Latest Issue of Life Matters Journal           In another fine issue from our friends at Life Matters Journal, Stephen Zunes explains supporting nonviolence in Syria; Carol Crossed talks of the history of the Women’s Peace Encampment in Seneca Falls, New York; Heather Beaudoin discusses Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, and Julia Smucker expounds upon Pope Francis’s plea for peace. There are shorter current-events articles on North Dakota’s pro-life laws, a video game (!) about running the gauntlet to get an abortion called Choice: Texas, military suicides, and several more.                                                                               + = = = +   Abortion Clinics and Factory Farms           National Review recently ran “Pro-Life, Pro-Animal: The Conscience of a Pro-life, Vegan Conservative” by Matthew Scully (online October 7; shorter in-print version Nov. 25 issue, pp. 35-38). This is an excellent example of drawing extensive connections between two issues, as Scully weaves between the two to show their similarities, demonstrating how making such connections spreads compassion: “the abortion culture and the culture of cruelty . . . are products of the same mindset and hardness of heart. They involve wretched things we don’t even want to think about. They rely on concealment of fact, denial, bluff, and euphemism, because it can take just a moment of real reflection — informed conscience — to undo years of propaganda . . . We can be consistently kind or consistently cruel, but anything in between has the whiff of moral relativism, right and wrong decided by whim.” + = = = +   Holiday Gifts   Consistent Life has t-shirts, baby bibs, mugs, and all kinds of other products at our Café Press store (made when ordered, so order early).   Life Matters Journal also has some t-shirts.   “From War to Peace” offers an update of swords into plowshares – jewelry made out of disassembled nuclear weapons parts. You get a 5% discount, and Consistent Life gets 20% of the purchase price, if you use this coupon code at time of purchase: consistentlife    Books:    Consistently Opposing Killing: From Abortion to Assisted Suicide, the Death Penalty, and War (hardcover and paperback)   Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity   Achieving Peace in the Abortion War   Prolife Feminism: Yesterday & Today   For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action The Liberal Case Against Abortion   Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress: The Psychological Consequences of Killing (hardcover and paperback)   Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision Is Key to the World's Future   And for children:   Gaining Mind of Peace: Why Violence Happens and How to Stop It    History Shows: Winning with Nonviolent Action   Or working with children:   Peacemaking: Family Activities           See our index under “Books” for more books, and which issues have descriptions or quotes from the ones listed here.   + = = = +   Quotation of the Week Helen M. Alvaré and Meg T. McDonnell: “Why pro-lifers keep fighting abortion,” Washington Post Opinion, March 1, 2013           Abortion seemed to suck all of the oxygen out of the room on the subject of women’s equality and freedom. Exhibit A: “Women’s Night” at the Democratic National Convention was obsessively focused on contraception and abortion. Why should we be surprised then that the United States has never seriously debated adopting any of those terrific European family-and-work policies . . . such as paid maternity leave with job security for the mother?

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