Free Republic

Looking back on a Chicago childhood in the 1940s I was at a pro-life meeting in Detroit in the late 1970s, with a biologist debunking the “population problem.” He pointed out that if everyone in the world moved to Texas, there would be 1,500 square feet for every man, woman, and child. That was the size of the footprint of his house in San Francisco. Texas, with that influx of population, would still be less dense than San Francisco; and San Francisco had many open places for parks and tennis courts. When it was my turn to speak, I remarked...

There has been no want of “writing on the wall” about the upcoming cases on marriage. Justice Clarence Thomas could not help but remark on the point that a majority of his colleagues had already, and gracelessly, signaled their “intended resolution of that question.” And yet, writers and lawyers on both sides continue to expend their genius in writing briefs for the Court, clinging to the possibility that the words they set down may yet tip the balance. But as the arguments pour forth, the curious asymmetry is that only one side is offering substantive arguments. Justice Kennedy has maintained...

Hadley Arkes WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic Church’s voice for the littlest among us got even stronger last month.  Hadley Arkes, professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College, and one of the foremost Pro-Life legal scholars in the country, received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and first Communion at the chapel of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. on April 24.  Born and raised a Jew, Arkes said he views his newly-embraced Catholic faith as a fulfillment of his Jewish faith. Rather than a departure, he sees it as accepting Christ as Messiah. More than a...

Editors' note: This piece is co-authored by Bob Morrison, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council. In a polite post on his “Contentions” website, former Bush White House aide Pete Wehner takes issue with James Davison Hunter’s new book. Hunter, a respected Sociology prof at the University of Virginia, has written To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianityin the Late Modern World, in which he cautions Christians about trying to prevail in the culture wars by employing the force of law. Hunter says the law is a blunt instrument, based on coercion. Pete Wehner cites...

I don’t know how you feel about Newt Gingrich, but every time he is on, I’m drawn to watch him. He always has a different angle, always has something substantive to say. And that, more than anything else, explains why, with all of the turmoil and embarrassments in his personal life, a party filled with conservative people still want to hear him. It was no small tribute to him then that even out of office he was selected to give the keynote address on June 9 to the major fund-raising dinner for the Republicans in the Senate and the House....

Senator Peter Fitzgerald's Chief of Staff was the first to alert us last Thursday night that the President was shortly going to sign the Born Alive Infants Protection Act into law. But that wasn't all the good news. "Wait until you receive official word from the White House before telling anyone," he said. "But our understanding is that you are to be invited to the signing ceremony." After hanging up the phone and screaming, I, of course, ignored his caution and immediately called my husband, children, parents, and close friends to tell them the unbelievable news. And sure enough, the...

Marvin Olasky August 13, 2002 A little-noticed pro-life victory Professor Hadley Arkes a dozen years ago made a terrific proposal to revive the faltering pro-life movement -- and his efforts finally paid off last week, although hardly anyone noticed. In 1990, when many pro-lifers were still hoping for the home run -- a constitutional amendment to ban abortion -- the Amherst political philosopher proposed bunting for a single: Have Congress go on record as supporting the right to life of any child who is born alive following an "ineffective" abortion. That's what now has happened, and the Austin American-Statesman was...