Open Hearts, Open Minds, Fair-Minded Words Conference

        Several of us attended this conference at Princeton,whose purpose was civil dialog between pro-lifers and pro-choicers. CL Endorser David Gushee was on the first plenary panel and also a later concurrent-session panel which included CL Endorser Sidney Callahan. He did a fine job of presenting, and while he never used the terms of consistency, he did make clear to the hundreds of people there that his opposition to abortion was of a piece with opposition to the death penalty and war.

        We’ve asked attendees to write up short impressions of the conference in order to get a variety of perspectives, and they’re up on our web page.

        The first photo, taken in the hall between sessions, has from left to right Kelly Vincent-Brunacini, Rachel MacNair (who gets in all three photos because it was her camera), Hannah Maher Murphy and baby Declan; Kelly and Hannah are with CL member group Feminists Choosing Life of New York. The middle photo is David Gushee with Rachel MacNair. The photo on the right, taken at the reception, has Sidney Callahan, Sharon Long, Rachel, and Jen Roth. 

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Delving Deeper: PBS Series Covers Issue Dynamics

        Though unfortunately it never brings up the consistent life ethic, Episode 6 (“of God and Caesar”) of the PBS Series God in America covers the interplay of abortion and other life-affirming or life-denying issues involving religion and politics from the 1970s to present

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Upcoming U.S. Elections

        While Consistent Life is a non-partisan group, we do want to mention that Democrats for Life is a member group and might have information of interest to those who want a more comprehensive view of elections than is available on mainstream media.

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Quotations of the Week

On the occasion of the Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking October 22-24 in Memphis, we offer two quotes from Mohandas Gandhi.

       “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary – the evil it does is permanent.”

       “It seems to me clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.” (from All Men Are Brothers, Autobiographical Reflections, New York: Continuum, 1980, p. 150)