#unjustwar

Jan 3, 2013
5 min

An Interview with Michael Brooke of Longboarding for Peace

BY AIMEE MURPHY Photo provided by Michael Brooke. Michael Brooke is a wavemaker. His dream is peace and his heart is in the work; he lives out his dream by continually working daily for a culture of peace in the world. But he lives the message in a quite different way than you might expect: he is a longboard skateboarder whose mission for peace has been realized in what he loves to do most. Though the dominant paradigm surrounding skateboarding is that of the hoodlum and

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Jan 3, 2013
19 min

Ancient Christianity and the Consistent Life Ethic

BY ROB ARNER When measured against the standard of the ancient Christian church, contemporary American Christianity is in a moral mess. When it comes to what have been called the "life issues," Christians are today no less sharply divided than are members of secular society. Some Christians, who have been called "conservative" by the conventional narratives, believe that abortion is a grave moral evil. Yet often these same Christians will readily fall in line to support th

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Jan 3, 2013
3 min

Lincoln, the Personalist President: A Movie Review

BY JOSEPH ANTONIELLO There is so little to say about the recent Lincoln film that has not already been said. One could go on and on about the intimate portrait director Steven Spielberg has put together. One could go on and on about the wonderful portrayals of President Lincoln and his wife by Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, respectively. One could go on and on about whether or not the film was presented in a way that is entirely historically accurate. However, I would

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Jan 3, 2013
7 min

Three Questions on U.S. Targeted Killings

BY JOHN WHITEHEAD Photo by Debra Sweet; some rights reserved. The US government policy of killing suspected terrorists, whether by means of pilotless drones or Special Forces strikes, is now at least 10 years old. Estimates of how many have died because of this policy vary, but a conservative estimate is that roughly 2,000 people have been killed to date. Most of these targeted killings have taken place in Pakistan, but they have also occurred in Yemen and Somalia. The kil

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Oct 12, 2012
5 min

Comparing Romney & Obama on Life Issues

BY BENJAMIN WIRTZ Photo by Gwydion M Williams; some rights reserved. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama may seem to be different on many issues, but are they really different where it matters? In terms of where they stand on issues of life, we cannot simply take a candidate's word on something without looking at all the facts first. Romney says he is pro-life, but is he really? Let us look at his record and see. When he was Governor of Massachusetts, he was not even remotely pro

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Oct 12, 2012
6 min

The "Light Footprint": Economy & Secrecy in Obama's Military Policies

BY JOHN WHITEHEAD Barack Obama is now more than three-and-a-half years into his presidency and at least a preliminary assessment of his approach to foreign policy is possible. Three journalists have each written such analyses, all of them published this year: Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, by Daniel Klaidman; The Obamians: The Struggle inside the White House to Redefine American Power, by James Mann; and Confront and Conceal: Obam

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Jul 16, 2012
2 min

"For Greater Glory" Contrasts War & Non-Violent Action

BY KYLE & AIMEE MURPHY For Greater Glory, formerly titled Cristiada, is a recent film set during the Cristeros War in Mexico. In the 1920s, the Mexican government led by President Elias Calles began to persecute the Catholic Church in Mexico, forbidding public Catholic worship. While the Catholic clergy and faithful continued to practice their faith, government forces destroyed churches and executed many of the faithful. For Greater Glory is unabashedly pro-Catholic, showin

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Jul 16, 2012
8 min

Comparing Evils and Condemning Them Both

BY NICHOLAS NEAL In the 142nd episode of Life Report, a pro-life podcast hosted by Josh Brahm, Scott Klusendorf (a famous pro-life intellectual and president of the Life Training Institute) stated, "I would like to take the seamless garment and use it on my car to dust off the wax. It is a horrible, horrible way -- and I'm not saying that as my own outside-the-[Catholic]-Church position. This is what leading Catholic thinkers have said about it. It has justified the killin

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Jul 16, 2012
4 min

A Just Defense of Self

BY AIMEE MURPHY Photo by NMR Photography; some rights reserved. I promised this issue that I would expound a little greater upon the theory of just self-defense and what it means to the consistent life ethic, and the Life Matters Journal. While we've certainly been attacked on all sides, I was a little surprised that pacifists objected to my theory of just defense. That being said, much of this moral problem is exceedingly complex -- but I would argue that the principle is

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Jul 16, 2012
8 min

A No-Win Scenario for Consistent Lifers?

BY JOHN WHITEHEAD History has a way of challenging your beliefs. Past human experience, with all its complexity, ambiguity, hard cases, and agonizing choices, can cast doubt on previous certainties about justice or right and wrong. Advocates of the consistent life ethic might find their beliefs challenged in this way by the extremely dark chapter of human experience recounted in Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (2010), by Yale historian Timothy Snyder. The hist

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Jul 16, 2012
4 min

Fun's "Some Nights" Brings Morality to the Table

BY ANTHONY BEDOY Rarely do I come across a band that shocks me with their ability to stand out. Many artists strive for that recognizable voice or style that will carry them down in stardom. While Fun hasn't created its name in stardom just yet, this New York-based alternative rock band has definitely set its sights on an even greater goal than just popularity: that goal is to send a message. The most recent single to rock the radios and YouTube pages lately has been "Som

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Mar 30, 2012
4 min

Not Another War Based on Suspicion

BY NICHOLAS NEAL Before I make the case for why we should not attack Iran, I would at first like to apologize. When I was in high school, I, like many conservative Christians, had supported the Iraq war. Like many Christians I had fused my religion with neoconservative ideology thus blinding myself to the evils of war with "patriotic" rhetoric, and a messianic faith in the American state. When I went to college I had delved deeper into the pro-life philosophy and discovere

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Mar 30, 2012
3 min

Race, Abortion, and the Military: A Tragic Parallel

BY JULIA SMUCKER As explosive a combination of topics as the subject of this article appears to be, I am aiming here to address a systemic problem in a way that can hopefully cut through the usual polemics. The particular problem I am referring to is the disproportionately large representation of racial minorities in both abortion rates and military recruitment in the United States. I am using this problem as both a concrete example of how life issues interpenetrate and a j

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Mar 30, 2012
4 min

Pragmatism vs. Idealism

BY AIMEE BEDOY Photo by Krystal T; some rights reserved. As you may know from reading my Letter from the Editor, I attended the Consistent Life conference at the beginning of March. It was a good, fruitful experience and I can gladly say that I learned a lot and felt bolstered by much of the weekend. I heard one idea there after my presentation on youth and the consistent life ethic that struck a chord within me and helped me to come to terms with some criticisms I had rece

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Dec 20, 2011
2 min

On Drones and Due Process

BY NICHOLAS NEAL In 2011, one of the greatest blows against the sanctity of human life and the rule of law was struck. On September 30th, the Obama administration authorized the assassination of the American-born Al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki. The drone strike in Yemen which killed Awlaki also killed Samir Khan, another U.S. citizen who had been an editor for the Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. Two weeks later, Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son was killed in a drone strike

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Dec 20, 2011
1 min

Wrappings

BY AIMEE BEDOY if you believe in the dignity of human life -- how can you sit idly by, while thousands and millions of humans die by the hand of others? the homicide is ringing in my ears -- -- deafening. their silence is louder than your rhetoric, their screams no longer present. can you hear them? the cause bears no difference if it be at another's behest homicide never looked so pretty wrapped up in nice words like "choice" and "pre-emptive defense," like "preventative mea

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Dec 20, 2011
6 min

Quakers Need a Pro-Life Peace Testimony

BY RACHEL MacNAIR, PhD The Religious Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers, was founded in the mid-1600s in England during the religious tumult that brought about a flowering of dissenting views. When a famous early convert, William Penn, received an American colony and named it Pennsylvania, Quakers flocked there for a "Holy Experiment" that lasted several decades before collapsing under the weight of non-Quaker immigration. Still, Quakers were the fifth l

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Dec 20, 2011
15 min

Respect for Life: The Consistent Life Ethic in Catholic Social Teaching

BY JULIA SMUCKER Life issues, in any form, have typically proven divisively controversial in general public discourse, and they have been no less so among Catholics, in particular. A more all-encompassing respect for life, which has been articulated in recent decades as a "consistent life ethic," is therefore both a telling indicator of intra-church polemics (particularly in terms of its reception) and a much-needed third way between them. While advocacy of the consistent e

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

What is the Consistent Life Ethic?

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

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Rebels Storming Tripoli

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

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