I don't think I know of a single person who would deny that voting matters. In our Democratic Republic, we have a chance to participate in the governance of society. We have a chance to make our political opinions known. We cast a vote and hope that our view, our vote, will be in the majority. It's quite hard to be true to the Consistent Life Ethic in voting when neither party is entirely consistent. We are shouted at from all sides: abortion is the most important issue, or e

The homeless lump on the bench. It’s filthy. You can’t see a face -- this thing is covered up against the evening, only its feet sticking out. Geez, not even shoes. You edge up the path, wondering if you pass by without being noticed, wondering if you’ll smell it anyway, wondering why can’t this loafer find a place to live? McDonald’s is always hiring, for God’s sake. So you do get a little close because you have to pass by and you were hoping to use that bench. Maybe the nex

Social conservatives often express concern for children’s need for a stable and traditional home life, with both biological parents involved in their upbringing. In particular, the harm done to children by absent fathers is a common worry among such conservatives. This commitment to children is threatened, however, by social conservatives’ tendency to ally themselves politically with foreign policy hawks and to support a large defense establishment that engages in wars and ot

I don't think I know of a single person who would deny that voting matters. In our Democratic Republic, we have a chance to participate in the governance of society. We have a chance to make our political opinions known. We cast a vote and hope that our view, our vote, will be in the majority. It's quite hard to be true to the Consistent Life Ethic in voting when neither party is entirely consistent. We are shouted at from all sides: abortion is the most important issue, or e

What do assisted suicide and abortion have in common? So many things. Like the death of an individual at the hand of a physician. They share an important selling point for those who support both: an insistence on respecting the private relationship between the patient and the doctor. Here is an example of a good thing being misappropriated to serve a bad end. We can appreciate the privacy that would allow us to be frank with our doctor about our health. Discussions of symptom

Life Matters Journal is collaborating with The Guiding Project to bring you this regular column. April Jaure is the Blog Coordinator at The Guiding Star Project. Please visit theguidingstarproject.com to learn more about them. Recently I was having a conversation with my hairdresser about contraception. Despite the fact that I am a Natural Family Planning (NFP) instructor, it’s not a topic that I typically discuss in casual conversations, as I’m afraid of coming on too strong

I have been heavily involved in the pro-life movement for about five years now. I have done outreach with a number of pro-life groups, and as I have engaged people in conversation I find there are two things many people have in common. The first is that many people have difficulty in thinking abstractly. This makes it much easier to justify killing the unborn while decrying a tragedy like the Holocaust. In the Holocaust, the victims were out in the open, undeniable. In aborti

The legendary story of The Lord of the Rings begins with The Fellowship of the Ring, in which all of Hobbiton is preparing to celebrate the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins' 111st birthday. But after Bilbo disappears using the ring he acquired from Gollum in the novel The Hobbit and leaves it to Frodo, it becomes clear that there is something much more evil at work. After a few years, the wizard Gandalf returns to Bag End to examine the ring. He tells Frodo the story of its making and p

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “humanize” as 1) “to make more humane” and 2) “to give a human character to.” When we say, “Abortion-rights advocates often dehumanize the unborn,” we use a negative form of sense 2 to mean that they take human character away from the unborn. In this essay I will use “humanize” in both senses, but mainly in sense 1, “make more humane.” My generation of Americans can be credited with having made itself into something more humane and more h

The International L. Frank Baum & All Things Oz Historical Foundation held a fundraiser in August 2014 in connection with the house in Syracuse, New York, that belonged to L. Frank Baum’s sister, Harriet Baum Neal. This house was where Baum met his future wife, Maud Gage. Pro-life feminist Carol Crossed, who is the president of the Board of Directors of the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, gave a talk at the fundraiser on Maud Gage and her mother Matilda Joslyn Gage, both

On May 27, Nebraska became the first red state since North Dakota in the 1970s to repeal the death penalty. As the country has shifted away from the death penalty in the past decade, many interpreted this development as a progressive movement. Before Nebraska, a string of blue states – New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, and Maryland – had repealed the death penalty. Nebraska challenged this dominant narrative, with Republicans leading efforts to end the

As I write, the United States is angry, anxious, saddened, and split over the shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers in a number of locations. News of a negotiated settlement with Iran over its nuclear program evokes apocalyptic rhetoric. We live in the midst of a stew of fear and violence. News outlets headline stories about scary epidemics, war, mass executions. Social media memes—cleverly chosen images and aphorisms propagated over the internet—cater to st

The United States devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on, respectively, August 6th and 9th, 1945, in what were—to date—the only occasions in history that atomic bombs were used in wartime. The atomic bombings killed tens of thousands of people instantly, with many more dying of injuries in the following hours, days, and weeks. By the end of 1945, an estimated 210,000 people had perished as a result of the bombings. Because the use of atomic bombs against

On June 4, Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation called out LGBT rights leaders for their hypocritical support of abortion. In particular, he cited Lambda Legal's statement that “reproductive freedom and LGBT rights have been inextricably linked both legally and politically. The ties between these rights are so strong that we really believe that a threat to one directly and profoundly impacts the other.” On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Obergefe

BY NICHOLAS NEAL We often hear partisan pundits criticize their opponents for the opponents' inconsistencies about killing people. We hear that pro-life advocates do not respect the sanctity of life in war zones. We hear that peace advocates are not so peaceful when it comes to unborn children. What is the answer to this inconsistency? The simple answer is being consistent. This ideological position is known as the consistent life ethic. The foundation for this ethic is

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

BY OLIVIA MELDRUM While I am mistress of my mind, You will sleep safely every hour. No morning will you wake to find My warmth turned cold, or sweetness sour. A fragile burden do I bear (O precious visitor; flesh brand-new) - I forget my face and clothes and hair In pain and consciousness of you. My little one, your mama hurts. She shakes at every strange man's gaze. You've joined the Dance - this you deserve; But our dance, dear, limps through a maze. I am not mistress of my

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

BY AIMEE BEDOY & STEVEN OETJEN A quandary of major proportions faces our nation in this day and age. It could be a matter of life and death for countless persons -- we cannot truly be sure. This paper seeks to examine abortion through the lens of Constitutional law, science, and justice, and lastly to apply these faculties to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recently passed in Nebraska. In brief, our recommendation is always to stand for justice and ultimately