral concerns lie…
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A Closer Look at Gosnell’s Horror
Our understanding of the horror that was Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic is still coming in to clear view. Today, the Associated Press reports more of the details about the findings of the grand jury that indicted Gosnell last week. One woman tells the story of how Gosnell forced her to have an abortion against her will.
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Abortion Outrage
The abortionist’s office was like a slaughterhouse. At least that’s how one patient described the office of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist who was recently arrested for murder in Philadelphia (read the story here). There was blood on the floor and the operating table. Unlicensed workers with no medical training performed abortions, and in one case a high school student was put in charge of the procedure. Dr. Gosnell botched scores of abortion, delivered live babies, and then killed them with scissors to the back of the neck after birth. Gosnell is suspected of killing hundreds of live babies over the course of his 30 year career as an abortionist.…
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A Pro-life Conversion
Abby Johnson was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas in 2009 when she received the unusual request to assist one of the doctors with an abortion. Willing to fill-in for medical staff in a pinch, she agreed. Here’s how she describes what happened next:
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An MTV Abortion
Last week I saw a news story about the MTV program “16 and Pregnant,” which was set to air an episode featuring a young mother who chose to have an abortion. The mother’s name is Markai Durham, and she already had one child when she became pregnant a second time. She and the father decided that they didn’t have the resources to raise a second child, and that is why they chose to end the life growing inside her. The story of her first pregnancy and birth was the subject of an episode last November (full episode here). The story of her decision to abort her second child aired last…
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Why Condi Rice is Pro-Choice
Sarah Pulliam Bailey gets former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to talk about her libertarian views on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Rice identifies herself as an evangelical, but she says she also supports abortion rights and civil unions. Here’s the relevant excerpt: CT: In the past you said you worry about the government trying to legislate morality, and you know that evangelicals care very much about the issue of abortion. Rice: I’m generally pretty libertarian in these matters, because Americans are quite good, actually, at finding a way to deal with these extremely divisive and difficult moral issues. And it’s not that I’m a relativist. It’s not…
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Princeton Scholars Cross Swords
Here’s an interesting conversation between Robby George and Cornell West. They are colleagues at Princeton University, but they represent radically different worldviews. George is perhaps the leading conservative intellectual alive today, and West is a noted liberal. (HT: @DrMoore)
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Health Law Ruled Unconstitutional
The Wall Street Journal has the story: “A federal court ruled Monday that a central plank of the health law violates the Constitution, dealing the biggest setback yet to the Obama administration’s signature legislative accomplishment. “In a 42-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson said the law’s requirement that most Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty ‘exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.’ “The individual mandate ‘would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers,’ wrote Judge Hudson, of the Eastern District of Virginia. ‘At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it’s about an individual’s…
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Faces of the Christian Right?
Did you see the bit on Newsweek’s website last week about “Faces of the Christian Right“? The piece purports to list several individuals who are emerging leaders in the Christian Right. Guess who’s on the list. Here it is: Robert George, Jim Daly, Maggie Gallagher, Matthew and Nancy Sleeth, Melissa Rogers, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Tony Perkins, Jim Wallis and Joel Hunter.
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Losing the Base
Peggy Noonan has a particularly harsh assessment of President Obama’s political fortunes. Here’s the opening salvo: “We have not in our lifetimes seen a president in this position. He spent his first year losing the center, which elected him, and his second losing his base, which is supposed to provide his troops. There isn’t much left to lose!” On the possibility of someone challenging the President in the 2012 primary, Noonan writes: “The Democrats’ problem is that most of them know that the person who would emerge, who would challenge Mr. Obama from the left, would never, could never, win the 2012 general election. He’d lose badly and take the…